The Miller’s Prologue and Tale

“The Miller’s Prologue and Tale,” plays on the age old debate over the “trophy wife” or a woman much younger than a man. The carpenter is much older than his eighteen year old wife, Alison, and despite that she tries to be a good wife to him. Their large age gap leads John to a strong state of paranoia about his wife cheating on him. They have an astrology student, Nicholas, living with them, and when he forcefully advances upon Alison she immediately denies his requests in respect for her husband. Only when Nicholas professes his undying love for her does she give in, but in a feeble attempt to appease her husband instructs Nicholas that John can never find out.  

Nicholas is not the only man besides John who desires Alison’s love. The parish clerk, Absolon desires her love as well. By this time Alison is married to John, but loves Nicholas, and Absolon’s advances are denied and even ridiculed (She tricks Absolon kissing her ass rather than her face). By the end of the tale, John is viewed as a crazy old man, due to Nicholas’s trickery. The whole incident could have been avoided had John not been so vain as to court a woman much younger than he, who true to her age group gave in to immature desires and pleasures, and in effect thwarted all that John had ever worked for.

The Broom Tree

            I have found it a common theme in the old world literature of arranged marriages that occur while the spouses are still children, yet there is generally a large range between their ages. In The Broom Tree Genji marries his wife when he is twelve and she is sixteen. Four years between married people is not all that unusual, but when one is twelve and the other is sixteen that is the difference between a child and a young adult. Girls mature faster, and in turn most sixteen year old girls are almost done with puberty. When comparing that with Genji, at twelve most boys have not started puberty or are just beginning.

            The arranged marriages thorough history led to a breach between love and marriage in the olden days. Marriage was for advancement in the world, and was sacred as an institution. However, a man’s love was also sacred in another way, which usually led him to have a mistress (possibly from a lower class). The continuation of this practice has had a carryover of culture into today, where many men hold mistresses even though they are not required to marry a certain girl, and in this day and age marriage is supposed to be based on love.

Wine In Chinese Poetry

In the Chinese poetry we have read there is a recurrent appearance of wine as a drink that represents prosperity and happiness. In “The Return” T’ao Ch’ien writes, “Where there is a bottle filled with wine./I draw the bottle to me and pour myself a cup.” T’ao Ch’ien is alluding to the fact that wine represents peace and tranquility and in turn happiness can be found in his work in the field rather than conforming to the bustling unfulfilling life of a magistrate.

            Wine loosens the tongue, and T’ao Ch’ien felt that wine frees the mind from the earth. His poetry benefits from this and in “Twenty Poems After Drinking Wine” he writes, And once I am drunk I write a few verses for my own amusement.” He writes for pleasure and to please himself, and the wine helps him in his struggle. It is always wine throughout his poems that he drinks, rather than any other alcohol. I think that this common recurrence of wine shows that wine was thought of as an artists drink, whereas other types of alcohol might pertain to different classes of society. The making of wine itself is seen as an art, and it only makes sense that artists and writers would see something such that must be artfully created as a type of food or drink that would be most relatable to their own struggles.