The Function of the Narrator in the General Prologue In the general prologue to The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer's character as narrator serves as our guide to the action. Chaucer narrates as if he himself is in the moment, meeting these pilgrims for the first time, and he makes the audience feel like he is there with them. At other times, however, Chaucer is a narrator who seems to know more than he should. For example, he tells us that when the Shipman wins a fight, he murders the loser by throwing him overboard, or that the Reeve steals from his master. Are these really stories that people would tell Chaucer when he first met him? Chaucer also seems to know a lot about the daily lives of each pilgrim. In these moments, Chaucer acts much more like an all-knowing or all-knowing narrator, rather than someone who is truly in the heat of the moment. The reason for this choice could be that verisimilitude, or making things seem like real life, was not as important to a medieval author as it is to authors today. Instead, the narrator might choose to tell what he wants in order to better serve the purposes of the characterization. The narrator makes it clear that he is also a character in his book. Chaucer creates an "alter ego", a pilgrim called "Geoffrey", who is the naive narrator of the pilgrimage story, commenting on his fellow pilgrims and providing the links that connect many of the tales. This further expands Chaucer's narrative possibilities, allowing him to open up another layer of opinion other than his own. In the General Prologue, the narrator presents himself as a gregarious and naive character. Later, the Host accuses him of being silent and sullen. Because the narrator writes... middle of paper ...... reveals his insecurities in the process while that itself tells us more about the popular culture of that era. Chaucer, along with many other pilgrims, attempts to place themselves in a socially desirable, even superior, position. Since the narrator has the responsibility to tell us the stories coherently, he might feel obligated to present himself as omniscient or superior to his companions rather than showing us an honest and unbiased point of view. After all, he is the one telling the story; the Narrator can ultimately choose to tell us what he wants. The Narrator plays the role of telling stories and providing the basis for this pilgrimage story, but because his ideas and opinions are crafted in such a particular way; it indirectly tells us much more not only about the pilgrimage but also about the culture of this period as a whole..