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

Suppression and stamp down in The reeves write up Such comments as, I pray to God his nekke mote to-breke quickly learn that the ver-bal game of quite involves much more than a free meal to the pass through in The Canterbury Tales (I 3918). This overreaction, which grabs the attention of the audience and gives it pause, is characteristic of the Reeves ostensibly odd behavior, being given to morose speeches followed by baseless outbursts, all the while harboring spiteful desires. Anger typifies the Reeves talks and his account, which begs the question why. It appears to be a reaction to the millers insults, scarce they ar not extreme enough to provoke such resentment. He seem-ingly has no hesitation in articulating his bitterness, yet he and his story are as much marked 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 overleap of them his sudden sermon on death is match ed by the quietness of 2 couples copulating in a small room of five, none of which are open to hear what the others are doing. The reality is that the behavior of the Reeve and the characters in his tale are not random 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 detonative conduct. I. Characterization In order to appreciate the melancholic and serious genius of the Reeve, it is nec-essary to view him in comparison 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 in full developed 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 Robins enjoyment of life shows save how little Oswald receives from the same. For instance, the Millers large frame and excessive boozing show his delight in small pleasures. The Reeve, however, is a sclendre colerik man who controls his beard and hair (in opposition to the unruly 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 stripped time while the Reeve trained with more practical tools In youthe he had lerned a good myster He was a wel good wrighte, a carpenter (I 614).