The knight, as the highest-ranking member of the procession of pilgrims, is chosen "by chance, fortune or fate" (844) to tell the first of the Canterbury Tales. When he finishes, the drunken Miller asks to go next, even though the Guest has asked the Monk, as the next-ranking male pilgrim, if he knows "A little to finish with the tale of Knyghtes" (3119). The host tells the Miller to wait until "Som bettre man shal telle us first anothe", because they should "work" in telling the stories "correctly", (3130-31), but the Miller insists on violating the order social and telling his story second. He wants to 'equal' the Knight's tale, or highlight it. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Both the knight's tale and the story told by the Miller are love stories, but they couldn't be more different. The history of the Knight is long and, overall, serious. He self-consciously intrudes on his narrative with awkward transitions between time and place and editorializes his censorship of events. The gentlemen on the train say it is a "noble story" and worth memorizing (3111-2). The story of the Miller is short and funny; he is a lively, direct and impersonal narrator; telling his story as if it were one long joke, and is so rude that the narrator apologizes for repeating it (3170-3181). The two stories were constructed as perfectly opposite in setting, plot and the moral constitution of their characters. The story of the Knight is set far away and long ago, in ancient Thebes. Miller's story is set in contemporary England. The story of the Knight is one of courtly love. Miller's story is about carnal desire. The climax of the action in the Knight's tale is a tournament between two worthy knights and their armies of one hundred knights each, for the hand in marriage of a distant and pure lady. The climax of the action of the Miller's tale might be said to be when Nicholas, having betrayed the carpenter, farts in Absolom's face, and Absolom burns his nether regions with a branding iron. The characters in the two stories couldn't be more different from each other. They were intentionally placed at the extremes of humanity's bell curve. Those in the Knight's tale take themselves very seriously and are taken seriously by the Knight. The characters in Miller's story were constructed without dignity, and Miller tries not to give them any. The characters in the Knight's tale are bound by the laws of duty and chivalry, while those in the Miller's tale do not even respect the sacrament of marriage. In both stories two men compete for the attention of a woman. The women in the two stories are perfect for each other. Emelye, of the Knight's tale, is a pure maiden. Allison, of Miller's tale, is a married woman. Emelye showed no favor to either of her two knights, Palamon and Arcite, until the laws of courtly love permitted it. She gracefully accepted Arcite after he won her hand in a tournament and mourned his death, but lovingly married Palamon when "Duc" Theseus told her so. Allison allows herself to be seduced by one extramarital suitor early in the story, and first rebuffs, and then plays a practical joke on, the other. When Emelye marries, she loves her husband Palamon "So tenderly, / And he serves her so nobly, / That there was never a word between them / Of jealousy or any other vexation" (3103-6). Allison, on the other hand, makes a cuckold out of her husband and never shows any affection, sympathy, or respect..