my maid of honor speech for my sisters wedding!
14 years ago
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Schooled!
The Reeve responds to the Miller's tale with an equally offensive tale; the Miller ridicules a carpenter in his tale and the Reeve ridicules a miller in his. Cristina, Carl, Andrea and Nick asked the question today: who "schooled" the other? Which man wins the honor of the most offensive tale?
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I think that the Reeve "schooled" the miller. In the Miller's tale, he really not fit enough to tell the tale [considering he was DRUNK], and so his tale is a bit..ridiculous. The Reeve's tale is much more thought out and intricate [you had to think about what was happening in order to follow] and was able to show how ridiculous the Miller was. I think raping someone's family is a bit more damaging than tricking someone into believing there was a flood coming [if the carpenter had been religious then it would have been possible I guess..]
Argh but I can also see for the Miller's side! You can take it that Fooling someone w/ something so ridiculous is more "schooling" than sneaking around and having sex w/ your family b/c in the Reeve's tale the miller didn't know what was happening...
Eh. I'll stick with my gut on this one. the Reeve schooled the Miller. (Even though the Miller did fairly well for being drunk...)
Anyways...The Reeve totally won. I'd rather be tricked with a story than have my family raped by college boys who get away with it.
I believe that the Miller should recieve the honor of "schooling" the Reeve. Simply put, the Miller's tale was much more artistically done than the Reeve's tale. The Miller "schooled" the Reeve in a very artful way as his tale was full of comedy and depreciation towards the carpenter (The Reeve's former occupation). For this reason, the Miller taught the Reeve in a sly tone. He does go out and mention the Reeve personally and this gives the Miller points for originality, creativity, and a good old diss. Meanwhile, the Reeve blatantly has the Miller at fault in his tale. There is almost more respect present for the Miller's tale as the Reeve's tale is obviously full of spite and forced black comedy.
Anway, back to the question. The Miller certainly "schooled" the Reeve for reasons mentioned above. However, I believe that the Reeve wins the honor of the most offensive tale as he includes rape and even tries to make it funny. Trying to incorportate humor in such a serious topic makes the tale even worse in my mind. In the Reeve's tale, he went to far in trying to be funny, that it was no long hummorous.
I think that the Reeve "schooled" the Miller, hands down, mainly because his tale was so offensive. The Miller had attempted at being playful and comedic when he talked down the subject of his tale and was successful to a point, but the Reeve's response was what ushered a jaw-dropping reaction from me. (Like, "Did he seriously just go there?") It was kind of funny, despite being extremely distasteful, and, like Stephanie said, far more intricate. Now that I think of it after reading Steph's response, the Miller does seem like he threw together a sloppy conglomeration of ideas in a vain attempt at insulting another man. The Reeve demonstrated his true cunning (haha, vocab word!) by weaving together a plot filled with twists and turns that painted a picture of a truly idiotic miller.
I think the miller schooled the reeve because his tale was ironically more educated than the reeve's tale. It was ironic because the miller was drunk while telling the tale, and yet his tale served more purpose. At first I thought his tale was simply funny, but then I realized that it really did satirize society, and it made some excellent points about marriage, religion, societal values, and at the same time he was able to make fun of the carpenter-thus making fun of the reeve. The reeve's purpose was only for revenge, if it wasn't for the miller's tale before, the reeve may not have even come up with his tale. I also think the miller was clever enough to lower the status of the carpenter at the end of the tale, making his reputation lower. But, using rape as a form of revenge was not as clever nor as funny as the miller's tale.
I would have to say that the Miller completely schooled the Reeve. I say this because very bluntly the Miller's tale was just more clever and creative than the Reeve's. The Miller's tale included many forms of satire in various ways. Not only was there satire of the Reeve by making one of the characters a carpenter, but there was also religious and medieval satire. The irony is that although the reeve is suppose to be educated he isn't drunk when telling his tale and the miller is, and the miller was the one that schooled the reeve. Also, the Miller's Tale was better potrayed than the Reeve's because the Miller's tale didn't include any serious crime like rape, which the Reeve's Tale did. Overall the Miller schooled the Reeve without trying to turn something serious into something funny and just told his tale for humor and entertainment.
I think the miller schooled the reeve because his tale was much more intricate and thought out. The miller insults the reeve by making him seem like a gullible idiot who can't even control his own wife. At the same time, he also satirizes many aspects of society, like religion and marriage. He manages to not only offend the reeve, but also express some interesting views on society, which is ironic considering his drunken state.
The reeve, on the other hand, really only calls the miller a thief and then insults his family. The tale is distasteful and doesn't really make any interesting claims against the miller. His family just appears chaotic and stupid, while the miller creates a stupid, pitiful character. He also lowers his status by having him collapse to the ground at the end. The miller definitely schooled the reeve.
Ok, Ok, we all know that t was actually the Reeve that schooled the miller. I mean come on, that’s an easy question. In the miller’s tale, the miller is almost mocking the reeve, making fun of him, with things such as “kissing his arse.” Well, in the miller’s tale, he didn’t even really dishonor the reeve to a large extent, in the end, it is the reeve who is the smart one, the one who sticks a branding iron in the millers backside, so the Reeve kind of won in the millers tale as it was. Also, the Reeve’s tale beats the miller’s tale to a pulp. He showed how stupid the miller could be, using the miller’s drunkenness to his stories advantage. Sure the miller unties the horse of the two men and steals his wheat, but they soon “schooled” the miller by tricking his family to sleeping with them, and by raping them. In the end, the reeve “schooled” the miller to a point where the miller doesn’t even compete, first because the miller basically lost in his own tale, second because a story showing how easy it is to rape the miller’s family beats a kiss ass, and third because I had the reeve, and he tops all.
I think both the Miller and the Reeve schooled no one. It's easily said that in an extremely general statement, their tales were similar. This is because they slyly put their opponent in their tale as the fool and had sexual situations in each (generally). In a sense, the Reeve fed into the Miller's "trap" by coming up with the tale in reaction to the Miller's, so he can be considered the most childish and foolish. Yes, you can also argue that the Miller was the most foolsih and childish because he started the whole thing in the first place. I personally think the Reeve was the fool because he was completely aware (and so was everyone else) that the Miller was very drunk and he could have avoided any confrontation with him by leaving the situation alone. But no, he had to go ahead and attempt to school the drunk Miller. So, to sum it up, you can come to the conclusion if you want that the Miller schooled the Reeve by having him fall into his trap, but it's easily said that neither of them schooled each other as well.
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