Background of Geoffrey Chaucer´s 'The Miller´s Tale'

Seminar paper from the year 2008 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, University of Cologne, language: English, abstract: Geoffrey Chaucer's 'The Miller's Tale' is the second tale of The Canterbury Tales. That this place in the order of the tales is not a result of coincidence but is clearly done by purpose is one conclusion of this paper. The following does not only offer a close look at the single tale and its characteristics, but also shows how these relate to other tales of The Canterbury Tales, especially to 'The Knight's Tale,' which precedes it. It is necessary to shortly describe the tale's plot at first, which is done in the next chapter. The tale's genre and how it already relates to the placing in The Canterbury Tales is the content of chapter three. Structure and style of 'The Miller's Tale' can be connected to its preceding tale and will be explained next. Following that, sources and analogs and the tale's themes will be presented. The context of the tale in The Canterbury Tales is the last important point described in this paper to understand the function of the tale's characteristics in Chaucer's tale-collection.