The Problematic Narrator

The choice of narrator is interesting in The Canterbury Tales, especially in the General Prologue.  The narrator seems to have strong opinions about the other characters that are a part of this pilgrimage to Canterbury, but it is slightly problematic because his point of view of them is the only one we, as readers, get.  I do not believe it would be a stretch of the imagination to say that the narrator is actually Chaucer himself.  In the introduction of the Norton Anthology to The Canterbury Tales, it says “His career brought him into contact with overlapping bourgeois and aristocratic social worlds without his being securely anchored in either”.  Chaucer had a fluidity of class that allowed him to interact with people of vastly different social standings.  During his lifetime, he met many people and I believe they influenced the various characters that accompany the narrator in The Canterbury Tales.  This makes the view point of the narrator a flawed one because the narrator can pick and choose what he wants the reader to know about each character.  Also, the narrator can make a character likeable or despicable with just a small description of said character.  For example, the description of the monk in lines 165 through 207.  The narrator gives the audience an interesting view point of the monk “For no cost wolde he spare/I sawgh his sleeves purfiled at the hand/With gris and that the fineste of the land/And for to festne his hood under his chin/He hadde of gold wrought a ful curious pin” (lines 192-196).  The narrator seems to paint the picture of an over indulgent monk who decorates himself with the finest grey fur and beautiful gold pins.  After reading the segment of the monk in the prologue, I already felt as if I did not like him because of the sarcastic, luxurious description the narrator gives.  It is quite possible that the narrator is not picking what to say and what not to say about the members of this peculiar fellowship, but it does need to be noted that our perspective is being shaped by someone who might have a biased opinion.