General Prologue
Chaucer’s “General Prologue” functions as an introduction to The Canterbury Tales
The “General Prologue” functions as an introduction to The Canterbury Tales in its religious pilgrimage setting. Through the narrator, “Geoffrey Chaucer”, the story of the tale of the “sundry folk” on their way to Canterbury to visit Saint Thomas Becket’s shrine emerges. The prologue is set in April and starts with songs of praise for a month whose warm western wind and rains restore fertility and life of the inhabitants of the earth. As the narrator puts it, it is the abundance of life that leads people into pilgrimage just like those in England always visited the shrine of Thomas Beckett. The narrator joins in a group of other pilgrims and he takes a large part of the prologue to describe them. He describes their condition, array and social degree. He later makes a proposition for a contest in story-telling where each pilgrim would get a chance for telling two stories as they progress on the journey to Canterbury and another two as they come back from Canterbury. The best story having “the best sentence and moost solaas” (798) was to earn the teller a free meal.
In that way, the prologue establishes a frame for telling of the tales of Canterbury. The prologue produces the structure of the tales and introduces the storytellers and characters. The introduction is in order of rank according to the medieval social estates of the time being nobility, the clergy, commoners and the peasants. While there is realistic description of these characters, there is also a representation of their models and estates with, which there is comparison and contrast of others coming from similar estates. There is also an intimate link of the structure of the General Prologue with the style of narrating the tales. This is evident through the scrutiny of the voice of the narrator and his identity. With fierce debates taking sides on the issue with stiffer contests, that Geoffrey Chaucer is or is not the narrator and that it may be someone else. However, contemporary scholars maintain that a percentage of the narrator is actually Chaucer in person. This is contrary to the input of others who claim that the narrator is Geoffrey Chaucer’s literary creation just like the pilgrims within the tales (Morgan 481).
Chaucer avoids setting of social models but he acknowledges the theory through his apology for not using it to present the pilgrims. He is aware of the emergence of the middle class and that does not fit in traditional terms of, which he intends to describe the yeomen and merchants who cannot plough or pray. Straight from the beginning, Chaucer makes the announcement of his intention for describing the pilgrims. “I think it is reasonable to tell you of the condition of each of them, as it seem to me, and of their degree, also how they were dressed” (35-41). This just gives a start of the description for the Canterbury tales that he intends to tell. It is a preparation of the audience for identification with the characters and storytellers, who he intentionally wants the audience to believe, are different people. On coming to the end of making his description of the storytellers, he finalizes by saying, “Now I have accurately told you briefly of the estate, array and number of this company, and why they were assembled” (715-17).
The prologue is an introduction of the diversity of authorial voices present in the Canterbury tales by Geoffrey Chaucer. Chaucer has selectivity of class with a concentration on the middle class starter and careful avoidance of the top and lower strata as stated that he never “set folk in their degree” (744). This may reflect shifts in class structures and shows in the different classification of the pilgrims on the journey with Chaucer. He makes a long portrait of the Huberds as a jolly Friar in a caustic satire praising his corruption making him the social “beloved and familiar with franklins all over his area and with worthy women of the town” (215-17). Chaucer makes efforts of having audiences ready for the storytellers in the Canterbury tales through making a descriptive introduction of them.
The addition of the pilgrimage framework into the prologue gives the tales a framework for telling them in different class ranges. It gives an extra dimension for each tale through creating an attribution to each of them in a more or less distinct characteristic of pilgrimage. This creates little relationship between the tales and its fiction pilgrim fiction teller. That creates a chance for the narration of the tales without any interference without referring to the framework of the pilgrimage. However, the only exceptions are on the interruption of the telling of the Monk’s tale and the tale about Sir Thomas. Therefore, the prologue acted as an introductory link passages for the tales after, which the narrators assume their own roles for the tales (Shmoop).
After the general prologue, there follows the link passages of, which creates tension on some occasions and through intervention, there is restoration of order and the introduction of new tales. Two of the pilgrims, the Pardoner and the Wife of Bath have considerably detailed prologue giving them a significant development. They both have prologues of considerable significant length making then to be the subjects of their personal telling. The prologues have their roots in satiric tradition, but goes beyond that for the establishment of composite portrayal of dynamism in individuals through dramatic dialogue (Leff 472-479).
However, out of each of the pilgrimage framework, the question left hovering over each of the tales as they are told is whether they are the best. Chaucer invites the contest and expects the reader to make judgment of the tales, but consequently requires the reflection of the reader on the criteria there also raises the question regarding the purpose of the tales, whether they are for wisdom or pleasure and the values of the tales become related to life values. The intention of Chaucer is to lead the reader to the level where the ability of the fictional tale of telling the truth faces a challenge, though not in a radical denial (Lawall 5-255). Chaucer goes beyond his period in creating credible images of individual human subjects through the captivation of human sympathy to serve for the creation of the framework of the entire collection of the tales by his narrators. Between the manuscripts, there are minor textual differences through his creation of the portraits of narrators. Chaucer in his narration of the prologue is not identifiable with the Chaucer the author of the prologue. In his explanation, he detaches himself from the input of the narrators by saying that he is only acting as a reporter of what the pilgrims say without making any addition or elimination to their tales. He refers to himself as a faithful reporter who deserves no blame for any of the reports he makes or for the failure of ranking the people in appropriate social order. He professes his naivety and that is evidenced in his shallow description of the pilgrims.
In the presentation of the prologue, Chaucer makes an effort for maintaining the narrators of the tales for who they are without ranking them in any manner. His proposition of the story telling contest provides a framework for creation of a platform in, which there can be collection of so many stories through the tales of the pilgrims. In telling of the tales by the pilgrims, what follows is the efforts they make to give accounts of what they want their fellow pilgrims to know in a critical manner of the society. He is aware of the positions of the narrators and takes up his roles with adequate information regarding the pilgrims in preparation for his final position as the one to determine the winner of the contest.
Works Cited
Leff, Amanda M. “Lydgate Rewrites Chaucer: The General Prologue Revisited.” Chaucer Review 46.4 (2012): 472-479. Academic Search Complete. Web. 30 Nov. 2012.
Lawall, Sarah N. The Norton Anthology of Western Literature. New York: W.W. Norton. (2006): 5-255. Print.
Morgan G. The Universality Of The Portraits In The General Prologue To The Canterbury Tales. English Studies [serial online]. December 1977; 58(6):481. Available from: Academic Search Complete, Ipswich, MA. Accessed November 30, 2012.
Shmoop. The Canterbury Tales: General Prologue & Frame Story by Geoffrey Chaucer. Sunnyvale, Calif: Shmoop University, 2010. Internet resource.
