Analisi ''The wife of bath'' e ''The Prioress'' dal Canterbury Tales di Chaucer, Appunti di Inglese

Scarica Analisi ''The wife of bath'' e ''The Prioress'' dal Canterbury Tales di Chaucer e più Appunti in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! The prioress and the comparison with the Wife of Bath The Wife of Bath and the Prioress are two female characters that Chaucer meets on the road of the pilgrimage. These two women are different for many aspects, but also have some similar peculiarities. At first, regarding the Prioress, she is a coy and reserved person (Chaucer describe this by her way of smiling), instead, the Wife of Bath, is a very outgoing and self-confident person, interested in socializing. The aspect of elegance is different too: for the Wife of Bath we talk about elegance in clothes, in fact she wears very high quality clothes and is very keen on self-care. Otherwise, the Prioress present an elegance in attitudes: for example, during meals, she follows strict rules of good manners (…she not dripped her fingers in the sauce too deep…; …she would wipe her upper lip so clean that not a trace of grease was to be seen), but this manners are not so natural for her, they’re like a forced way of being well-mannered, as she belong to the high clergy. But they’re both interested in fashionable: in fact the Prioress usually cut her hair short showing her front (which was a standard of beauty at that time). Both women have some skills: the Wife of Bath is able in making clothes, riding and socialising, and the Prioress can speak French very well and sing too. But also aesthetic characteristics are different: The Prioress is described as a very beautiful woman (… her nose was elegant, her eyes glass-grey; her mouth was very small, soft and red…); by contrast, even if she is sexual attractive, the Wife of Bath report some physical flows, like gap-teeth. The point of love is a common thing, even if we have a different kind of love between the two women: on one hand, the Prioress manage a ‘’general’’ love; on her bracelet as a ‘’rosary’’ (jewels were not granted form the Church), is written: ‘’Amor vincit omnia’’ (‘’love conquers all’’, not linked to God) testimony of the fact that she didn’t become Prioress because of a vocation, but because she wanted to be respected and access to an important position; that’s the same for the Wife of Bath, who goes to pilgrimage not because she is pious, but because she want to show her strong personality to everyone. Also love for the Wife of Bath is more fleshy, as she had five husbands and many other lovers. In addition, love for the prioress is reserved in particular to animals (…she used to weep if she but saw a mouse caught in a trap, if it were dead or bleeding), and not to people, even if they are poor and needy. Moreover, the personality of the Wife of Bath is clear, very direct and leaves no doubt; instead the Prioress is described as ambiguous character, indeed, even if she is a Prioress, so belong to high clergy, her coy behaviour makes her seem a contradictory character.