os;s Tale where we see John, a middle aged carpenter, being fooled by Nicholas, a student, enabling him to sleep with his young wife Alisoun. On the periphery is the Parish Clerk, Absolon who, also seeks the fruits that Alisoun has to offer. As a fabliaux, The Miller's Tale offers a mocking look at the Church and the hypocritical nature of the Christian religion of the day. Priscilla Martin writes "The joke glances at hagiographers and at the Holy Family . . . The Miller mocks the idealism of those who fight and pray." The nature of The Miller's Tale is a fun look at the failings of religion and the religious. Chaucer does not ridicule "true religious faith, he goes well out of his way to expose hypocrisy, that huge gap between professed ideals and actual actions."
             As well as revealing the hypocrisy of the Church, Chaucer appears to reproach the Church for its endemic misogynistic traditions. The Church uses the story of the fall, when Eve picked the fruit from the Tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil and thus, condemned mankind to a life of sin, decay, and ultimately death. "Women were associated with all that would tempt man away from their pursuit of spiritual perfection . . . Like the Church, Absolon has no real love for Alison, only lust disguised under a veritable snowstorm of "romantic" anguish." Chaucer's attitude against the misogynistic practises of the Church can be seen in they way he allowed Alisoun, who only graced the Church with her presence on a haliday, escape relatively unscathed when compared to the other characters, especially Absolon, who suffered humiliation when at Alisoun's window with his mouth he kiste hir naked ers.
             Along the lines of Chaucer's portrayal of the Church's hypocrisy and misogynistic ways, Absolon, as opposed to Alisoun, gets the worst of Chaucer's irony. The parish Clerk, this amorous Absolon betrays his ca...