Pages 106--115 focusing on Chaucer's use of humor
The wife of Bath has had five husbands and despite the failed marriages, she believes herself to be quite proficient in the matter of relationships. Chaucer gives her a humorous description and says she is an ugly woman where looks and personality are concerned yet men seem to like her, as she landed five husbands and multiple lovers when she was younger.
The miller's tale uses farce (a comic dramatic work using buffoonery and horseplay and typically including crude characterization and ludicrously improbable situations) as the main form of humor. He gives the miller a ridiculous and exaggerated description, saying that he is like an ox. He is described as being strong, and claims he can break down a door completely by running at it. He's also a thief.
The summoner is also given a funny and rather unattractive description. He has pimples and gross eyebrows and he's boisterous. He's a "kind" man who'd let any young man keep a whore for a year as long as he received a quart of wine, despite the fact that there's "no better fellow" than he. He seems easily persuaded by alcohol.
The pardoner likes to swindle people out of their money and doesn't feel bad, though he is very good at seeming like a person with morals. He would imitate someone who was a churchgoing person and yet he was the complete opposite. One of the reasons why he was happy to sing a church song was because he could easily get money from all of the people there.
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