At times, he seems to pander to expectations of modesty, telling readers at the beginning that "my wit is short, you may well understand." On multiple occasions, he breaks the fourth wall, jokingly criticizing his own rhyming skills (through his characters, of course) or causing others to complain that there's no story they can tell that Chaucer hasn't already told. Before Miller's story, he apologizes for the crudeness of the story (giving the excuse that it is Miller who spews such shamelessness, not Chaucer himself), and asking his readers "not to take the game seriously" (I advise that perhaps its overly competitive pilgrims would do well to pay attention). Chaucer's moments of uncertainty arise in his tales as well as in his prologues, as when he inserts himself into the Knight's Tale after Arcite's death, saying that he cannot know where the souls of the deceased go when they leave the Earth. Chaucer's proud quest to transform previously foreign classics into informative English poetry is in many ways a quest to demonstrate the extent of his knowledge and skill, which makes it especially clear that he inserts himself into a tale to tell the reader that there is a gap in his knowledge. Perhaps Chaucer's ostentatious confusion with pagan theology is a subtle means by which he intends to distance himself from the non-Christian beliefs popularized within his pioneering work.