Ans: Geoffrey Chaucer is a formidable literary figure before the Renaissance and the greatest name before Spenser and Shakespeare. Chaucer represents the middle ages as Alexander Pope represents the 18^th century and Tennyson represents the Victorian era.

Chaucer is the spokesman of his age. He discards the dream and fantasy. He mirrors the social, economic, and religious conditions of his age realistically without any exaggeration. He paints with great fidelity, the body, and soul of the society of his time. His poetry reflects the 14^th century not in fragments but as complete words.

Chaucer in his words such as “Troilus and Criseyde”, “The Canterbury Tales”, and “The Legend of Good Women”, has created some unforgettable characters and given a picture of his age. “The Prologue to the Canterbury Tales” gives a microcosm of English society. Chaucer presents the 14th century in “The Canterbury Tales”. It represents the social picture of his age. This work of Chaucer remains a great social document of 14^th century English life in verse.

Chaucer’s poetry reflects the chivalric spirit of medieval times. In fact, Chaucer did believe in medieval chivalry which stood for love, heroism, and religion. “The Canterbury Tales” and “Troilus and Criseyde”, his notable works are examples of medieval chivalry. Modern poetry is characterized by realism. The modern note of realism had been created by Chaucer in the 14^th century. He was a great observer of men and had an extraordinary insight into human nature. He is essentially a realist. Being a realist, Chaucer has the faculty of keen observation. He as a realist presents us in “The Canterbury Tales” the pulsating life of the common people.

In some of his tales, Chaucer realistically presents the political conditions of his times. He refers to the “Peasants’ Revolt”. He represents some of the new trends which were becoming evident in his own age. He also makes reference to the rise of traders and merchants during his times. The Merchant signifies the changed conditions of Chaucerian society.

During the Age of Chaucer, there was a serious outburst of unorthodoxy. Chaucer refers to the religious conditions of his times by creating ecclesiastical characters. He also throws light on the condition of women of his times in “The Canterbury Tales”. Chaucer represents faithfully the lower classes who were rising and began to create noise in the social life of the age. In the “Clerk’s Tales” Chaucer refers to the “stormy people”. They clamored for their rights and defied the authority of the landlord. Through various characters, Chaucer presented the interest that people of his started taking in classical writers like Petrarch, Boccaccio, and others.

In conclusion, we can say that Chaucer is a great representative English poet of the 14^th century or his age. In fact, his great work “The Canterbury Tales” alone bears out Chaucer’s power to observe and examine and represent the English society of the 14^th century.