The
Father of English Poetry Strayed away from the epics of his time such as Beowulf, The Iliad, and Bede's A
History of the English
Church Canterbury
In the Canterbury Tales, Chaucer uses a first person point of view to
narrate the poem. This in fact causes the reader to question whether to accept
his opinions or not. This is due to
Chaucer's tone. He satirizes the stereotype of each character making the
narrator immensely naive, as he stated himself that he was naive. Although the
narrator may be unreliable, the use of a first person point of view allows the
reader
to get more involved with the characters and to create a vivid image of
all the different characters. Where
as the epic Beowulf is told from the
third person. By telling the story from the third person it condones the author
to go really in depth to each aspect of the characters. This goes for Homer's Iliad as
well.
Another
aspect Chaucer incorporates into The
Canterbury Tales to separate himself from the traditional epic poems is
that there is essentially no heroic character. In the epic Beowulf the author perceives Beowulf to be just short of a God.
Going about his day killing monstrosities through out Europe .
Not only does he save the day, but he is also perceived to be humble. Creating
a perfect leader in the eyes of the beholder. The purpose to glorifying Beowulf
is to create a role model for people to look up to. Chaucer, on the other hand
uses his characters to show his understanding of the society in which he lives
in. This is shown through a series of characters and how each one interacts and
tolerates one another.
Chaucer's
techniques are very distinguishable because he was the first to write an epic
in Middle English. Making the epic poem much more understandable then the Old
English epic poem, Beowulf. In the Canterbury Tales Chaucer creates a whole
new technique in his writing style through the use of purpose and tone, letting
him stray away from traditional epics.
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