Chaucer’s “General Prologue”, a chapter in The Canterbury Tales, focuses on the portraits of 28 pilgrims who are making a pilgrimage in Canterbury to see Saint Thomas Becket. These pilgrims are described either in passing or in more detail: the Knights, Yeomans, Prioress and Monks, Friarss, Monks, Friarss, Monks, Friarss, Friarss, Monks, Friarss, Friarss, Monks, Friarss. The General Prologue’s characters are fictional characters. They take part in a fictitious arrangement that Chaucer has set up. As such, the text makes it clear that the narrator too is a fictional character. The portrait of narrator looks different to the portraits of other characters. The space that is created by the separation of author and narrator allows for the pilgrim narrator to have his portrait. This separation is an literary device Chaucer uses for creating a distinct identity for him, a theme which is repeated in other characters. Chaucer makes it possible for the narrator’s voice and point-of-view to be masked by him by separating himself from Chaucer. Chaucer intentionally and comically creates an imperfect and naive character to help him separate from the narrator. The manipulating of the reader’s perspective seems to make the work fiction and nonfiction by the allusion to an unknown author. In the prologue’s opening lines, lines 20 through 42, it is clear that the author and the storyteller are separated. The prologue’s opening lines, lines 20-42, introduce the idea that “chance,” or “chance,” has brought the Narrator into contact and described them. This notion contradicts the idea the author created the fictional apparatus to provide an introduction to the stories to follow. The narrator is “sheltered” in Chaucer’s world, where he is unaware of the author’s circumstances. Ironically, though the “conditions” are not explained to the reader by the pilgrim Narrator, it is his intention “to telle [the reader] all”. The narrator’s voice is tense, and exposes his innocence and naivety. Line 39, “…so I thought it to me,” andline 82, “…i gotse,” show the narrator’s confidence and affirmation of his own opinion. The text continues this smug tone throughout, with lines 154-157 to 183, 193, 193, 284 and 288, 288, 385, 384, 389, and 454 to name a few. Chaucer uses the narrator’s tone to entertain and convince the reader that the author is absent.
Of eech, it seems to me.
The narrator gives an overview of his strategy for describing the pilgrims at lines 40 through 42. Once the narrator starts to describe each character, he tends not to include certain characteristics. While the biases of his narrator create a portrait about him, they also emphasize the distinction between the writer, the author, or the pilgrim narrator that is easily influenced both by his emotions and perceptions, while still retaining his memories. The narrator chose to concentrate on her eating habits and deep love of animals in the illustration of the Prioress rather than her religious devotion and respect for human life. The reader is advised that the narration is from memory and descriptions are an expression of the author’s biases. The narrator has spoken with all the pilgrims (line 31), and now he feels a unity. “That I was of hir felaweeshipe anion” (line32); this line emphasizes that the author and narrator are not in the same place, as it solidifies the narrator’s friendship with the pilgrims. The narrator’s willingness to speak to all the pilgrims and to give detailed descriptions of them shows his social nature. The text shows the narrator to be a positive person. Even when they are not in line with the values of pilgrims, the pilgrim narrator emphasizes them all. The narrator’s misconceptions and misinterpretations about the characters he has described are due to his negative character. The reader. According to the merchant’s description, the reader believes that the merchant is very inconsiderate and greedy. However, the narrator still believes that he is a good and “worthy” man. To describe other pilgrims such as Knight and Wife, the narrator uses “worthy”. The positive tone implies that every pilgrim character is the most outstanding of its kind. The positive description of each character in the narrative is honest and innocent. Even the narrator feels the need to mention, at the end, that any stories that follow will contain vulgar language, and he should not be held responsible. This demonstrates the narrator’s concern for others’ perceptions. He hopes other pilgrims will feel the same way. Chaucer deliberately portrays the narrator in a naive, but masterful, to enhance the irony of his poem and to keep the distinction between author and narrator clear. Chaucer leaves out the physical characteristics of the narrator so that the reader can form a portrait of him/her. The audience is limited to visual information and must rely on background knowledge. The text doesn’t mention the narrator’s sex but the majority of cases assume that the narrator, Chaucer or someone similar, is male. However, the narrator is portrayed as a young man by his insecurity. Chaucer shows the narrator’s youth and inexperience, in contrast with his legendary genius. Although the General Prologue’s opening is very familiar for its time, it also depicts spring. This adds to Chaucer’s youth-like quality and reflects the narrator’s positivity and youth. The reader can see the narrator as innocent because he views the characters he describes inconsequentially and honestly. Chaucer is therefore able to include significant irony without interrupting the narrative flow. The Canterbury Tales does not provide a precise description of the narrator. However, it is possible to build a portrait of him by looking at the entire text. This portrait can be derived from the split between author and narrator. Chaucer’s literaryly sophisticated, ironic, and naive Chaucer is the opposite of the young, positive, innocent narrator. Chaucer, who is a narrator and author, emphasizes this separation to make his work invisible. The apparent absence of Chaucer forces the reader’s perception of the work to be nonfiction, not fiction.
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