Humorous parts of the poem are indeed fictional, but the poet works within the contention of Horace’s theory so that he only uses humor to give pleasure to the audience as they see reality in this piece of work. It acts as a warning to those who are gullible that the consequence of their gullibility is destined to bring injury and deception upon them.

This is not to instill empathy into the reader. It is only in this manner that we can find literature or fiction applicable to offer a moral lesson to us.Ĭhaucer uses The Miller’s Tale to not only provide humor, but it also foregrounds the moral lesson from the story by including the tragedy John befalls due to his gullibility, he falls from the ceiling and injures himself. In regard, it therefore means that we should be able to draw a moral lesson from fiction as we relate the events, themes, and characters in the fictional work to the ones we see in real life. He defines and blends the entertainment purposes with reality so that we may see our characters and morality or character and vices as we read any piece of work. To Horace, this is the major purpose for designing art. First, Horace’s contention carries a simple meaning that literature should depict reality in life as it gives pleasure to the readers. In this manner, it directly agrees with Horace’s belief that literature invented for pleasure should remain close to reality, because the poem mirrors the challenges that come with marrying a woman very younger than you. This poem reveals the conflict brought by contrast in age among couples. Simultaneously Absolon, on the other hand, uses love songs to convince Alison to bed. Nicholas promptly confuses John that God once again will destroy earth with flood so they can make ‘arks’ to survive the flood. Further, Nicholas and Alison devise a plan to spend a whole night together in the husband’s bed by using the biblical allusion of Noah’s flood. Indeed, Alison gives in to Nicholas and they go to bed for a short moment as the husband is away on a day field trip.

Nicholas, as well as Absolon, grow lustful interest in Alison and begin a plan to seduce her to bed. The tragedy begins when John brings in both Nicholas and Absolon, two poor scholars who need a home. The story dwells on deceit and infidelity by Alison to her husband John. A miller narrates to us the story about a rich carpenter, John, his young wife Alison, and the two lodgers, Nicholas and Absolon. This story is the second tale among the Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer. ” This paper shall discuss this proponent of literary theory based on The Miller’s Tale by Geoffrey Chaucer. According to Horace, “fiction invented to please should remain close to reality.

Geoffrey chaucer the miller's tale