When the miller proposes "enough", or revenge, the knight's tale in the prologue to his tale (3127), alters the use of the word "enough" by of the guest (3119 ). While the Innkeeper asks the Monk to match the Knight's story, the Miller wants to reciprocate, and does exactly that. The Miller tells a story that simultaneously parallels and parodies "The Knight's Tale" and, in doing so, ultimately shows a viable and optimistic alternative to the ideals of chivalric courtship and love presented by the Knight. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay The Miller, like the Knight, uses a love triangle as the central element of his story; however, it significantly alters this convention. Instead of dramatizing idealized aristocratic notions of courtly love, Miller presents a story about lower-class characters set in a rural village. He rejects the ritual of long and painful courtship, replacing it with a daring sexual encounter between Nicholas and Alison in which the wily clerk attempts to seduce Alison by grabbing her "queynte" (3276). While Arcite and Palamon endlessly adore Emily in the Knight's tale, Nicholas wins Alison over in the space of three lines "This Nicholas had pity to cry, / And spoke so faire, and professed it so quickly, / That she grunted the his love hymn". eaten last" (3288 3290). In these three lines, Miller does not even specify what exactly Nicolas says to Alison, perhaps suggesting that the language of courtship is not important. Palamon and Arcite, on the other hand, compose elaborate laments on the love, but Emily does not even hear their words. The Miller denies the conventional ritual of courtship, parodying the figure of the courtly lover through his characterization of Absolon is stripped of any masculinity possessed by the two lovers in the Knight's tale as he comes portrayed through literary descriptions usually associated with femininity. For example, "crul was his heer, and like gold he shone" (3314), and he sings with "his voys gentle and small" (3360). of courtship, "wakes all night and all day...hopes to hire meenes and brocage...hears hire pyment, meeth and spiced beer" (3373 3378), Alison rejects him. The most comical aspect of Absolon's characterization, however, is perhaps his squeamishness about bodily functions such as "farting" (3338) and body parts as he rubs his lips "with dust, with dirt, with straws, with cloth , with clippes" (3748 ) after discovering that he has just kissed Alison's backside. The Miller not only presents and mocks the figure of the courtly lover through Absolon, but, more importantly, highlights the inability of the chivalrous suitor to understand the reality of love. From the moment Absolon is introduced into the tale, the audience is told that he is easily offended by bodily functions. When Absolon learns that he has kissed Alison's bottom, "his hoote love has grown cold" (3754) and his "maladie" is healed (3757). As a representative of conventional ideals of love, Absolon's inability to appreciate the body indicates not only his inability to understand love in realistic and human terms, but also the incompleteness of the principles presented in novels such as "The Tale of the knight". Sex and human contact are important elements of love. The body is a vital part of the relationship between lovers and this is shown through the courtship of Alison and Nicholas. John, Alison's elderly husband, although not characterized as a parody of the, 1987.