Scarica Comparison between “The Wife of Bath” and “The Prioress” e più Guide, Progetti e Ricerche in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! Comparison between “The Wife of Bath” and “The Prioress” ”The Wife of Bath” and “The Prioress” are both two parts of an important step, namely “The General Prologue” which belongs to a fundamental work for the British literature. They both describe two different female characters; from these descriptions lots of differences and similarities come out. As I previously said, they both describe two different female characters, but: why are they so important? How can we identify and delineate their personalities? What’s the point in introducing and describing these two women? There is plenty of evidence to suggest that Chaucer seeks, through the descriptions of these two strong women, to explain and to present some medieval social traits, underlining the role of the woman. In fact, not only does he describe their physical aspect and their personalities but he endeavours to intend further meanings. Comparing the two texts, we can observe, both the described-women are two self-sufficient women, their independence wants to highlight women’s resourcefulness and cunning which are limitless. This also hides a conception of superiority in life’s organisation which, still nowadays, refers to the women. On the other hand, even though they both are enterprising, their social position is completely-different; in fact, while the Wife of Bath is a seamstress, the Prioress is naturally an influential Church’s exponent. In relation to what I said in the previous paragraph, the Prioress was a high-clergy member. But, is she a religious woman? Does she respect all the Christian values? Actually, the Prioress is notably-attached to the earthly pleasures such as: -the food -the wealth -the flesh’s pleasures Values that in a way or in another contrast the Christian ones which are mostly-related to poverty and to the sacrifice in order to reach one day the eternal redemption. If we want to make a comparison, even the Wife of Bath has similar values but she has a totally different social position which “allows” her to do some things. In fact, since the Prioress belongs to the clergy she should not be supposed to focus on these shades of our lives. But in contrast with the major lines, she enjoys her life neglecting them. As a matter of fact, she is presumably into a relationship because she has a rosary with an A. graven on it and lower there is written “Amor vincit omnia” . Furthermore she loved to wear jewels, in fact she has a coral trinket on her arm. With the accurate explanation, Geoffrey Chaucer wanted to denunciate Church’s corruption emphasising his anticlericalism beliefs, he does it in the finest possible way with a soft-irony. He ironizes in the same way the Prioress’ love for the animals, which, in other words, represents the woman’s freedoms and her indifference to the Church’s rules.
