Write a note on social realism in chaucer poetry?
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The British society in transition gave an impetus to the Englishman's intrinsic love of travel, fresh air, good fellowship, gossip, story telling and music. He sought an outlet for all these in the pilgrimages he undertook. According to him, pilgrims were united in their desire though not in their objectives. The expedition generally turned out to be a holiday outing with an air of carnival about it. These piligrims constituted a heterogeneous group of men and women drawn from different social classes pursuing different avocations. Maintaining a rigid distinction between one class and other had become a thing of the past. The vast canvas of prologue depicts the changing social system. The priest and the layman, the poet and the lawyer, the scholar and the artisan could get together on terms of near equality. It would be fairy easy to reconstruct the modes and values of social life from reading of the general prologue to the Canterbury tales with very near historical accuracy. In this prologue, Chaucer does not let go a single detail of dress or character that would add credence to the story recorded