The Reeve’s Tale

This was the first time I read the Reeve’s tale and it’s even more implicit than the Miller’s tale. If I read this story alone without knowledge of the prologue or the Miller’s tale, I would have just seen it a medieval dirty story. But this story is a reaction to the Miller’s use of the idiot carpenter, John, and reflects many of the plot points.The story’s Miller and Carpenter are both tricked by students. However, the Miller bullied the students by letting their horses go resulting in both John and Aleyn to seek revenge by taking away the “valuable” daughter. The carpenter John in the Miller’s Tale was just very trusting of his tenant. So in some ways the Miller deserved his fate. What I find most interesting is that so far each of the stories are reactionary to whatever is happening within the pilgrimage group. So the tales are not just a reflection of the speaker’s or their profession but how they view their fellow pilgrims. It is obvious in this case there is tension between the Reeve and the Miller as a result of the Millers tale.

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