How are the characters of John the carpenter, Alison and Nicholas established in the Miller's Tale?
             Within the Miller's Tale, by Geoffrey Chaucer, we are told the tale of a carpenter, John, and the affair between his wife, Alison, and his lodger, Nicholas - these three being the key characters within the Tale. Alison and Nicholas succeed in playing John for a fool by going behind his back, and his trust in them results in him being ridiculed by the rest of the town. During the tale, we discover more about the lives of these characters, as established by both the Miller telling the Tale and Chaucer. We receive details through physical and intellectual description and are also able to discover further details from the characters actions within the Tale.
             The first character that we meet is John the carpenter, described as "a riche gnof", which immediately tells us that the character has money, despite his being uneducated and a 'lout'. In the fourteenth century, when The Canterbury Tales were written, carpenters would have been viewed stereotypically - although not being considerably wealthy, they tended to be better off than others due to their manual skills. This is an accurate description of John the carpenter within the Miller's Tale, as he does have money ("riche gnof" ln112), but he is not clever or respectable. It is also suggested that he has a fiery temper. However, we receive very little direct information about the character of John, and we are not given a physical description apart from that he's 'old', whereas his wife, Alison, is just eighteen. For this reason, he is also fiercely jealous of her - "Jalous was he, and heeld hire narwe in cage" (ln116). The character of John is portrayed as being naive and simple - frequently, the word "sely" (simple) precedes his name within the Tale, and his response to Nicholas's tale regarding a f
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