General Prologue Canterbury Tales Essay Sample
The storyteller opens the General Prologue with a description of the return of spring. He describes the April rains. the burgeoning flowers and foliages. and the chirping birds. Around this clip of twelvemonth. the storyteller says. people begin to experience the desire to travel on a pilgrim’s journey. Many devout English pilgrims set off to see shrines in distant sanctum lands. but even more choose to go to Canterbury to see the relics of Saint Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral. where they thank the sufferer for holding helped them when they were in demand. The storyteller tells us that as he prepared to travel on such a pilgrim’s journey. remaining at a tap house in Southwark called the Tabard Inn. a great company of 29 travellers entered. The travellers were a diverse group who. like the storyteller. were on their manner to Canterbury. They merrily agreed to allow him fall in them. That dark. the group slept at the Tabard. and woke up early the following forenoon to put off on their journey. Before go oning the narrative. the storyteller declares his purpose to list and depict each of the members of the group. Analysis
The supplication of spring with which the General Prologue begins is drawn-out and formal compared to the linguistic communication of the remainder of the Prologue. The first lines situate the narrative in a peculiar clip and topographic point. but the talker does this in cosmic and cyclical footings. observing the verve and profusion of spring. This attack gives the gap lines a dreamy. timeless. unfocussed quality. and it is hence surprising when the storyteller reveals that he’s traveling to depict a pilgrim’s journey that he himself took instead than stating a love narrative. A pilgrim’s journey is a spiritual journey undertaken for repentance and grace. As pilgrim’s journeies went. Canterbury was non a really hard finish for an English individual to make. It was. hence. really popular in fourteenth-century England. as the storyteller references. Pilgrims traveled to see the remains of Saint Thomas Becket. archbishop of Canterbury. who was murdered in 1170 by knights of King Henry II. Soon after his decease. he became the most popular saint in England. The pilgrim’s journey in The Canterbury Tales should non be thought of as an wholly grave juncture. because it besides offered the pilgrims an chance to abandon work and take a holiday.
In line 20. the storyteller abandons his unfocussed. omniscient point of position. placing himself as an existent individual for the first clip by infixing the first person—“I”—as he relates how he met the group of pilgrims while remaining at the Tabard Inn. He emphasizes that this group. which he encountered by accident. was itself formed rather by opportunity ( 25–26 ) . He so shifts into the first-person plural. mentioning to the pilgrims as “we” get downing in line 29. asseverating his position as a member of the group.
The storyteller ends the introductory part of his prologue by observing that he has “tyme and space” to state his narration. His remarks underscore the fact that he is composing some clip after the events of his narrative. and that he is depicting the characters from memory. He has spoken and met with these people. but he has waited a certain length of clip before sitting down and depicting them. His purpose to depict each pilgrim as he or she seemed to him is besides of import. for it emphasizes that his descriptions are non merely capable to his memory but are besides shaped by his single perceptual experiences and sentiments sing each of the characters. He places himself as a go-between between two groups: the group of pilgrims. of which he was a member. and us. the audience. whom the storyteller explicitly addresses as “you” in lines 34 and 38.
On the other manus. the narrator’s declaration that he will state us about the “condicioun. ” “degree. ” and “array” ( frock ) of each of the pilgrims suggests that his portrayals will be based on nonsubjective facts every bit good as his ain sentiments. He spends considerable clip qualifying the group members harmonizing to their societal places. The pilgrims represent a diverse cross subdivision of fourteenth-century English society. Medieval societal theory divided society into three wide categories. called “estates” : the armed forces. the clergy. and the temporalty. ( The aristocracy. non represented in the General Prologue. traditionally derives its rubric and privileges from military responsibilities and service. so it is considered portion of the military estate. ) In the portrayals that we will see in the remainder of the General Prologue. the Knight and Squire represent the military estate.
The clergy is represented by the Prioress ( and her nun and three priests ) . the Monk. the Friar. and the Parson. The other characters. from the affluent Franklin to the hapless Plowman. are the members of the temporalty. These lay characters can be farther subdivided into landholders ( the Franklin ) . professionals ( the Clerk. the Man of Law. the Guildsmen. the Doctor. and the Shipman ) . labourers ( the Cook and the Plowman ) . stewards ( the Miller. the Manciple. and the Reeve ) . and church officers ( the Summoner and the Pardoner ) . As we will see. Chaucer’s descriptions of the assorted characters and their societal functions reveal the influence of the mediaeval genre of estates satire.
