Chaucers realism

Introduction
Chaucer sees what is and paints it as he sees it.

Chaucer is essentially a realist. He is the first poet who brought realism in

English Literature. As
His contemporaries has restricted their writings majorly to allegories for
kings and queens, and religious purposes. They tend to write in Latin and
French rather than their native language (English). It is Chaucer who has
brought realism in English literature by detaching the subject matter of
writing from serious, monotonous and exaggerated tone to comic, varying
and realistic display. Unlike his contemporaries he has made use of English
language in his writings which revive the language out of darkness. Others
tend to include few characters in their writings like kings, queens, knights,
farriers, etc. While Chaucer, as said by Dryden, here is Gods plenty in
Prologue to the Canterbury Tales. As he presents reality but the word is used
as a collective term for the devices that gives the effect of reality.
Thus Chaucer represents life in its nakedness.
What he has given is a direct transcription of daily life:
Chaucers principle objective of writing poetry is to portray men and women
truthfully without any exaggeration and to present an average picture of
humanity. He has painted life as he sees it and he sees it with so observant
eye that it seems that he is viewing events as well as characters through a
kaleidoscope.
What is realism?
Basically, realism in literature is the portraiture of people and description of
things as they really are, without too much attempt at idealizing them,
though idealization is necessary in creative art. So following this tradition,
Chaucer displayed the 14th century England.
Why Chaucer is a realist?
From the very boyhood, he has worked as a helper in his fathers pub where
he comes across people from every class and area of society. As he has been
gifted with the power of observation, there he noted eccentricities and wayward behaviours of customer. Later he works for royal families where he
serves them and observed the peculiarities of high class. Thus he has sharp
eye, retentive memory, the judgment to select and the capacity to expound
14th century life in the most realistic manner.

In The Prologue
The Prologue is not only a long poetical intro but a social history of 14th
century England. It presents almost all aspects of this age as well as of
people along with the detail of their appearance, sex, profession, attire and
conduct.
He has separated his work from the influence of French and Italian literature
and entered the abundance of his own self. He worked as a true philosopher,
interpreter or chronicler, in relating his stories in a realistic manner.

Realistic setting of Prologue to The Canterbury Tales

The setting of this work is highly realistic. A pilgrimage is one of the most
common sights seen in England at that time. To relate his stories to the
pilgrim, Chaucer gives the illusions, of not an imaginary world, but of the real
one .Unlike Boccaccio who in his tales quickly slips back to frank artificiality,
Chaucer consistently sticks to realistic approach in his work.

How Chaucer sees things?

Gifted with an acute power of observation Chaucer sees things as they are,
and he possesses the art of printing them as he sees them. He does not
project the tint of his likes and dislikes, views and prejudices on what he
paints.
Chaucer sees what is and paints it as he sees it.
In the portrayal of characters in The Prologue he gives us his minute and
delicate records of details in dress, behaviour, which makes it a mime of
observation as from the portrait of Prioress:
She leet no morsel from hir lippes falle,
Ne wette hir fyngres in hir sauce depe,
Wel koude she carie a morsel, and wel kepe
That no drope no fille upon hir brest.
In The Canterbury Tales Chaucer has blended laughter and tears, the
comic and tragic as is found in life with such case and grace, that his storytelling seems like a veracious picture of real life. Though his pilgrimage is
remote form our experience, yet we feel that this is what we might see if we
could turn the clock back few centuries.

Chaucer as a Realist:
Chaucer as a realist presents before us in The Canterbury Tales the pulsating
life of the common people. Chaucers pilgrims talk of their purse, their love
affairs or their private fends. Their vision is confirmed to the occurrences
within their parish. This is the typical vision of the common people which is
realistically presented by Chaucer in the Canterbury Tales.
Chaucers depiction of the Shipman represents the salient features of the
trade. The Merchant is another important figure who signifies the changed
conditions of Chaucerian society.
Chaucer has introduced a number of artificial elements, but he does it so
skillfully and artistically that the impression of realism he creates, makes us
forget them. He is devilishly sly, and deceives us as he should with the
most innocent air in the world.
In the words of Hazlitt:
There is not artificial, pompous display, but a strict parsimony of
the poets material like the rude simplicity of the age in which he
lived.
Realism comes to Chaucer very naturally, as it arise from his own
observation and worldly outlook; and interest in secular matters. As Hadow
observes:
Chaucer is no visionary, afraid to ace the facts of life, dwelling in a world of
beauty and De-light which has no counterpart on earth,but a poet who takes
no shame in human nature, whose eyes see so clearly that they are not
blinded by evil, who dares to say, with his Creator, that the world is good.

Chaucer is the first English poet to free poetry from the traditions of heroic
and alternative verse. He has brought a fresh wind into the mansion of
English poetry. He is realist in his language and style too. He exhibits for the
most part the nakedness of objects with little drapery thrown over it. His
metaphors are not for ornament but for use and like as possible to the things
themselves. Thus Chaucers The Prologue reveals the growing prosperity
and prominence of the commoners.

Chaucer's thought about the characters in Tales:

The pilgrims in the "Prologue" can be broadly divided into two groups,
namely religious and secular. This decision depends on their avocations
rather than their attitudes. There is high degree of realism in Chaucer's
portraiture of the men and women. The realism is indicative of the general
incompatibility between profession and practice, especially in respect of
ecclesiastical pilgrims.
Chaucer indicates the blurring of social distinctions in the way he marshals
his pilgrims. The religious and secular groups are posed between the distinct
groups. The dubious status of the ecclesiastical group consisting of the
Monk, Friar, the Nun, the Parson, the clerk of Oxford and the Summoner is
thrown into relief. The feudal group of the Knight and Squire drawn with
nostalgic respect was slowly passing into the past to the rising middle class
represented by yeomanry and the urban professional and merchant
classes.

On another plane, the rise of middle class ensuring greater economic

advancement also meant the ascendency of material values in life.
Consistent with spirit of the times, religion was practiced more as a
profession than a vocation calling for dedicated service. Observing this
tendency among the contemporary men of religion, Chaucer draws their
portraits with amusing irony.

Trade was carried on with a fair degree of sophistication possible then. Freed
from provinciality it contributed to the overall economic stability of England.

The English man's penchant for adventure encouraged him to carry on trade
with foreign countries and to import superior know-how from abroad which
however, he excelled in course of time. The wife of Bath is a case point. One
gathers from the prologue that the stability of English society owed a great
deal to the strong institutional set-up of the administration. The aberrant
clergy notwithstanding the church was a power to reckon with, and kept
engaged public faith in ritual practices and festivals associated with it.
Pilgrimage undertaken both as a holiday and as a penance is a case in point.
The Crown, the officials and the craft and merchant gilds guaranteed social
and economic security respectively. However, wanting in the performance,
the intentions of these institutions were unquestionably sound. The
assembly of the pilgrims presents the picture of a fraternity of men and
women linked by a common bond of sociability irrespective of their status in
society and their individual strength and weakness that kept the society
from disintegrating at a time of violent socio-economic changes.

Chaucer's view of common man:

Chaucer's portrayal of the common man too is worth noting. It is ironical
that the common man in Chaucer's England allowed to be exploited
ecclesiastical opportunities. The reason is not far to seek. The age that had
been stumblingly recovered from the shock of Black death was still
obsessed with idea of death. The reaction of the public to the promise of
absolution provided by Churchmen was divergent. The clergy is responsible
for initiating the laity into spiritual discipline had themselves been guilty of
sins of omission. The urban community that enjoyed freedom and social
security viewed these pseudo-religious practioners with distrust.

Conclusion
It would be quiet justifiable to call Chaucer as a realist o high rank because in
his Prologue we see the picture of 14th century England so clearly that it
makes us feel that we are looking at the history through the mirror of words.
Thus he has given every minute detail of all of the aspects of his society, so
perfectly and artistically that his work has driven out the English language
from the gloominess of the dark-age to a prominent status for which the title
The father of Modern English Poetry has been given to him.