"The Miller's Tale", a ribald and bawdy fabliaux about the generation gap, youthful lust, the stupidity of age and selfishness and cruelty of people towards each other, contains a wealth of color terms that add to and expand the meaning of this rustic tale. The narrator, the Miller, is also described in detail in Chaucer's "Prologue" with several colors associated with him. The colors Chaucer employed were important not only for vividness of description and to help create a mental image for listeners (or readers), but also for providing clues to the nature of the characters described. Sometimes there are several layers of meaning in a color term describing an aspect of a human being or a piece of clothing, and these meanings can create multiple readings of increasingly revealing and sometimes contradictory meaning. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Color symbolism was much more important in medieval society than it is today. Colors meant many things, and the different shades and hues chosen for clothing, furnishings, and even hair coloring (as well as natural variations in these hues) were all imbued with meaning within a social and religious context:. ..color [was] a favorite ploy of Satan and his followers, used in their tireless efforts to stumble mankind as they struggled along the rocky path to salvation. Adherents of this theory considered color highly suspect, doubly corrupted by the fall of man who had made the material world ephemeral and transitory... In the Middle Ages, however, there were color cultists who claimed that color was actually the product of a divine light that gave life to matter. (Pleij 1-2) An interesting side note, described by Pleij, is that before the Renaissance, bright, rich colors were considered both formal and acceptable for everyday wear, which is why the Miller might wear "a blue hood and a white cloak"coat" (Chaucer 18) for his traveling costume. Our perception of the Middle Ages, depicted in the films, is that of most ordinary people dressed in home-spun brown and gray fabrics, interspersed, perhaps, from the richer robes of the clergy and nobility.However, color was employed in every way imaginable in clothing, even among the poor, and if we could see the dress of the pilgrims described by Chaucer, we would most likely see a riot of color Fu It was not until much later than Chaucer's time that the colors blue and black (colors of the firmament and, therefore, of God) became the colors of "earthly self-denial, of extreme asceticism, of deep sorrow, and of supreme humility" (Pleij 6 ). Bright colors became traits of the devil, and dark blues and blacks became the colors of the righteous (especially later among Protestants - note the uniform black clothing of the Dutch merchants of the Renaissance, and the black and white costumes of the Puritan Pilgrims in America. ) This preference for blue and black has been maintained to the present day, in modern formal and evening wear, especially for men (Ibid). The medieval people described by Chaucer had no such scruples about color. “If you could pinpoint one era as the most obsessed with color, it would be the Middle Ages.” (Pleij 4) What, then, do the colors in the Miller's description, and then the colors he employs in his Tale, contribute to the meaning of the story? The miller's hair is "red as the bristles in an old sow's ear." Red was often associated with short temper and sexual incontinence,while red hair and reddish skin were associated with the "other" in medieval art. The devil is depicted, infernal, with red hair. (JTS article). Red hair was, in fact, a negative connotation for a whole host of evil characters, including, in particular, "greedy millers" (Pleij 82). Medieval negative attitudes toward people with red hair were so severe that all people with red hair were "considered impostors and frauds." (Ibid) There may also have been a superstition that red hair was the product of conception during a woman's menstrual period. This sinful act, as the sexual act outside the specific purpose of procreation was believed to be sinful, was believed to have scarred the child for life. “In general, physical characteristics involving the color red are almost never good” (83). Furthermore, the Miller's nostrils are "as black as broad" (Chaucer 18, "blake were and broad," Benson 32), which can only be a disparaging personal description, but the notion of black as a color associated with humans was complicated in medieval times. However, superstition against the things of the night persisted, and the idea that black was a celestial color had not yet taken hold. In many cases in medieval verse "black is the color attributed to the devil and demons" (Heather, II, 215). So far, in two lines, Chaucer has been able to create two demonic references to the Miller right within his personal description. The running joke among medieval villagers, no doubt based at least partly in reality, was that millers were thieves, and so drawing a parallel between the miller and the devil was not only appropriate but funny. His description as portly, pig-like (and therefore greedy and overfed), with hair of porcine texture and devilish color, with a broad nose (a short or broad nose might "betray a loving nature", Brewer 44, as well as the nature of his tale) is already so full of meaning that the Miller hardly seems to need further explanation. He is greedy; it is probably amorous, and perhaps amorous in a way outside of accepted mores. He is like the devil, perhaps in the sense of true evil, or, depending on how he interacts with the other pilgrims, just a sense of malice. He was considered out of the norm, with his red hair (a possible prejudice that persists against both the native Celts and the invading Danes), and his black nostrils complemented the facial image of not only ugliness, but also suggestion. of the breath of the infernal regions. The Miller's "golden thombe" (Benson 32) was a direct reference, of course, to his ways of cheating on the scales with his customers' grain and flour. Millers were proverbially considered thieves (Langdon 244) and the reference to “golde” – not just a metal but a color – meant that his thumb was indeed heavy. It is also a hint of his inhumanity, because if any part of his body could be other than flesh, he would be less than human and not worthy of respect or sympathy like a real human being. Gold and red are often spoken of together in medieval verse (Heather, IV, 322) and the parallel with her red hair (which, of course, is actually orange, or red-gold) could continue here. Or, it could be that he is so in love with profit, in the form of stolen grain or flour or gold itself, that his thumb has become made of it. problematic. In the Middle Ages white was almost always associated with purity and sanctity, so his white coat belies the miller's nature. The whiteness of the soul after being thinned (Heather, III, 266) was an important image in medieval verse, and so it isIt's hard to say what Chaucer was trying to describe, if anything, by giving the Miller a white coat. Perhaps he was referring to a real miller he had known, who wore a similar coat. It was a highly impractical color (as well as being quite expensive, as bleaching fabrics was a difficult process during the Middle Ages) for a journey, as pilgrims would surely get dirty and dusty on an unpaved road on horseback. Perhaps, although there is little evidence for this, it was a symbol of his impracticality and his willingness to show off his ill-gotten gains in sartorial display. The "blow hode" is slightly easier to understand, but still contradictory. It could be associated with the planet Venus (Heather, IV, 326,) which would be another reference to Miller's lewd history and his alleged sexual incontinence. However, blue is also explained by Chaucer as the "color of constancy in love" (in reference to Canace's blue velvet meow in "The Squire's Tale", Chaucer 500). This is a bit confusing. Perhaps it is a confirmation or repudiation of the virtue of the Miller's wife. He says: I have a wife, God knows, just like you. But not despite all the oxen on my plow I'd make a point of taking it out on myself now To consider myself a cuckold just because... I'm pretty sure I'm not and never has been. One should not be too curious in life, neither about God's secrets nor about one's wife (Chaucer 88). So perhaps the blue hood he wears, if it has any color symbolism, is a sign of his belief in (or benign neglect of) his wife's faithfulness. It could, on the contrary, be a mockery of his inattention to his wife's sexual infidelities, and therefore also be a substitute for the cuckold's horns. The blue cloth over the Virgin's head was proverbial in statues and paintings of this time (and to the present day in many depictions of her), so the Miller's blue hood may be his tribute to the Virgin Mary (which seems unlikely) or perhaps another of Chaucer's quips about the lack of chastity on the part of the Miller or the Miller's wife. This range of attributes and colors serves to enlighten, entertain, and even confuse the reader. It would have been much simpler if Miller had been dressed in green, (the color of "lightness in love" Chaucer 500). Being dressed “in green…was [a] characteristic of the devil in medieval tradition.” (Howard 62) But Chaucer doesn't make things so simple for us, and instead piles on allusions and contradictions to make us stop and consider not only Miller's words, but the meaning behind his words (as well as perhaps his—enthusiastic protestations of faithfulness of his wife.) It is without doubt that, from these few terms, Chaucer creates in our minds a lively and quite human image of the narrator of The Miller's Tale. The first mention of a color term in the Tale itself is in reference to the young lover Nicholas's closet or linen press "covered with a faldyng cane" (Benson 68). Faldyng was a kind of rough cloth, supposedly cheap and easy to obtain. even for a poor student like Nicholas. The coarseness of the fabric is perhaps an indicator of the coarseness and, indeed, also of the deviousness of Nicholas and his sexual and revengeful escapes. The image is quickly created of a man who was simultaneously interested in luxury and appearances (red or scarlet were associated with luxury fabrics, especially in the early Middle Ages when it was really the only luxury fabric available) but capable only, either through his low and showy tastes, or through the constraints of poverty, to make his room look like a cheap brothel. Red was also associated with the color of the flame (Heather,IV, 320) which could be a parallel both with the devil (as in the reading of the Miller's apparition, above) and with the flame of sexual desire. But, again, there is a contradiction in this color. Red was, for many years, associated with royalty and honor (Heather, ibid) and "scarlet and crimson were particularly coveted, as these expensive red dyes were extracted from hard-to-obtain snails and worms" (Pleij 6 ). it was a fashionable colour, and the red shade of Nicholas's wardrobe covering was perhaps chosen by him to attract young women. The character of Nicholas "Of deerne love he koude and of solas" (Benson 68, "And to make love in secret was his talent" Chaucer 89) certainly supports the idea of ​​a young man who would choose his clothing and furnishing his apartment based on what he thought would get him the most out of sex with young women he knew. Chaucer was thus able to create the personality of a character in a few lines, it seems that color was part of his scheme to bring out possible attributes of characters through personal description. Red has been “for centuries…thought to be the exact opposite of white” (Pleij 17) rather than black. If this thought still dominated in Chaucer's time (and there is no evidence directly from the text, but it is a possibility) then Nicholas' red cloth in his room was like a red flag (or a red light in a prostitute's window , or the red cloth thrown over a lamp in a prostitute's room) which announced her sexual desire and unscrupulous morals. Professor Sherbo supports the idea that the word choices in Chaucer were not about poetic diction, but were simply words used in everyday prose. For, as Dr. Johnson said, "...before the time of Dryden there existed 'no poetical diction: no system of words at once refined from the coarseness of domestic use, and free from the hardness of terms appropriate to particular arts." . One could argue against this chronological division, as Shakespeare wrote "incarnadine" for red (Macbeth Act II ii), but from this idea we can suggest that Chaucer's motivation in selecting colors was more about the symbolism of the color than any kind of " elegances or flowers of words." (Sherbo 1) Given that: Chaucer's poetry is almost entirely devoid of poetic diction, which is quite understandable. As early as 1913, Havens wrote, "to the extent that the subjects of the poems approach those of ordinary conversation, the language and style become colloquial, and... 'poetic diction' is employed only in passages which are most desirable to have different". as much as possible from prose. (Sherbo 44) If this is true, and the colloquial rather than formal tone of Miller's tale (it is called "Cherles' tale" Benson 67, a churl who is a low-class person) fits this idea, then the selection of terms of color was not based on aesthetic, auditory or musical grounds. The words could have been chosen to fit the meter (and Chaucer's color terms are short and easy to rhyme and fit into a line - reed). , barred, whit, col-blak, blew – as opposed to later poetic Latinisms, incarnadine, striation, achromatic, nigrous, or cerulean, for example) but were not chosen, at least not primarily, to create an audible effect. it can be argued that the choice of colors was based, firstly, on how they fit into the story and, secondly, on the symbolism those colors signified. Continuing his description of the beautiful Alison, Chaucer uses a further wealth of color terms. Immediately Chaucer tells us that his belt was of “striped silk” (Chaucer 90). Alsostripes or multicolored fabrics, although expensive and showy (as silk was), could be considered a sign of his deviance. “When a painter dressed a figure in a tube with one leg red and the other yellow, he told the viewer that he was a dubious character” (Pleij 73). While we are not told the actual color of the stripes on Alison's belt, it may be that this was Chaucer's first way of marking her, visually, as showy, showy, perhaps too willing to spend her rich old husband's money on beautiful things, and, even, possess his imminent sexual deviance. Women who chose to wear multicolored clothing were punished religiously. "The 13th-century hellfire preacher Bertold of Regensburg railed against women who got carried away with fashionable colors. He noted that they were no longer content with the infinite variety of colors that God had made available to nature - an abundant supply of brown, red, blue, white, green, yellow and black. No, the latest in female pride involved combining these colors into dots and stripes..." (Pleij 75) The idea that it was female pride, and more. personal taste or even sexual advertising, suits Alison's character. She is so proud that not only does she think she can deceive her husband (which she and Nicholas easily do) but she feels no remorse for her deceitful acts and infidelity, and does nothing to save her husband from the townspeople's insults at the end of the story (Chaucer 105-106). Her striped belt is a sign of her willingness to violate her marriage vows and that she takes pride in deceiving her husband. A harmful garment, indeed. “White as morning milk” was Alison's apron, as was her apron. A white apron gets dirty quickly, so this was probably an expression of Alison's vanity, just as the more expensive white cloth was an indicator of her willingness to spend her husband's money. White was considered “the color most suitable for women” (Pleij 68) as it was the color of heaven and sinlessness, so perhaps Alison wore these white garments to give herself a false aura of respectability. But the embroidery on the apron is black (Chaucer 90), demonstrating not only Alison's ability to mix colors (something frowned upon as contrary to God's nature), but also her willingness to mitigate the whiteness of her dress with the darkness of the devil. Embroidery, in silk, was also considered vanity, no doubt, and was sufficiently unusual for Chaucer to comment on it. One can imagine that Alison thought she was creating a trend or leading one in her village. This too would have been considered immodest, and perhaps an indicator of future sinfulness. These gorgeous garments (a striped belt, a white apron, a silk apron with black embroidery) don't end there. There are "ribbons and ribbons" on his "milky mutch" (cap, Chaucer 90) to match this outfit. Her white headdress was perhaps required, as noted above, as headdress colors other than white were considered the height of vanity and sexual display. But Alison doesn't stop at the white bonnet: she gildes the lily with ribbons and ribbons, as a young woman might choose to do. It is interesting that Chaucer includes this detail. Whether it was pure whim, however, or another indicator of Alison's wantonness is hard to say. The next color term applied to Alison concerns her eyebrows. “And he had bent his eyebrows in arches, / They were slenderly arched, and black as sloes.” (Chaucer 90) A sloe, of course, is a small dark fruit used to flavor alcohol, and hardly one of the classic comparisons for female beauty. Chaucerhe inserts some humor and satire here, as Alison's lower-class beauty would not be classified and cataloged in the same way as the upper-class beauty listed in, for example, the Book of the Duchess. "...[Alison's description] is, in fact, partly a rhetorical joke, the point of which is the absurdity of describing a carpenter's wife, a wanton village maiden, as if she were a heroine, a beauty noble and ideal. There is also probably some element of social satire here. Chaucer is writing for a polite audience," (Brewer 42) The black eyebrows on a blonde (we assume she is blonde, since it is not stated, although it seems likely We only know that her "complexion had a brighter tint/than a new florin of the Royal Mint," [Ibid] Furthermore, "her hue is as bright gold as that of any romantic woman, but is compared to one. "noble." newly minted, a gold coin worth 6p. {What is the price of Alison?}" Brewer 42) were not considered strange. In fact, it was considered ideal. "In the Middle Ages, blondes would have had brown eyes and black eyebrows, or at least dark brown. This combination, so strange to us today, paved the way for hair dyeing methods that allowed all that dark hair to eyed brunettes to achieve the ideal with relative ease." (Pleij 50) The reference to the Royal Mint florin may suggest that Alison dyed her naturally dark hair a blonder colour. This was not an unusual practice. Perhaps the color of her hair was "bought" by gold. The other possibility of this reference is also certainly that his love or virtue was cheap and easily bought with gold or other favors. Incidentally, the prejudice against blue eyes (considering the good associations linked to that color) even in the case of natural blondes has several possible origins. What seems to have more age and credibility was the prejudice of antiquity against the invaders of the North, who by nature had bluer eyes than most Mediterranean peoples. (Ibid) Although we do not know Alison's eye color, it seems likely that her eyes were dark as were her eyebrows, and Alison was probably considered an example of the medieval ideal of beauty (albeit lower class and fun) . .) The next possible color term is "latoun" (Benson 69), or the brass-like alloy on his leather bag, which was "tasseled with droplets of silk and silver" (Chaucer 90). These metallic colors adorning the bag attached to the striped belt add another element to her already eye-catching ensemble, and they were probably expensive. Silver-white, although this color was more connected to heraldry (silver) than the metallic colors described by Chaucer, are confusingly associated with the early years of a child's life (up to twelve years old) when children were considered the more innocent and angelic. (Pleij 15) It seems unlikely that this association applies to the sexually mature and wanton eighteen-year-old Alison, so it seems much more plausible that Chaucer, here, with the mention within six lines of three metallic colors (brass, silver, and gold) with the adding “pearl” to simply be a catalog of the richness in which this young woman is dressed. The next flurry of color terms comes when Alison goes to church and sees Absalon unhappy. Significantly, Alison “…drawn/The color of her face to make its mark:” (Chaucer 92). Or Alison was pinching her face to make her cheeks red and make her more attractive (red faces were often given to fools in Terence's plays, Pleij 50, and "red faces that blush...were thought to be indicative of madness,aggression, cunning", and betrayal. 82) In that little detail the whole story of Alison is revealed that she is indeed sexually aggressive, extremely cunning and quite willing to cheat not only sexually but socially on her elderly husband, although attractive, they were not something that can be found in a trustworthy woman. Moving on to the description of the parish secretary Absalon, he is given another riot of color attributes: Her hair was all in golden curls and shone: just like a fan she strutted towards the. 'external, starting left and right from a complete separation. Ruddy had the face, the eyes gray as a goose, the shoes cut out in fretwork, as used in the old St. Paul. The hose on his meal was scarlet, and all his clothes were clean and decent. A light blue jacket, with ruffles at the waist and also labeled with laces. He went and put on a surplice as gay and white as any flower on the spray. Six color terms are applied to him: golden, ruddy, grey, scarlet, azure, and white (Middle English: gold, reed, greye, rede, light wabet, and whit, Benson 69-70) in just eleven lines. It would be difficult to draw one or even two conclusions from this range of shades, assuming that the colors must have a symbolic meaning other than the description. "There is no unambiguous system of medieval color symbolism, unless the term is used to refer to medieval man's desperate and contradictory attempts to transform colors into the role of significant signs planted on the narrow path to eternal salvation." There is no defined idea that can include the symbolism of gold, red, scarlet, blue, gray and white. This set of color attributes of Absalon seems to have less meaning, directly, than either the description of the Miller in the Prologue or of Alison at the beginning of the tale. The clerk's golden curls would have been proverbial for a wanton young lover, and he might have seemed incongruous in his squalid role as clerk. Having a ruddy face has been described as amorous, foolish and deceitful, which indeed Absalon is. The fact that his eyes are "grey as a goose" rather than those of a gander was perhaps a reference to his effeminacy. Since gray eyes were considered the height of female beauty (as in the Prioress), perhaps gray eyes were considered too feminine on a man's face. It is a rather dull color, perhaps signifying that Absalon lacked vitality or virility. (He will later be described as "fussy" and appears to be a bit of a dandy.) This is supported by the description of the young man's elegant shoes, which were the latest fashion. His scarlet trousers could simply be the example of the dandy Absalon trying to wear the latest and boldest fashions, or it could be a mockery of his office. Since scarlet was one of the colors of the curtains in the Temple tabernacle in Exodus, (Pleij 15) and was often used for priestly vestments (as at Pentecost), the parody of a sacred color worn by a young cleric was purposely committed adultery will probably not escape Chaucer's readers. Modern fashion does not include a taste for combining red or scarlet with blue (the blue of Absalon's jacket). To our eyes this would appear to be a conspicuously mismatched set of clothing, perhaps even clownish. This is definitely how Absalon is portrayed, as he is the victim of Alison and Nicholas' pranks in this tale (although Nicholas gets some comeuppance from him in the end as well). Medieval fashion allowed the combination of light blue and scarlet however, so this may be one reading altogether, 1975.