Top-Rated Free Essay
Preview

A Brief Look at the Character of Nicholas in Chaucer's Miller's Tale

Good Essays
361 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
A Brief Look at the Character of Nicholas in Chaucer's Miller's Tale
Nicholas, with his outrageous sense of humour and eager pursuit of love, functions as the charming, likeable hero in Miller's Tale. He is introduced as "hende Nicholas", and his conduct does not at all answer to the usual sense of the adjective which implies great courtesy, but its suggestion of approval is repeatedly invoked as the Miller refers to his hero by this formula. We learn at once that he is knowledgeable and of his interest in astrology. This is seen as a respectable branch of learning, but Nicholas is aware of its power to impress others, while he is able to supplement his income by weather-forecasting. He is also helped financially by friends. The imaginary flood of which Nicholas tells John shows us his cunning, his confident attitude, his inventiveness and especially his contempt for the stupid tradesman: 'Don't worry about that,' said Nicholas, / 'His time's been badly wasted, if a scholar / Can't get the better of a carpenter.' (lines 191-193) In spite of this, however, the Miller presents the astrologer in a way that makes the audience like Nicholas. He does this by making John seem deserving of punishment for his unwise marriage and subsequent jealousy. Nicholas's youth and attractiveness makes us less critical of his boldness, and the comic manner of the tale's telling makes his conduct seem less worthy of censure than would be the case with real people. Nicholas seems a more appropriate partner for Alison than does John, and the Miller's repetition of the formula "hende Nicholas" encourages us to be more sympathetic. However, it is important to note that Nicholas does not escape his daring plan without any consequences. His over-confidence and lack of prudence earn him a punishment appropriate to his offence, and in keeping with the farcical spirit of the tale he is "scalded in the towte" by his rival, who mistakes him for Alison. Thus, Nicholas may be the character that has the audience rooting for him by being likeable and providing good laughs, but his charming yet arrogant attitude does not prevent him from suffering the consequences of his actions.

The Canterbury Tales [Oxford guides to Chaucer]. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    Dagoberto Gilb Love

    • 1297 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Most of the story’s realism stems from its stereotypical characters. Very rarely does one actually come across a handsome, well-mannered man on a white horse. Instead, one often finds a dishonest, self-absorbed, unemployed playboy. A prime example of this type of man is the main character in the story, Jake. Gilb provides numerous examples throughout the story to illustrate Jake’s character.…

    • 1297 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    There are many parallels between Geoffrey Chaucer's "The Knights Tale" and "The Miller's Tale". Some of these parallels show likenesses and some of them show differences in the two stories. The plots of the stories are very similar. However, the characters' descriptions, motives, and actions are extremely different. By writing the two stories in this way, Chaucer ties them both together.…

    • 551 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    WEBQUEST

    • 1067 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Read the account of Nicholas and his wife. Does this change the impression of him that…

    • 1067 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    People may go through rough times but that does not mean they have to make rough times for someone else. In the story of The Wife's Bath’s Tale the knight raped the young lady. in the text it says “By very force he took her maidenhead” (Chaucer 34). This was an awful act that the knight made. The knight did not care that he harmed or hurt the girl. At this time in the knight's life the knight did not care for women. He made a rough time for someone else. The king wanted to take his head. The queen instead had a different plan for the knight she told him “ Yet you shall live if you can answer me: what is the thing women most desire?” (Chaucer 50-51) This gave the knight a chance to live. Even though the knight rightfully deserved the king's…

    • 292 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Satire In Chaucer's Tales

    • 686 Words
    • 3 Pages

    What three groups would you add to the journey? Geoffrey Chaucer took three types on his journey to Canterbury. They were the religious group, the upper class, and the middle working class. Chaucer wrote his tales in Middle English around the 1350’s. Chaucer had many people from each group go. He mostly wrote in a satiric tone. Satire is another word for sarcasm or irony. Irony is saying one thing while meaning another. He used both juvenilia and horashian. Juvenilia is harsh sarcasm. An example would be the friar. Horashian is soft or gentle sarcasm. The main nun would be a great example of this. If I were to take a pilgrimage I would take three groups, musicians, athlete, and comedians.…

    • 686 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    But as Arthur’s inability to enjoy the pleasant night is addressed by the use of pathetic fallacy (words such as ‘chilling’ and ‘mist’ evoking emotional bitterness as Arthur himself comments upon his conventional reliance on weather to convey his mood) we discover how unsettled he has become due to the disturbing loss of his wife, and the reader feels as though Arthur’s past is still affecting his life largely.…

    • 180 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Both the Summoner and the Pardoner are corrupt religious officials. A Summoners job is to bring people before the church so that they can confess their sins, and were typically lower class. The Summoner in The Canterbury Tales, does not do his job well. He let’s men keep their mistresses for a year just for a quart of wine. The Summoner does this because he too is guilty of these sins.…

    • 496 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The Knights tale was the first and best tale told in The Canterbury Tales and I think it should…

    • 950 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Music on the Bamboo Radio

    • 1041 Words
    • 5 Pages

    “The scene was, Nicholas thought, like a little tableau being put on for his entertainment.” Page 65…

    • 1041 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The values put forth by Henry David Thoreau in his essay "Walking" are shown in Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales and in particular The Oxford Cleric's tale. The idea that only wildness is attractive to readers and is evident in the clerics tale because it has things as far away from dull as possible happening. Love, trust, deception, and a happy ending all contribute to an anything but dull tale which in fact proves Thoreau's ideal. In particular the strained relationship between the two main characters causes a wildness to occur and grab the reader in a way that dull or plainness simply can't.…

    • 678 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Religious pilgrimages have been the foundation of religion since the dawn of time. In The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer identifies an infamous character that shares his ironically moral tale along with those whom accompany him on the way to Canterbury. This particularly wretched pilgrim was the Pardoner: a most loathsome and diabolical character.…

    • 490 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Miller's Tale is a story in which are intertwined many characters. But I selected these three like a most interesting for me: Nickolas, Alisoun and Absolon.…

    • 350 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    In The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, many characters go on a religious pilgrimage to Canterbury to visit the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket. On the way to Canterbury, each person on the journey tells a tale. Whoever tells the best story, gets rewarded a lavish free meal. The pilgrimage includes people from the nobility, clergy, and commoner class. For each class, Chaucer develops many different character types that were representative of the society of the time. With a broad spectrum of people and action, The Canterbury tales consists of many different ideas such as social satire, courtly love/ chivalry,morality, and corruption and deceit. One of the most important ideas of the story is that Chaucer puts forward a criteria that…

    • 1909 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Pardoner is perhaps one of the most complex characters in The Canterbury Tales because of the tricks and games he plays with the other pilgrims. The tale he tells about the three greedy men is a moral story in order to have his audience, the other pilgrims, feel guilty about their own sins, repent, and then, in turn, give him money. The Pardoner is only concerned with making a profit. He even says this in his prologue that all his sermons are about money being the root of all evil because he is a greedy man. Therefore, in the middle of telling his tale, the Pardoner interrupts with a sermon about gluttony, sin, and greed because he is playing the very trick he explained to the pilgrims he himself plays on his visitors. The purpose of the sermon material in the Pardoner’s tale is part of Pardoner’s grand scheme to make the pilgrims feel guilty, repent, and to have them give him money so they can be cleansed of their sins.…

    • 896 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Chaucer's Greediness

    • 419 Words
    • 2 Pages

    One type will be to tell how the two characters' own qualities (That is reflected in the prologues.) are reflecting upon the society of Chaucer’s time. For example, what does the greediness of the Pardoner say about the Church of Chaucer’s time? What does the description of the Wife of Bath say about women’s roles in society at that time? What was Chaucer trying to change?…

    • 419 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays