Recasting the Canterbury Tales: Stage 2

For my project, I chose to recast the Miller from the Canterbury Tales. In the Canterbury Tales, Chaucer portrays the Miller as a slightly more crude and less dignified character compared to the rest of the company. Because of this, I chose to recast him as a modern day redneck. I felt that the Miller had the exact same sense of humor, morals and habits that one would relate to a redneck. The Miller was singing, being very loud and probably had a few drinks. The redneck is someone that people do not consider high class but they generally are fun to be around and can make some good stories up(especially when alcohol is involved). Most of the time, people do not want to associate themselves with rednecks, much like the way people would not tend to associate themselves with the Miller. This blue collar style of humor is why the Miller would make a good modern day redneck.

For the tale, not much needs to be changed. It would just need to be updated to a more modern setting. Also, the hot poker would need to be changed to something more like a drunk person falling in the fire. But, it is easily plausible that a redneck would tell a tale of this nature. It involves cheating and everything going bad for almost everyone. The characters in the tale would need to be updated to farm boys and farmers daughters of today.

The video shows what the new Miller would be more like. He would be very redneck and the songs he sings would offend some of the more high class people on the pilgrimage. He would not have a problem with expressing his opinion on anything and he wouldn't care what anyone else thought of him. He is just wanting to have a good time and enjoy himself. The video also has examples of how the redneck would live. This trashed room shows how the redneck isn't worried about his outward appearance to other people. It shows that he probably isn't too worried about hygiene and his personal appearance.

Overall, the redneck is a good fit for the Miller. Chaucer wanted to make a character that wasn't afraid to say what he thought and who just wanted to have some fun even if it was by making fun of other people. I tried to do this with the redneck. He should be a character that stands out from the other characters in the Canterbury Tales but still fit the persona that Chaucer created for the Miller.