In The Canterbury Tales, the two female characters are The Prioress and The Wife of Bath, who would have belonged to the First The Canterbury Tales and mercantile classes, respectively.
- Nobility/Ruling Class – Knight and Squire.
- Clergy – Monk, Friar, Prioress, Parson, Summoner, Pardoner.
- Middle Class – Merchant, Doctor, Student, Wife of Bath.
- Peasants – Miller, Plowman, Skipper.
- Physical Characteristics, Clothing, and Accessories.
- Words, Experiences, and Personality Traits.
How is the Prioress described in Canterbury Tales?
She is a large woman with small features who dresses expensively and tends to cry when a small animal is hurt, yet is willing to feed small animals to her dogs. The Prioress is traveling with a nun and two priests, but even though she is supposedly a woman of faith, her story serves as evidence of her anti-Semitism.
The clergy has its own ranking system within. Bishops being the highest and the wealthiest who would be considered noble followed by the priest, monks, then Nuns who would be considered in any class above peasants and serfs.
What kind of character is the Prioress?
She is selfless, amiable, and is described as being so delicate that she almost seems fragile and breakable. However, she is revealed to be quite coy and secretive. She is nearly the opposite of what a nun was expected to be.
Who is middle class in Canterbury Tales?
And Chaucer’s interest in middle class characters, such as a cook, carpenter, miller, lawyer, merchant, clerk, physician reflects the rise of the middle class in the fourteenth century (Collin 1).
What is prioress devoted?
The Prioress is a devoted and meek Christian lady (at least as she understands herself), and she begins by offering a prayer to Christ and especially to the Virgin Mary, the gist of which is that, because the Prioress is herself like a child, the Virgin must help her with this story in her honor.
What does prioress symbolize?
The Prioress is the head nun for her church, and she went on the pilgrimage to spread the word of God with the nun and 3 priests that she travelled with. Though she is a stereotype that represents the virtues and ideals of a nun, the Prioress represents a coutly lady rather than a superior nun.
What is the irony about the Prioress?
For example, the Prioress is a nun who should be pious and help the poor, yet she is dressed in fine clothing and jewelry and wishes to be praised for her manners instead of her deeds.
What is the purpose of a prioress?
The head of a group of nuns is a prioress. Geoffrey Chaucer immortalized this figure by including The Prioress’s Tale as one of his 14th-century Canterbury Tales. In the hierarchy of religious figures at a Carmelite or Dominican monastery, a group of nuns is lead by a prioress, whose superior is called an abbess.
Are nuns asexual?
They might be considered asexual by contemporary definitions of things. However, nuns, monks, priests and others who make a promise or vow of perpetual sexual abstinence are not necessarily asexual human beings.
What is the highest rank for a nun?
A nun who is elected to head her religious house is termed an abbess if the house is an abbey, a prioress if it is a monastery, or more generically may be referred to as “Mother Superior” and styled “Reverend Mother”.
Is a nun higher than a sister?
In ordinary conversation, the terms “nun” and “sister” are used interchangeably. Both nuns and sisters are addressed as “Sister.” In popular culture, the term “nun” is often more widely accessible and immediately understood to refer to women who have professed the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience.
Is prioress a nun?
The Prioress, a type of nun, is the leader of an order of nuns and a member of the Church. However, her mannerisms and clothing suggest a woman of a high social class and a wealthy background.
What is the Prioress most concerned with?
Although the Prioress should be devoted to Christ, she is more concerned with worldly matters: her clothes are richly bedecked, and her coral rosary that says “Love conquers all” serves as a decorative piece rather than a religious article.
Why does the Prioress try so hard to appear more sophisticated than she is?
The Prioress is trying to act as if she were in a higher social stature than she really is. Her attempts to pretend she is something that she is not is Chaucer’s way to show her shallowness (and his degrading view towards women in general).
serf
The reeve, named Oswald in the text, is the manager of a large estate who reaped incredible profits for his master and himself. He is described in the Tales as skinny and bad-tempered and old; his hair is closely cropped reflecting his social status as a serf.
working class man
The Skipper (or Shipman) in The Canterbury Tales stands out as a character because he is a straight-forward, working class man who lacks the hypocrisy of many other characters who have more wealth and status.
Which three classes has been represented in The Canterbury Tales?
During medieval times and in Canterbury tales, the social classes are royalty, nobility, clergy, merchants, and skilled artisans, and peasantry.
What is the original name of the Prioress?
Madame Eglantine
The General Prologue names the prioress as Madame Eglantine, and describes her impeccable table manners and soft-hearted ways. Her portrait suggests she is likely in religious life as a means of social advancement, given her aristocratic manners and mispronounced French.
What is the Prioress tale based on?
The tale is based on an anti-Semitic legend of unknown origin that was popular among medieval Christians. The Prioress describes how a widow’s devout young son is abducted by Jews, who are supposedly prompted by Satan to murder the child to stop him from singing the hymn “O Alma redemptoris” to the Virgin Mary.