To be modern, is to be 'real' in the very sense of the word. Literary works prior to this were, mostly, reverential and avoided graphic realities as being too vulgar for the popular consumption by readers. However, Chaucer departs from this in that he depicts his various characters in his Canterbury Tales as real, flawed, gritty, and often bawdy, people. None of them experience transcendence and each has a pervailing individualism that defines the modern movement. Traditionally held virtues or ideas (Monk's Tale...among others) are challenged and an opposing view expressed. There is also a modern element such as the unreliable narrator....which most of the characters are.
