When Chaucer wrote The Canterbury Tales, he had certain morals in mind. Chaucer usually dealt with one of the seven “deadly” sins as well. The humorous Miller’s Tale is no exception. The Story is about a carpenter who marries a young beautiful woman who is much younger than him. The moral of the story is revealed in the second paragraph, when Chaucer, through the voice of the miller, notes of the carpenter, “Being ignorant, he did not know of Cato’s advice that a man should marry a woman similar to him”. He goes on to say, “Men should wed their contemporaries, for youth and age are often at odds”. Through his tale, Chaucer will demonstrate the truth in this moral. The carpenter is portrayed as a stupid fool to further reinforce the foolishness of marrying someone of a different age than oneself. The story will go on to show that, “since he had fallen into the trap, he had to bear his burden like other people”. As I have stated previously, the young wife was beautiful to look upon. Although she was married to the carpenter, her beauty was not overlooked by the townspeople. In the story, she is lusted after by two other men. One of the men, named Nicholas, was a boarder in the carpenter’s house. The other was a parish clerk at the church named Absalom. The lust is the key issue here. It is one of the seven deadly sins and the one dealt with in this story. The other men lust after the carpenter’s wife and it brings trouble. In keeping with the moral of similar age marrying similar age, the young and flirtatious wife decides to have an affair with Nicholas. This illustrates how foolish the old carpenter was to think he could keep tabs on a young beauty like his wife. So Nicholas comes up with a plan to trick the carpenter and allow him to sleep with his wife. Nicholas tells the carpenter that a great flood is coming, and that to save his wife and ...
