Justice In The Canterbury Tales

Justice is a way to prove someone is rightfully or wrongfully doing something in that time of event. If someone steals something and someone notices, that someone will try to bring the person who had something stolen from them justice because it was wrong. In “The Reeve’s Tale”, a short story in The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, the miller is stealing food from people. So two students want to bring justice to the college professor who had food stolen from him. Allen and John, two students from the town, bring justice to the professor by going through several series of events over the course of their adventure. The man who tells the tale is a reeve, someone who is a steward/minor official on an estate between lords and serfs. He is

The Reeve decides to tell his tale about how a miller is caught cheating and two college students find out. The two students, John and Allen, try to trick him after they find out that the miller, Simpskin, robs one of their professor’s. What the other travelers do not know is that the Reeve is using the miller has himself. The miller, in the story, and the Reeve both steal from the people in their town. The act of stealing is both injustice. However, both Allen and John are doing acts of injustice as well. Allen and John both have to stay the night because the miller let their horse lose in order for him to get caught. Allen and John each have sex with the wife of the miller and the miller’s daughter. John steals the daughter’s virginity which is unjust of him to do. The whole point of the story as a whole is to find justice, which does and does not happen. The only act of justice that happens is that they did find out that the miller does steal from the people in the town. The whole story was revolving around acts of injustice. The miller, John, and Allen stole something from someone. The miller stole food from the professor. John stole the miller’s daughter’s virginity. Allen just had sex with the miller’s wife. Was the Reeve’s tale successful to tell justice, yes and no. Does the Reeve himself serve justice? Absolutely