John, Absolon In The Miller's Tale

In many stories we are accustomed to, the “good” characters that are kind and affectionate triumph over the “evil”, who manipulate the weak through trickery. However, in Chaucer’s Miller’s Tale, the winner has qualities of a villain while the loser has benign qualities of winners. The three male characters, John, Absolon and Nicholas, who all have great affections for Alisoun, face different ends. Absolon who is able to get a hold of his emotions after his struggle with Alisoun, meets a victory while John meets a bitter end because of his great love for her. Nicholas, despite his great success in trickery loses focus and gets burnt harshly by Absolon. In the Miller’s Tale, the character’s ability to reason and overcome their emotions determines their final victory.
In the Miller’s Tale, John is the epitome of a man who is overcome by his emotions. John, despite his wealth, is a carpenter who is highly uneducated for he is peasant. Because he is uneducated, he has no choice but to depend on his emotions in making his judgements. He must decide the right and wrong based from his feelings. Unfortunately, this leaves him vulnerable to those that can notice his inablity to think for himself. Nicholas
He is finally able to use his intelligence to devise a plan to revenge Alisoun. Absolon is finally able to realize the reality of Alisoun’s absent love. He makes a logical decision to get his pride back by trying to burn her with a hot rod. It is interesting how now he is able to foresee other characters’ actions. Although it was Nicholas rather than Alisoun that gets burnt, Absolon is able to detect and foresee that someone will try to trick him again by putting their ass out the window. With his new knowledge and realizaion of reality of love, Absolon is able to plan ahead of those who tricked him. Finally, in control of his emotions, Absolon meets a victory and is the