I remember reading The Miller’s Tale in high school but I don’t recall it being this…vulgar. I also never realized that it was such a drastically brilliant contrast to the Knight’s tale, almost as if the Miller sat there during the Knight’s story and thought, “How can I twist this boring, stodgy trash around?” Enter his own tale, where there is yet another love triangle (albeit a one-sided one) but the roles are ridiculous and the lady in the middle is no chaste Emeyle. Poor Absolon is the only one who must try to win over Alisoun’s love; he is out almost every night trying to woo her, but Nicholas manages to sleep with her fairly easily. Alisoun doesn’t have to make a choice between the two because she’s already made her choice; Absolon is nothing more than a nuisance. The plan that Alisoun and Nicholas devise to distract John the carpenter is even more ridiculous than Theseus’s plan in the Knight’s tale (which is difficult to achieve since I’ve already mentioned that having a huge tournament to win over a lady is pointless in my book). It did make me laugh, though. And I realized that the fact that Alisoun doesn’t get punished for her actions in the end is a foil for Emeyle not getting what she asked Diana for at the end of the Knight’s tale. The Miller’s “heroine” does get what she wants in the end, with no consequence.