General Prologue

My favorite part of reading any book is always the characterization. I love stories that develop almost every character introduced, and the prospect of "nine and twenty in a compaignye" is fairly exciting to me (Chaucer 24.) I hope that all twenty nine characters in the pilgrimage are developed, although based on the prologue it seems some may be more so than others. The stories are also being told by one of the characters in the pilgrimage, so the development of each will be biased. I find this more interesting than third person omniscient, because I also get to know the story-teller in the process, based on what they value about each character they describe. The speaker withholds the names of each character from the reader in the prologue and instead titles them based on their profession or guild. This reminded me of tarot cards in a way because of the capitalization and how he went on to describe their qualities, including their attire and intentions, with some. I think the prologue will be useful as I read more of the book, so I can reference the initial description the speaker offered for each character. This is also my first time reading Old English out loud, but I have noticed that it helps me to understand the tone better if I read it to myself (without attempting to pronounce it correctly) at home also.

These are illustrations of each of the characters, and this especially, reminds me of tarot cards.
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/296322850463647559/?lp=true
Chaucer, Geoffrey. Penguin Books. Edited by Jill Mann, Penguin Books, 2005.