The Reeve

In my opinion, the Reeve is one of Chaucer’s interesting characters, and thus his story reflects an interesting style of writing. In the Reeve’s tale, his entire goal is to One-up the Miller and his tale because as he says, he is old and doesn’t have much vigor as he used to defend his honor with. (Ln. 3865-3868) “with bleryng of a proud milleres eye, if that me liste speke of ribaudye, but ik am oold. me list no pleu for age.” BOY does he. The reeve creates in my opinion, the best character encountered within one of the stories told inĀ The Canterbury TalesĀ so far, the Miller. The Miller is stereotyped as a brutish, but god loving, crook. He does wrong while considering himself right in every situation. He is a very complex character but portrays and excellent antagonist to be hated and mocked in the end as he “gets’ what’s coming to him. (Though I don’t think that means rape Aleyn) I believe that the character of the Miller is partially inspired to mock the the drunken miller. In the end, The two stories work very well juxtaposed next to each other as the Reeve’s tale concludes. It’s my personal favorite section of Chaucer’s Canterbury tales.