Silence and Suppression in the Reeves Tale

A detailed Summary of Silence and Suppression in the Reeves Tale

Such comments as, "I pray to God his nekke mote

to-breke" quickly reveal that the verbal game of "quite"

involves much more than a free meal to the Reeve in "The

Canterbury Tales" (I 3918). This overreaction, which grabs

the attention of the audience and gives it pause, is

characteristic of the Reeve's ostensibly odd behavior, being

given to morose speeches followed by violent outbursts, all

the while harboring spiteful desires. Anger typifies the

Reeve's dialogue and his tale, which begs the question why.

It appears to be a reaction to the Miller's insults, but they

are not extreme enough to provoke such resentment. He

seem-ingly has no hesitation in articulating his bitterness,

yet he and his story are as much marked by suppression as

expression. Silence resounds as loudly as any noise in the

Reeve's Prologue and Tale. The reader is as puzzled by his

utterances as the lack of them: his sudden sermon on death

is matched by the quietness of two couples copulating in a

small room of five, none of which are able to hear what the

others are doing. The reality is that the behavior of the

of neuro-sis. "Suppression amounts to a conscious moral

reasonable to as-sume that this is a pattern in his life. Why

developed for such a short piece and, most importantly, are

will be discussed in greater detail in this essay, it is the

but pleased by the students, so the Reeve can hold the

Approximate Word count = 4759
Approximate Pages = 19 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English

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