CHAUCER’S THE MILLER’S TALE AS MEDIEVAL ESTATES SATIRE

Abstract

In his The Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer employs the medieval literary tradition of “estates satire” with his exclusive grouping and naming of as many as thirty Canterbury pilgrims according to their social ranks and professional titles and with his satirical characterization of his pilgrims as medieval estates stereotypes representing their specific medieval estates with their stereotypical professional malpractices and shortcomings and their social and moral failings in conforming to their estate identities and boundaries strictly imposed on them by the feudally-established and depply-rooted three estate hierarchical divisions of the medieval English society. What makes The Canterbury Tales a distinctive example of medieval estates satire is Chaucer’s satirical portrayals of his Canterbury pilgrims as self-fashioning mimic noble medieval estates stereotypes representing their medieval estates with their stereotypical self-fashioning mimic nobility and gentility performances and newly-fashioned mimic-aristocratic and upwardly-mobile identities, as represented and satirized in the “General Prologue” and Chaucer’s satirical refashioning of the medieval knightly romance traditions and courtly love conventions in their tales which are the rhetorical reflections of their mimic gentilesse performances. Although Chaucer’s self-fashioning mimic-courtly Canterbury pilgrims narrate their mimic-chivalric romances to justify their self-fashioning mimic nobility performances in the “General Prologue”, and hence be welcomed into the courtly, gentlemanly, chivalric and aristocratic sphere of the medieval knightly estate of nobility despite their non-genteel commoner origins, yet through their upward social mobility and mimicry of the knightly and courtly values, lifestyle and courtly love conventions of the nobility, their mimic-knightly romances serve as the transparent reflections and satire of the specific medieval estate that they satirically represent as self-fashioning mimic-aristocratic medieval estates stereotypes. Accordingly, this paper aims to examine Chaucer’s The Miller’s Tale in The Canterbury Tales as a distinctive example of medieval estates satire and panorama through Chaucer’s satirical characterization of his Miller in the “General Prologue” as the satirical representative of the self-fashioning, socially-upward and mimic-courtly medieval estate of the peasantry claiming nobility and gentility, and through his satirical refashioning and parody of the medieval knightly romance traditions and courtly love conventions in The Miller’s Tale.