Chaucers Canterbury Tales - Suppression and Silence in The Reeve’s Tale :: Reeves Tale Essays

Suppression and whitewash in The pass throughs Tale Such comments as, I commune to God his nekke mote to-breke quickly reveal that the ver-bal game of quite involves oft more than a free meal to the Reeve in The Canterbury Tales (I 3918). This overreaction, which grabs the attending of the audience and gives it pause, is characteristic of the Reeves ostensibly odd behavior, cosmos given to morose speeches followed by violent outbursts, all the while harboring malicious desires. Anger typifies the Reeves dialogue and his tale, which begs the question why. It appears to be a reaction to the moth millers insults, but they are not thorough enough to provoke such resentment. He seem-ingly has no hesitation in articulating his bitterness, yet he and his story are as much attach by suppression as expression. Silence resounds as loudly as any noise in the Reeves Prologue and Tale. The reader is as puzzled by his utterances as the lack of them his sudden sermon on death is matched by the quietness of two couples copulating in a subtle room of five, none of which are able to hear what the others are doing. The human beings is that the behavior of the Reeve and the characters in his tale are not haphazard or unaccountable. The Reeve is continually si-lenced by other pilgrims and himself, which is paralleled in his tale, and in turn suppresses his emotions, which leads to even more explosive conduct. I. Characterization In aver to appreciate the melancholic and serious temperament of the Reeve, it is nec-essary to view him in resemblance to other characters, as Chaucer intended. The identities of the pilgrims are relative. They are characterized by their description in the General Prologue, but not fully authentic until they are seen in contrast to the pilgrim they are quiting. As the Millers personality is developed by his dissimilarity to the Knight, so is the Reeve by the Miller. Therefore redbreasts enjoyment of life shows just how little Oswald rec eives from the same. For instance, the Millers large frame and excessive drinking show his delight in small pleasures. The Reeve, however, is a sclendre colerik man who controls his beard and hair (in opposition to the indocile strands that grow on a wart on the millers nose) as manipula-tively as the accounts of the farm on which he works (I 587). The Miller mastered the bag-pipes for entertainment in his spare time while the Reeve trained with more practical tools In youthe he had lerned a full myster He was a wel good wrighte, a carpenter (I 614).