The object of this paper is to study the fluctuation of the narrative
point of view, or localization in the sketches of the Pilgrims in Chaucer's
"General Prologue", and then to account for the resulting paradox. Whereas
the compositional devices used in the text seem to inhibit any possible sense
of verisimilitude, the received critical tradition tends to recognize the
Pilgrims as highly realistic representatives of fourteenth-century life.