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The Reeve's Role In The Canterbury Tales

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The Reeve that is described in the general prologue of the Canterbury Tales, written by Geoffrey Chaucer, seems to accurately represent the person that is narrating the Reeve’s Tale. In story, the Reeve creates a journey which began as a trip that was meant to benefit people, but ended up having selfish gain. Due to this, there is a bit of back-and-forth between what the narrator said about the Reeve in the general prologue versus his personality that was prevalent while he narrated his tale. According to the prologue of the Tales, the Reeve is “wholly trusted to his government,” (pg. 35) which is quite similar to both of the boys, John and Alan, that claim they only want to help out the dean of their college. John and Alan are quite determined to do things the right way. Similar to the Reeve, they are people who never steal from others, and want to get justice for the people that get stolen from. Adding on to the concept of getting justice, in the Reeve’s prologue, he also explains that he was going to pay the Miller back for his foolish mockery on being a carpenter. This shows that the Reeve takes words against him quite personally, and in turn, agrees with the description that “no auditor could gain a point on him.” (pg. 35) …show more content…

However, in his story John and Alan both end up taking advantage of the Miller and his family. This, in a way, symbolizes the revenge that the Reeve is trying to get on the Miller. In the prologue of the tale, the Reeve states, “I hope to God he breaks his bloody neck.” (pg. 124) By him boldly telling everyone this, it emphasizes the point that he is “feared..by those beneath [him],” (pg.35) The Reeve’s tale solidifies the fact that the Reeve is a man that cannot be pushed down, and always pushes back when there is an opportunity

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