Chaucer's Realism

Fundamentally, in literature, realism is the portrayal of life with fidelity. It is not

concerned with imagination. Thus, it reveals truth about life. Literature reflects the tendencies of
the age in which it is produced. Like Pope and Tennyson Chaucer too represents his own age. He is
as truly the social chronicler of England in the late 14th century as Froissart is the political and
military chronicler of France during the same period. His poetry reflects fourteenth century not in
fragments but as a complete whole. Other poets of his age direct their gaze and attention to only
certain limited aspect of the time. For example, Wyclif shows us the surging wave of religious
reformation; Gower the fear produced in the wealthier class by the "Peasant Rising" and Langland
the corruption in the church and the religious order. Each of these authors throws light only on one
aspect of fourteenth century life. It is Chaucer's greatness that he directs his comprehensive gaze
not on one aspect only of his times, but on all its wide and variegated life.

"The Prologue to the Canterbury Tales" represents a cross-section of society. On

the one hand, stands the Knight, the highest in the social order, and on the other hand, is the
Ploughman, the lowest in the hierarchy. All the three sections of society i.e. The Knightly class, the
clergy and the working class are there.

The narrative frame work of The Prologue is a realistic device also in the sense
that it gives us a strong sense and feel of contemporary English workaday life. We come across the
real-life figures of the clergymen, the chivalrous Knight, the Yeoman leaping before us with his
"well-kept" gear, the Doctor of Physik parading his knowledge, the Man of Law looking "busier than
he was", the Wife of Bath brandishing her multicoloured scarves, the whole "Pageant of medieval
life leaving the Tabard Inn one fine April morning with the accompaniment of the Miller's playing on
the bagpipe."
The place and situation of the pilgrimage is also described in the realistic term. It
has often been claimed that Chaucer had real-life people as models for his pilgrims. Harry Balley, the
Host, is a real figure and one such person did own a Tabard Inn at Southwark. Chaucer sometimes
names a certain character, though not always, like the Friar being "Hubert", the Prioress as "Madam
Eglantine", even the Shipman's barge is named "Magdalene". The dresses, the colours and the
complexions and the individual habits and idiosyncrasies of the pilgrims are all real devices
employed by Chaucer to give the prologue a realistic touch.

Chaucer's poetry reflects the chivalric spirit of the medieval times. The fourteenth
century was still in the fascinating hold of chivalry and knighthood. In the Prologue to the
Canterbury Tales, Chaucer reflects the fading chivalry of the middle ages represented in the person
of the Knight, and the rising chivalry of his own times reflected in his son, a young Squire is hardly as
sober, sedate and prudent as was his father, the embodiment of the old world of chivalry. He is a
knight of revelry representing another kind of chivalry, the more luxurious and less idealistic. He
takes delight in singing and playing upon a flute.

"Well could he sit a horse and ride,

Make songs, joust and dance, draw and write."

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 Chaucer's Realism
In his Tales, Chaucer realistically presented the political conditions of his times.
He referred to the Peasant's Revolt, ___ where in bands of peasants turned out from villages,
plundering, looting, burning , killing the aristocracy of the age, ___ in The Clerk's Tale and in The
Nun's Priest's Tale. In Chaucer's presentation of the Carpenter, Dyer, Tapycer , Haberdasher, we
meet the new power that these commoners were getting or grabbing at the time. They were all
clad alike and each of them seemed a fair "burgeys".

"To sitten in a yeldehalle, on a deys".

The fourteenth century in England witnessed the rise of the rich and prosperous
merchants and tradesmen. Crafts and manufacturing activity flourished in his age and brought new
wealth to those, who persued these professions. As a result, the middle class people began to come
into prominence. Chaucer makes reference to the rise of traders and merchants during his times,
and his merchant is the type of merchants that were gradually coming into prominence.

"A merchant was there with a forked berd,

In motteleye, and hye on horse he sat;
upon his heed a flaundrysh bevere hat;
His boots clasped faire and fetisly."

Through the ecclesiastical characters Chaucer presents a picture of the condition

of the Church and her ministers in his age. The Church had then become a hotbed of profligacy,
corruption and rank materialism. The Monk, The Friar, The Summoner, The Pardoner and the
Prioress are all corrupt, pleasure-loving and materialistic in out-look. They forget their primary duty
of guiding and edifying the masses. The Monk is a fat, sporting fellow averse to study and penance.
The Friar is a jolly beggar who employs his tongue to carve out his living. The Prioress bothers more
about modish etiquette than austerity.

"And peyned hire to countrefete cheere

Of court, and been es'atlich of manere."

The Pardoner and the Summoner are depraved fellows. These characters fully signify the decadence
that had crept into the Church. The only exception is the "Poor Parson" apparently a follower of
Wyclif who revolted against the corruption of the Church.

Chaucer's portrait of the Doctor of Physic is fairly representative of the theory

and practice of medicine in his age. The knowledge of astronomy a was must for a physician as all
the physical ailments were supposed to be the consequence of the peculiar configurations of stars
and planets. That is why, the Doctor, too, was "grounded in astronomy". Chaucer gives a sly dig at
him for his free-loving propensities:

"For gold in Physik is a cordial

Therefore he lovede gold in special".

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 Chaucer's Realism

Through the character of the Clerk of Oxford Chaucer has presented the interest
that people of his age started taking in classical writers. The new learning began to be popular at the
time, as can be seen in the case of the Clerk of Oxford.
"For him was levere have at his beddes head,
Twenty books, clad in black or red,
Of Aristotle and his philosophy
Than robes rich or gay sautrie."

Chaucer has presented a faithful condition of women of his age. There was a
striking contrast in the attitude to women of the Church on one hand, and of the courtly poets on
the other. To the former, woman was the source of evil. It was she who, in the person of Eve, had
brought sin and death into the world. Thus she was a temptation and snare to be avoided .The
courtly poets, on the other hand, exalted woman to the position of a goddess ___ a prize to be won
by the knight who served her with devotion and loyalty. Chaucer's Squire belongs to this category:

"And born him wel, as of so litle space

In hope to stonden in his lady grace."

Chaucer presents faithfully the love for display and the extravagance in the upper
and lower classes of fourteenth century life. This love for display is shown in several characters of
The Prologue. The horse of the Knight was decked with finery. The Wife of Bath decked herself with
"kerchiefs and finery. The youthful Squire also put on fine and colourful dresses.

"Embroidered was he, as it were a mead

All full of fresh flowers white and red."

To conclude we can say that Chaucer's poetry mirrors, but does not on the whole
criticize, the society in which he lived. He was interested more in knowing then in improving men
and women. His realism is not literal. It is a blend of a twin arts of expert photography and
imaginative painting. Chaucer's purpose was to represent the wide sweep of English life by
gathering a motley company together and making each class of society tell about its traditions and
convictions. Thus, Chaucer was able to give us a picture of contemporary English life, its work and
play, its deeds and dreams, its fun and sympathy and hearty joy of living, such as no other single
work of literature ever equalled.

Topics:
i. Age of Chaucer ii. Realism iii. Characterization
iv. Humour v. Humanism vi. Medieval & Modern
vii. Attitude to Religion viii. Narrative Art/ Novelist.

Characters: Knight, Squire, Prioress, Wife of Bath, and Parson

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