Analysis Of 'Simpkin The Swagger'

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“It is double the pleasure to deceive the deceiver” according to Niccolo Machiavelli. The following analysis gives one a look at the dialect of Middle English prominent during the literature development of the Canterbury Tale, specifically the Reeve’s Tale. Oswald, the Reeve tells a comical French fabliau with cynical observations of women and taunting remarks toward those in the working-class. The story told displays a realistic depiction of the usual squabbles between social classes and characteristic attributed to peasants during this time. First, let us look at the types of people within society during Chaucer’s era. The miller in Oswald’s tale, “Simpkin the Swagger” is a boastful fellow shows a haughty behavior commonly shown of those who are well off compared to common folk. The millers character is displayed as self-important believing he has the right to marry a well-bread woman nobly born even if he himself is not of noble blood. His wife and daughter are portrayed based on looks and snooty dispositions due to upbringing. More specifically, the wife’s father and priest allows this family to have certain liberties only bestowed on those of well-connected families. The two bible clerks or students John and Alan are represented as stubborn and eager to seek revenge on behalf of their Warden. At each turn whether when the horse is loose and they must chase it down or end up spend the night, the miller ridicules them for their education as “learned men”. A specific

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