Question

Which excerpt from the General Prolgue to the Canterbury Tales suggests that the narrator may be unreliable?

But now the time has come for me to tell
What passed among us, what was said and done
But first I beg you, not to put it down
To my ill-breeding if my speech be plain
You must repeat as nearly as you can
Each word, if that’s the task you’ve undertaken
You can’t hold back, even if he’s your brother:
Whatever word is used, you must use also.

Answer 1

The lines that most clearly signal unreliability are the apology and the instructions about repeating words:

- "But first I beg you, not to put it down / To my ill-breeding if my speech be plain"
- "You must repeat as nearly as you can / Each word ... Whatever word is used, you must use also."

Why: the narrator explicitly admits limits (plain speech, poor breeding) and asks readers not to blame him, and he insists on reproducing speech exactly — which points to reliance on hearsay and fallible memory. Those self‑disclaimers mark him as a subjective, potentially unreliable narrator rather than an omniscient, objective reporter.