Canterbury Tales by: Devon Barber

499 Words2 Pages
In the Canterbury Tales, The Miller, a pilgrim tells the story of three men and one woman. Alisoun is married to John, the carpenter. The conflict in the story is that Nicholas and Absolon both love Alisoun. Nicholas charms Alisoun and sleeps with her without John knowing. They both want a night alone to sleep together so Nicholas tells John that he had a vision from God and there was a flood coming. Nicholas told him to set up three tubs on the roof, each with an ax. John, Alisoun, and Nick were all in their tubs, as soon as John fell asleep the two of them left. John woke up in panic thinking the flood was coming and cut his rope. After falling through the roof and hitting the ground, John broke his arm and was very embarrassed. John was cheated on, very embarrassed, and sad. John was not the smartest guy in the world, which is why he fell for Nicholas’s plan to sleep with his wife. You may think relationships were perfect thousands of years ago, but to be honest they were about the same as they are or could be now. In modern times there are many imperfections in relationships, just like there were in the past. There were cheaters and liars just like there are today. This was and still is a big social issue. The author of the Canterbury Tales uses literary elements to explore the social issues in this tale perfectly. He sets up the plot and the foreshadowing thoroughly to explore the social issues. “Now, this student went by the nickname Tricky Nicky because he was pretty clever and knew all about love and pleasure and sweet talk.” This quote is talking about Nicholas and how he was smart, charming, and romantic. This is a perfect example of foreshadowing in the Millers Tale because he charmed Alisoun and slept with her after making a brilliant plan to get rid of John for the night. Another literary element the Author mastered in the Millers Tale was setting up
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