The Miller's Son
hero · human
The youngest of three. He inherits a cat, is renamed without being consulted, and spends the rest of the story being moved from place to place by an animal who tells him nothing.
What they are like
- Kind
- 8/10
- Brave
- 4/10
- Clever
- 4/10
- Honest
- 6/10
- Curious
- 6/10
- Patient
- 9/10
How we meet them
Standing in a mill yard holding the only part of his father's estate that nobody else wanted, doing the arithmetic out loud and not liking the answer.
Personality
Not stupid. Simply out of ideas, then out of his depth, then committed. His one talent, discovered on the afternoon he acquires it, is agreeing with whatever has just been said.
What they want
At first, dinner. Later, he would quite like somebody to tell him what is happening. Nobody ever does.
How they change
Goes from third of three with nothing to a marquis with a castle, without making a single decision of his own. The story is completely honest about this.
How they speak
Very little after the first page. He asks why once, is not told, and adopts agreement as a survival strategy for the rest of the day.
How the story treats them
The king thinks he is a marquis. The princess thinks he is handsome and badly informed. The cat does not appear to think about him at all, which does not stop the cat working entirely on his behalf.
One surprising thing
Perrault never gives him a name. He is the miller's son, and then he is the Marquis de Carabas, and there is nothing in between.
If they were real today
He would be the person whose business somehow succeeded, and who still cannot explain at parties what the business actually does.
Things they say
- “I shall eat you, and make mittens out of what is left.”
- “Why?”
- “No.”
Key moments
Mittens
He works out that his brothers have a business and he has a cat, and says out loud what he intends to do about it. The cat answers him, which he had not expected.
“I shall eat you, and make mittens out of what is left.”
Standing in a river
He is told to get into the water and say nothing. He asks why. He is told again to get into the water. He gets into the water.
“Why?”
Looking up at his castle
He gets down from the carriage in front of a castle that is now apparently his, and says nothing at all, having become extremely good at that.
“No.”
Who they know
The Catservant
An animal who does everything and explains nothing, and a young man who stops asking on the first morning and is rewarded with a castle for it.
The Princessromance
She looks at him twice. He agrees with everything anyone says. Somehow this turns out to be the most honest relationship in the story.
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