Maria Nguyen
The ability to seize power is not always apparent to the one who holds it. One’s use of power contributes to how effectively one’s desires are obtained through others. While Alisoun is the center of attention in Geoffrey Chaucer’s “The Miller’s Tale,” she seems oblivious of her own power, and, as a result, she cannot efficiently utilize her influence. Nicholas, on the other hand, acknowledges his strengths. Through his manipulations, Nicholas orchestrates matters effectively to achieve his goals, making him the most powerful character in the story.
In “The Miller’s Tale,” social interactions rather than social hierarchy indicate the measurement of power. Raymond Belliotti has developed the philosophical concept of “power-over,” where the interactions between the superior and subordinate establishes power (13). The superior, or influencer, strives for power, imposing his or her desires onto the subordinate, while considering the subordinate’s interests and social-status limitations. However, the influencer should not blatantly implement power over the subordinate, for if the subordinate recognizes a deliberate exercise of power, the subordinate may lose trust and resist the superior. Since the superior desires power and wants to minimize the chance of failure, the superior may discover it is best to be secretive about his or her ambitions. This discreteness easily leads to deception, so that the “power-over” includes the influencer tricking the subordinate for power.
While Belliotti’s concept of power demonstrates that deception is required for obtaining power, philosopher Joel Rudinow’s theory of manipulation illustrates the connection between manipulation and power. Using Rudinow’s theory of successful manipulation, there are three main components; if the manipulator succeeds in [1] influencing the desired behavior of the person, [2] persuading the person with favorable incentives, or [3] exploiting the weakness of the person to gain desired behavior, then the manipulation is effective (341-343). If the superior accomplishes two of the three components of successful manipulation, he or she most likely will obtain power. Rudinow’s criteria indicates that manipulation, along with deception, is associated with gaining power. As Geoffrey Chaucer’s “The Miller’s Tale” is a story that includes frequent tricks and deception, these concepts of power and manipulation will be applied to measure the power dynamics of “The Miller’s Tale.”
In “The Miller’s Tale,” the initial deception originates from Nicholas, who wants Alisoun as a lover even though she is John’s wife. He continues manipulating Alisoun despite her previous rejections. Alisoun eventually gives in to Nicholas’s appeals, and he persuades her to join him in tricking John so they can spend more time together. If she helps with Nicholas’s plan to deceive her husband, “She sholde slepen in his arm al nyght, / For this was his desir and hire also” (3406-07). Nicholas accomplishes two of the Rudinow components for successful manipulation: he exploits Alisoun’s weakness in longing for intimacy, and he provides her a favorable incentive to get the intimacy she wants. William Woods describes Nicholas as the most capable character to capture the heart of Alisoun (176). He understands her needs and cleverly adapts her desires to his, and these skills, along with his craftiness and intelligence allow him to become a powerful manipulator. In this way, Nicholas effortlessly obtains power over others and thereby changes his power status in the tale.
Although Nicholas manipulates Alisoun, she initially achieves power over him with her appearance. Her beauty is what drives Nicholas to manipulate everyone, including Alisoun. Furthermore, he is not the only one enthralled by her looks. Absolon, who is also infatuated with her, states, “To looke on hire hym thoughte a myrie lyf, / She was so propre and sweete and likerous” (3344-45). In both cases, Alisoun gains power over the men by exploiting their weakness, which is the desire for sex. However, although she does not actively use her beauty, she nevertheless successfully manipulates the men. These indirect manipulations are effective, making the men commit deceitful actions while motivated by their lustful desires. Finally, while her power stems from her beauty, she is restricted by her marriage, preventing her from ascending the power hierarchy.
The older husband of a young wife, John is happy marrying Alisoun, but his insecurity and jealousy restrict her potential for power, as he has confined her to their household. John does not trust Alisoun around other men since he believes “she was wylde and yong, and he was old / And demed hymself been lik a cokewold” (3225-26). In Gila Aloni’s exploration of intimacy in “The Miller’s Tale,” Alisoun is trapped by John’s idea of intimacy, ensuring her closeness and loyalty by keeping her inside the household at all possible times (167). In this way, Alisoun is treated more like a figure of intimacy than a human being in her marriage. Nicholas and Absolon know she is married, yet they still pursue her, mainly in hopes for sex. Though Alisoun’s beauty is advantageous, her objectification creates a limitation for how much power she can gain, and because of her living situation, her power if further restricted.
Despite the large age gap between John and Alisoun, they are a married couple, and this is the main source of John’s power, through which he tries to control her freedom, treating her as his “private possession” (Aloni 167). From John’s perspective, his wife’s beauty means he needs to hide her from any threat that will take her away from him. However, his power over Alisoun disappears when he is not within her proximity. Nicholas sleeps with Alisoun. Absolon, too, senses an advantage: “Now is tyme to wake al nyght, / For sikirly I saugh hym nat stirynge / Aboute his dore, syn day bigan to sprynge” (3672-74). When John is temporarily gone, the rest of the characters take action, and based on the characters’ interactions and outcomes obtained by each, Nicholas and Alisoun benefit the most due to their manipulations, becoming the ones with the most power in the tale.
The power dynamics of Alisoun and Nicholas are more substantial and complex, whereas Absolon and John deceive other characters less frequently than the other two. Although Absolon tries to manipulate Alisoun, he fails to do so. All attempts by Absolon to capture her are unsuccessful, as Alisoun “loveth” (3386) Nicholas, making Absolon “hire ape, / And al his ernest turneth til a jape” (3389-90). Any power Absolon might have over her dissipates when Nicholas is with Alisoun, and John’s power over her, which is otherwise strong, diminishes when he is not present.
Nicholas, on the other hand, not only gains power from his interactions with Alisoun but from those with her husband, as well. Simmons Walts notes that the relationship dynamic between Nicholas and John is primarily based on economic circumstance (401). Nevertheless, because Nicholas lives in John’s house, Nicolas is able to fake illness, tricking John into worrying about his well-being and eventually telling John a fabricated tale of impending apocalypse. Nicholas does not utilize any actual knowledge of astrology for his deception but rather mainly manipulates John’s understanding of the Bible (Walts 403). The lack of any academic information to formulate his grand scheme demonstrates that Nicholas is cunning enough to take advantage of his economic circumstances and his personal relationship with John in order to fool him.
Alisoun may be the most powerful character in the tale because her beauty and her influence on the men instigates the whole storyline. Nevertheless, Alisoun’s position of power does not fit Belliotti’s concept of “power-over,” which requires that the influencer is aware of his or her manipulations (13). During Nicholas’s first interactions with Alisoun, and John’s creation of makeshift bathtubs, she seems oblivious to the risks the men will take for her because of her beauty. Because her manipulations are mostly indirect, Alisoun seems unaware of her influence; therefore, in Belliotti’s terms, Alisoun is vulnerable to Nicholas’s manipulations, willingly and enthusiastically performing actions that her superior desires (14). What makes Alisoun vulnerable is the exposure of her weakness, physically being with someone she enjoys and “loveth” (3386). Nicolas’ exploitation of this vulnerability becomes apparent when she supports Nicholas attempts to deceive John. Scholars may argue she is aware of her manipulations since she consciously agrees with Nicholas’s plan to sleep with her, indicating that she knows her beauty is influential to others. However, she does not begin using her beauty’s power until Nicholas actively pursues her. Moreover, though she does have a goal in the tale, sleeping with Nicholas, that she can achieve through manipulation, the foundations of her goal fundamentally stem from Nicholas’s goal of fulfilling his own lust.
As most characters attempt to deceive others for their own desires, they all face the consequences of these actions. Parry, however, observes that all male characters receive justice for their deceptions, while Alisoun gets away with hers (139). Parry takes account of each character’s physical state at the end of “The Miller’s Tale.” Alisoun deceives Absolon by tricking him into kissing her bottom. Absolon, in return, prepares a “hoote kultour” (3776) in his attempt to pay back Alisoun. However, he ends up burning Nicholas instead after Nicholas himself fails to trick Absolon successfully. John breaks his arm. All the men are humiliated, but, as Parry notes, Alisoun does not receive any physical punishment. However, one can argue that her beauty bears an ingrained punishment for her.
Her beauty is capable of substantial power. Through her beauty, she manipulates everyone but seems unaware of the severity of its effects. Her beauty alone potentially acts as her punishment, as she will have to face the aftermath of the power her beauty caused. Alisoun becomes “the figure whose response and responsibility to those who desire and would possess her stands as the ultimate, elusive interpretive treasure after which all of Chaucer’s readers within and without the tale seek” (Parry 137). As a result, she may have to pay the price for the consequences of actions instigated by her beauty.
Also, Alisoun is able to acquire power because she is valued by others, and, because Nicholas and Alisoun are young and relatively close in age, their desires are more likely to intertwine, allowing them to become powerful together. However, even though Alisoun is powerful, her lack of awareness and vulnerability establishes her as less powerful than Nicholas. With his intelligence, he, as the superior, gains control of each situation (at least until the end of the tale). Through deception, he influences behaviors and exploits weaknesses, prevailing as the most powerful character in “The Miller’s Tale.”
From the power dynamics shaped by manipulations in “The Miller’s Tale,” readers are left to consider the concept of power, how it is created, and how it should be exercised toward others. With his power of manipulation, Nicholas, being fully aware of his actions, becomes the mastermind of “The Miller’s Tale,” essentially controlling the actions of the other characters until he himself eventually falls victim to his own manipulations.
Works Cited
Aloni, Gila. “Extimacy in “The Miller’s Tale.” The Chaucer Review, Pennsylvania State UP, vol. 41, no. 2, 2006, pp. 163–184. JSTOR, JSTOR, doi:10.1353/cr.2006.0018.
Belliotti, Raymond A. Power: Oppression, Subservience, and Resistance. SUNY P, 2016, pp. 12-17.
Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Canterbury Tales: Fifteen Tales and the General Prologue. Edited by V. A. Kolve and Glending Olsen, Norton Critical Edition, 2nd ed., W. W. Norton, 2005.
Parry, Joseph D. “Interpreting Female Agency and Responsibility in ‘The Miller’s Tale’ and ‘The Merchant’s Tale.’” Philological Quarterly, vol. 80, no. 2, 2001, pp. 133-135. Literature Resource Center, link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A95792868/LitRC?u=chic13716&sid=LitRC&xid=0f6c8c.
Rudinow, Joel. “Manipulation.” Ethics, vol. 88, no. 4, 1978, pp. 338–347. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/2380239
Walts, Dawn Simmons. “Tricks of Time in the ‘Miller’s Tale.’” The Chaucer Review, vol. 43, no. 4, Apr. 2009, pp. 400–413. Project MUSE, doi:10.1353/cr.0.0020.
Woods, William F. “Private and Public Space in the ‘Miller’s Tale.’” The Chaucer Review, vol. 29, no. 2, 1994, pp. 166–178. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/25095882.