In The Canterbury Tales, the Miller was portrayed as man with a thick nose and a red beard, stocky, so strong, and he is very good at wrestling. The Miller is a dishonest villager who loves money. Chaucer showed us that the this man steals grain and charges thrice the amount and yet has a golden thumb:

“Wel koude he stelen corn and tollen thries;

And yet he hadde a thombe of gold, pardee.”

After searching for the meaning of “A miller with a thumb of a gold/golden thumb”, I found that it might have two meanings:

a. It means that the millers are generally known to be dishonest in weighing the flour, so they use their hands to cheat their customers to increase their profits, so it is ironically used to say: “There is no such thing as an honest miller”.

OR:

b. It means: An honest miller is blessed because of his honesty that he can be rich and make a lot of money from his work. However, what I understood from Chaucer’s words is that he clearly uses the common saying “An honest miller hath a golden thumb” to express the first, ironic meaning which indicates that the Miller’s golden thumb helps him to increase his own profits.

The miller is also a talkative and amusing person although (or maybe because!) he tells bawdy stories that are “sinful” and full of “bad” topics! His personality reminds me of salespersons who lie and talk a lot to please their clients.

The most interesting thing about this character is his name. Chaucer had probably called him “The Miller” because he wanted to use a name that can represent dishonesty and/or the low-class citizens at his time or the villager/filthy- mouthed people since mills are usually found in villages. The ones who work at mills are typically uneducated people, so this name helps the reader to guess what personality the Miller has.