Suppression and silence in The Reeve's TaleComments such as "I pray to God that he nekke mote to-breke" quickly reveal that the verbal play of " quite” involves much more than a free meal for the prefect in “The Canterbury Tales” (I 3918). This excessive reaction, which captures the public's attention and makes them think, is characteristic of the ostensibly strange behavior of the prefect, prone to morose speeches followed by violent outbursts, while harboring malicious desires. Anger characterizes the prefect's dialogue and his story, which raises the question why. This appears to be a reaction to Miller's insults, but they are not extreme enough to cause such resentment. He apparently does not hesitate to express his bitterness, but he and his history are as much marked by repression as by expression. The silence resonates as loud as any noise in the prologue and the prefect's tale. The reader is as intrigued by his words as by their absence: his sudden sermon on death is matched only by the calm of two couples copulating in a small room of five people, none of whom is capable of hearing what he says. what others are doing. The reality is that the behavior of the prefect and the characters in his story is neither random nor inexplicable. The prefect is continually silenced by the other pilgrims and by himself, which is paralleled in his story, and in turn represses his emotions, which leads to even more explosive conduct.I. Characterization In order to appreciate Reeve's melancholic and serious temperament, it is necessary to compare him to the other characters, as Chaucer intended. The identities of the pilgrims are relative. They are characterized by their description in the General Prologue, but are only fully developed when compared to the pilgrim they "leave". Just as the Miller's personality is developed by his difference from the Knight, the Prefect is also developed by the Miller. Therefore, Robin's enjoyment of life shows how little Oswald receives. For example, Miller's tall figure and excessive alcohol consumption show his taste for small pleasures. The prefect, however, is "a sclendre colerik man" who controls his beard and hair (as opposed to the unruly strands that grow from a wart on the miller's nose) as manipulative as the accounts of the farm on which he works (I 587). The Miller mastered the bagpipes for entertainment in his spare time while the Reeve trained with more practical tools: "In his youth he had learned a good mystery: he was a good writer, a carpenter" (I 614).