In the Miller's Tale, Geoffrey Chaucer writes a lewd and vulgar story filled with acts of pride and vanity by every one of the main characters.
             Alisoun exemplifies these characteristics in the literal meaning of both. She believes that she is too young and beautiful to be married to such a man as John and believes that she deserves better. She acts very much like the teenager that she is when she makes plans with Nicholas for their night together. There isn't much denying that she was probably a very attractive young girl and that she could have had 'the pick of the litter' had she been allowed to choose her mate. However she is unwilling to accept her new role as wife and instead runs around more than most single women.
             Nicholas is the victim of pride in a less obvious way. He thinks that his academic studies have made him superior to the carpenter and gives him the right not only to cuckold him but to also hold him up to social ridicule and mocking. Nicholas is punished for this in a very painful manner and with this punishment he is maimed and quite possible permanently disfigured possibly having to walk with a limp or some such thing. This would make him less appealing to the opposite sex, therefore making it difficult if not impossible to find himself in this situation again.
             Absolon's pride, like Alisoun's, is also very basic to the definition of the word. He was obsessed with Alisoun and courtly love. He cannot wait for his opportunity to court her as the courtly love tradition dictates, with its structures of elegance that shrouded its essential immorality, and used these tactics in hopes that it would lead to his success. It of course did not but he did get some satisfaction in the end when he burned Nicholas.
             John's pride is obviously the most power-hungry of the group. He is proud that he was 'selected' by God to be one of few human left after Nicholas's pre...