Chaucer's "General Prologue" to the Canterbury Tales explores portraits of twenty-eight of the thirty pilgrims, all of whom are taking part in a journey to the shrine of the martyr St. Thomas Becket in Canterbury. Pilgrims described briefly or in extensive detail include the following: the knight, the squire, the messenger, the prioress, the monk, the friar, the merchant, the clerk, the lawman, Franklin, the haberdasher, the carpenter , the dyer weaver, the tapestry weaver, the sailor cook, the doctor, Wife, Parson, Plowman, Miller, Manciple, Reeve, Summoner, Pardoner, Host, and the narrator himself. The characters in the General Prologue are fictitious characters, taking part in a fictitious settlement set up by Chaucer; it is therefore evident, as qualified by the text, that the narrator is also a fictitious character, distinct from the author. The narrator's portrait is set up differently than the portraits of the other characters. The portrait of the pilgrim narrator is located in the space formed by the separation of the narrator and the author. However, this separation is a literary device that Chaucer uses to create a separate identity for himself, a recurring theme in the other characters. By separating himself from the narrator, Chaucer allows the narrator's point of view and voice to mask his own voice. Chaucer comically and purposely creates a flawed and naive narrator not only to separate himself from the narrator, but also to try to diminish his own presence in the work. The allusion to an absent author seems to transform the work from fiction to nonfiction through the manipulation of the reader's perspective. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The separation between the narrator and the author is especially evident at the beginning of the prologue, lines 20-42. In line 25, “Of sondry fol, by aventure yfalle,” the idea is introduced that “chance” brought the narrator into contact with these other pilgrims who he will then continue to describe; that idea contradicts the idea that the author created this fictional apparatus to serve as an introductory story for the stories that follow. The narrator is sheltered, experiencing a world that exists under Chaucer's umbrella, a world in which the narrator is a character unaware of the circumstances the author has created. Ironically, the pilgrim narrator aims to “tell [the reader] to the condicioun,” even if all the “conditions” are not revealed to him. However, the narrator's tone is wary, exposing his innocence and naivety. Line 39, “…as it seemed to me,” and line 82, “…the chalks,” are examples of the narrator's uncertainty and assertion that what he describes is his personal opinion. This distrustful tone continues throughout the text, particularly in lines 154-157, 183, 193, 284, 288, 385, 389, and 454. The narrator's tone is a literary device that Chaucer uses both humorously and strategically to convince the reader of the author's intentions. absence.his deep adoration for animals instead of his devotion to religion and his respect for human life. The reader is informed that the narrator is describing each character from memory; consequently, the descriptions the narrator chooses to provide or omit are a reflection of his own prejudices. After speaking to each of the pilgrims (line 31) the narrator expresses a feeling of unity: "that I was of hir felaweeshipe anoon" (line 31) 32); that line emphasizes the gap between the narrator and the author while solidifying the narrator's alliance with the pilgrims. Furthermore, the narrator's act of speaking to all the pilgrims enough to describe them in such detail shows his gregarious nature. The text also portrays the.