Beginning of Essay
? The narrator in The Canterbury Tales is an enigma. He turns his searching gaze on everyone on the pilgrimage except himself, finishing up in a rush with "Ther was also a Reve, and a Millere, A Somnour, and a Pardoner also, A Maunciple, and myself -- ther were na ....

Middle of Essay
.... to hear what he has to say because he asks them if they want to listen to his tale. Besides being a poet who both recites his work and writes it down, the narrator is also a pilgrim. He says it clearly: "in that seson on a day, In Southwerk at the Tabard as I lay Redy to wenden on my pilgrymage" (1). But the fact that he is a pilgrim gives no clue to what he does in real life; beggars and kings alike could be pilgrims. So we know the narrator not by his vocation, but by his avocations: writer and pilgrim. Why not short-circuit this elaborate search for textual clues as to what the narrator does, and just equate him with Chaucer? After all, the nar ....