General ProLONG

MAN, these descriptions are so long, it's hard to get through them without looking for patterns. As a psychology major, the first thing I notice about The General Prologue is that the pilgrims are described from the perspective of only one person: the speaker, and we know the speaker is actually on the pilgrimage with them, experiencing each person from his distinct perspective, rather than from the usual, omniscient cloud. The speaker even emphasizes his bias in lines 37 to 39 when he says, “Me thinketh it accordant to resoun / To telle yow al the condicioun / Of ech of hem, so as it semed me….” Every description to follow entails some mixture of physical and/or personality observations made by the speaker. Opinions seem thematic when we realize the tales to come are told with the goal of being chosen as “the best story” by only one person: the host, and we know that choice is totally opinion-based. I think Chaucer is brilliant for setting up this collection of stories this way because it emphasizes a timeless variation among people in general and gives each reader a chance to choose a favorite tale.

Such Opinion by Giphy