Figurative Language In The Miller's Tale

The Canterbury Tales, written by Geoffrey Chaucer, are a mixture of stories told from different characters. Chaucer used many forms of figurative language throughout these stories, including a multitude of different forms of irony. Each character comes with different personalities, appearances, traits, and actions. A lot of irony is shown through the actions of the characters and how the behave. The characters range from nobles to peasants, but are far from what one would expect in the roles the play. The Miller refers to Alison as the “good wife”, which shows irony, because in “The Miller’s Tale” Alison has agreed to meet Nicholas later and cheat on her husband, thus she can not be a “good wife” (owleyes 123). Alison lies multiple times to her husband and takes Nicholas’s advice on what to tell her husband, “ saying that to her husband she should say - if he should come to ask for Nicholas - she should say she knew not where he was” (owleyes 225-227). Alison is not a “good wife”, she is infect a bad wife, which creates irony in this situation. Alison also says to her husband, “ I am a truthful and lawfully wedded wife” (owleyes 422). Alison's claims to truth and faithfulness show dramatic irony because the audience knows that Nicholas and Alison are tricking her husband, so they can lay together. This scenario also relates back to the irony
The Wife of Bath is a female constructed from a male perspective and the answer that the knight finds to his question of what women want most is too. Also, irony is found in “The Wife of Bath” through the knights actions. Knights are supposed to be well mannered individuals who follow the code of chivalry, but in this case the knight is sent on this quest because he has rapped a young woman. This act is very uncharacteristic of a noble knight, which makes it