The Canterbury Tales

The Plowman and the Miller

The Plowman
The Plowman
• The Plowman is a minor character in Geoffrey Chaucer's
The Canterbury Tales who goes on a pilgrimage with his
brother, the Parson.
• He works long, laborious days doing any job he can find
including, moving carts of cow manure and he does not
make very much money.
• The plowman is a member of the lower class, meaning that
he dresses very modestly and wears what he can afford to
make or buy and that will last long days while he is
working.
• The plowman is a devout man of God and never fails to pay
his tithes. If he not have the money for tithes in his pockets
he will sell his possessions to get the money to pay them.
• Like his brother, the Parson, he practices the word of God
regularly and is a good and holy man.
The Image of the Plowman
• The Plowman was a very conservative
man. He wore a dirty tabard smock (a
loose fitting jacket) and rode a mare (a
horse).
• On being religious - the Plowman was a
very honest and humble worker. He
lived in peace and perfect charity. He
loved God above all things, helped the
poor, and according to the story “he
never took a penny and always paid his
tithes in full.”
The Plowman in a lower class
• The Plowman is a member of the medieval lower class.
• During the medieval times it was hard to be in the
lower class. If you were a man in the lower class your
day most likely started at three in the morning and
ended after the sun went down.
• You would eat before you went to work and you would
eat when you got home.
• Your day would consist of working in the fields reaping,
sowing, and binding the crops.
• If you were a woman in the peasant class you would go
to work the same time as your husband and could
possibly work in the fields, but it was more likely that
you would work in a house tending to children,
animals, food, and the garden.
The Importance of the Plowman
• According to the story “The Plowman was
both valuable crucial to the economic well-
being of society, especially amidst the crises
of the fourteenth century”
• The Plowman has a blade to plow the fields,
carries a cart, digs manure and thrashes
corn – similar to the farmers in our time
• The Plowman is one of the only characters
in the Canterbury Tales that Chaucer
approves of and speaks highly of. He is also
the Parson’s brother.
The Representation of the Plowman
• The Plowman represents the honest
poor lower class in society such as the
farmers, the laborers, and the workers
• They are honest, religious, but weary -
doing it all with dignity and honesty
• They work the most, but earn the fewest
• They do the dirtiest work, but all in the
cleanest morals
• Ironically, these all happen while being
the foundation of the society
The Miller’s Tale
The Miller
• Stout and brawny, the Miller has a wart on his
nose and a big mouth, both literally and
figuratively.
• He wears white coat and blue hood which is not
allowed that time for the lower class
• He threatens the Host’s notion of propriety when
he drunkenly insists on telling the second tale.
• The Miller seems to enjoy overturning all
conventions: he ruins the Host’s carefully planned
storytelling order; he rips doors off hinges; and he
tells a tale that is somewhat blasphemous,
ridiculing religious clerks, scholarly clerks,
carpenters, and women.
The Image of the Miller
• Chaucer defines the Miller primarily through
his physical strength and size, which mirrors
the way he muscles his way into
conversations and drunkenly intimidates the
other pilgrims.
• Chaucer notes that the Miller’s strength is
enough that he can tear a door off its hinges
but never says why he wreaks such
destruction, implying that the Miller is prone
to senseless aggression.
• The Miller is also a cheat, taking more
money for the grain he grinds than is fair.
The Miller in a lower class
• The Miller is a boastful man. He steals
corns from the fields.
• He is dishonest by pressing his thumb
on the scale when selling his grains to
make it heavier. This is considered his
“golden thumb” which makes the
customers pay three-times more
• He has no competition, and thus,
monopolizes the services and
providing them poorly to the peasants
The Representation of the Miller
• The Miller represents the dishonest
members of the poor class
• They achieved better life by leveraging
themselves against other peasants
through cheating and intimidation
• He tries to emulate highness of stature
even if in principle, he is not
• He represents those who are very
much willing to abuse his own class –
the poor, just for his own gain
Similarities of the Plowman and the Miller
• They are both (or former) members of the poor class and are poor in
stature (by lineage, by roles and work)
• They are involved in agriculture as it is the foundation of the society,
and it is also the usual work of the poor people
• They all do this while these lands are in reality, owned by the
landlords and the nobility who are the highest people at that time
Comparison of the Miller and the Plowman

The Plowman The Miller

• He is honest in his works even if
it entails that he will be poor his
whole life
• He places his faith through God
that his difficulties are with a
reason from above
• His poverty was slightly
improved through immoral acts
and leverage
• He is willing to abuse his own
kind (the poor) just to have
comforts in life
Today’s Miller and Plowman
The Plowman
• They are the honest workers
that tend the foundations of the
society
• They are the farmers, the
laborers, the workers that holds
the fabric of our economy and
society
The Miller
• They were also former members
of the poor class, but went on
their way by abusing their own
kind – the poor people
• These are the dishonest loan
sharks, owners of gambling
dens, corrupt middlemen, and
syndicate members, and more
Conclusion
• This story happened hundreds of years ago, but until now, the same is true for our
society – the foundation of our society are still suffering the lowest wages and the
hardest and longest work
• In our society, we may belong to the poor people, but our kind also has its rusts
that aggravates the suffering of our own kind
• We are under the grip of the higher classes, but we are sometimes too blinded as
to who we should make accountable
• Honest work does not necessarily equate to wealth, and being wealthy does not
mean that they really did the hardest of the work as being projected by the media
and society. However, that does not mean that we should resort to unethical or
immoral means since we are only aggravating our own kind’s suffering, instead of
redeeming our resources from the landlords (or the billionaires in today’s time).
References
• Chaucer, G., & Fisher, S. (2021). The Canterbury Tales. W. W. Norton &
Company.
• Lorup, B. (2015). The Canterbury Tales: The plowman & the Miller.
prezi.com. Retrieved October 23, 2021, from
https://prezi.com/0ntaqirkmtxa/the-canterbury-tales-the-plowman-
the-miller/.
• Sparknotes. (n.d.). The Canterbury Tales. Sparknotes. Retrieved
October 23, 2021, from https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/the-
canterbury-tales/characters/.