CHAUCER--Social Realism/ Chronicler

Chaucer is the mouthpiece of his age. He discards conventions of dream and fantasy and realistically, without any exaggeration mirrors the social economic and religious conditions of his age. Other contemporary poets have also done so, but their portraits of the age are fragmentary. Chaucer expresses his age not in fragments, but as a whole. His chronicle of his age is complete, comprehensive and all inclusive. Chaucer expresses both the medieval and the Renaissance spirit of the time. He is as much a social chronicler of the England of his age as Froissart is that of France.
The very framework of his Canterbury Tales is realistic “Pilgrimages were very popular in the 14th century. They were often undertaken, as here, in groups, partly for the sake of society by the way and partly because of the dangers of the roads, and it must be admitted that their prevailing spirit was anything but devotional.” One of the most popular shrines was that of Thomas. Becket at Canterbury and in April groups of Pilgrims could be seen going in that direction. They laughed, talked and told merry tales, just in the manner of Chaucer’s pilgrims, His characters are individuals as well as types. Through them Chaucer gives us a realistic picture of men and manners of the England of his times. Legouis remarks, “His group of pilgrims constitutes a picture of the society of his times, which has no parallel in any country. Except for royalty and the great nobles, on the one hand, and the lowest ragamuffins on the other, two extremes unlikely to meet in the same company, he has painted in brief the whole English nation.”
Through his Knight, Chaucer reflects the fast vanishing chivalry of the middle ages. He is a typical knight of the times and has fought in fifteen-mortal battles in the service of his Lord and in the defense of his religion. In short, says Chaucer, he is a very perfect gentle knight. His tale, says Hudson, is in fact an idealized picture of the fast vanishing middle-ages, and is steeped in the atmosphere of Chivalry. His son, the Squire, represents the new and rising Chivalry of the age. He is a lover and a lusty bachelor and is all day lost in singing and flute playing. If he goes to a battle, it is only in the hope of standing in his lady's grace.
The 14th century witnessed the rise of a rich and prosperous merchant class. English trade was flourishing, merchants were earning huge profits, and consequently ill importance was rising in the life of the nation. For example, Chaucer's Merchant is conscious of his own importance. He typifies the well being of the class.
A merchant was ther with a forked berd,
In motteleye, and hye on horse he sat;
Chaucer’s carpenter, dyer, tapycer, etc., represent the new power these commoner’s were getting in those days. Each of them, says Chaucer, “seemed a fairy burgeys”, and their wives too, were conscious of their growing importance in the life of the nation.
In his Doctor of Physique, Chaucer gives as a realistic picture of the medicine man of his times. The science was primitive and was based on astrology. Chaucer’s doctor is also well-grounded in astrology and prescribes only when the stars are in the ascendancy. It was their primitive science which remained helpless in face of the Black Death.
The greatest evil of the age of Chaucer was the growing corruption in the Church. Says Hudson “The greater prelates heaped up wealth, and lived in goalless and worldly ways; the rank and file of the clergy was ignorant and careless: the mendicant friars were notorious for their greed and profligacy”. This fatty degeneration of the Churchmen of his times is realistically and vividly presented by Chaucer through his ecclesiastical characters. Chaucer took little interest in social or religious reform and never lashes out at the church like Wycliff or Langland. Yet the portrait which he draws of the pleasure-loving monk, the merry and wanton friar, that clever rogue, the pardoner, who wanders about selling indulgences and relics, show that he was live to the shocking corruption that existed in the Church of his times. There were only a few who like Chaucer's Parson. They were still honest and pure and performed their duties faithfully.
Though Chaucer holds the mirror to his times, yet his picture is incomplete in one respect. Hudson says in this connection, "The dark underside of his age is in no way reflected by Chaucer. He was not in any sense a poet of the people. He was a court poet who wrote for cultured readers and a refined society. The great vital issues of the day never inspired his verse”. He wrote of the court and the nobility who did not wish to be disturbed by painful reminders of plagues, famines and popular discontent. Moody and Lowett agree with Hudson when they write. “The Peasant’s Rebellion and the Lollard agitation give us glimpses of an England, which Chaucer, inspite of the many sidedness of his work, did not reveal. The Canterbury Tales contains few references to the plague, only one to the peasant uprising, only one to the Lollardy and these references are casual and jesting. Chaucer wrote for court and cultivated classes, to whom the suffering of the poor was a matter of the utmost indifference.” He speaks of the people as the stormy people, the “great rabblement” and considers it a folly to have trust in them. It is significant that his only mention of the Peasant’s Revolt is in the form of a humorous reference in the Nun’s Priest’s Tale. Though he was aware of the corruption in the church, he showed no interest in Wycliff’s ideas and the Reformation. On the whole he left the burning question of the day alone.
To conclude, we can say that Chaucer is a true representative, a fair critic, an impartial commentator and an objective interpreter of his age. He brings a vivid picture of his time before our eyes as if we were watching some documentary on our television screen. The Prologue to the Canterbury Tales speaks volumes for his art, and is a beautiful blend of tolerance, sympathy, humanism, impartiality and objectivity on one hand, and on the other hand it is absolutely free from any personal prejudice, ill-will and malice. It is said about Chaucer that he has few rivals and no superiors in English Literature.