The Prioress and the Wife of Bath.

The Prioress also known as the Nun represents a proper and feminine woman of the medieval period.  Her dress attire consisted of a neat cloak, a pleated wimple, and a coral bracelet adorned with gold and the inscription "Love Conquers All."  She is elegant, careful, and above all worldly. She is described as “simple and coy” 119, and “in curteisye was set ful muchel hir lest” (line132) meaning that she places great significance in good manners.  She personifies the essence of grace that all women should posses or adapt to as well as gluttony and poise.  She is also very gentle as a woman should be, being able to “carye a morsel, and wel keepe” (line 130).   As a follower of the church, we are able to gather that she is well educated.  She attended the best schools at Stratford and London.  As seen in the above characteristics that Chaucer uses to compare the Prioress and the Wife of Bath, the one is pious, moral, and innocent, as well as proper, and beautiful while the other is a sinful harlot, blunt, boastful, and unsightly.  Chaucer does a great job in depicting these women as though they are from two different ends of the spectrum.  In using their physical attributes, behaviours and dress we see that their virtues, religion and moral beliefs were representative throughout their daily appearance.  Chaucer portrays the proper and moral way for a woman to act during the medieval period, by comparing the rude and crude to the modest and empathetic.  The poise, manners, behaviours, physical characteristics and stature is used to compare the Wife of Bath to the “perfect” Prioress.  Yet when we read between the lines, we find these two women have more in common than what is being stated.  For example, Chaucer points out the many religious pilgrimages the Wife of Bath has previously been on, ironically though, not for spiritual reasons, but in fact to participate in a social gathering and perhaps to meet a future husband.  The need for the Wife of Bath to have a husband does indicate that in some way she is conforming to the social standards that a woman cannot exist on her own.  Because she is not a member of the clergy, she is expected to marry.  We also find the religious calling of the Prioress and her motives for the pilgrimage are not necessary spiritual, but in fact, an avenue for her freedom from the jurisdiction of marriage through a position in the church.  This freedom allows single women who have no intentions of marriage to have social and economical lives of their own.  The pilgrimage is a way for her to establish her liberation, and also serves as a social gathering and an opportunity for economic advancement.

These portraits of both women tell the reader that late medieval society had standards and expectations, also limits, as to how women should act and present themselves.  The Prioress abides by the societal principles and presents herself in an acceptable and extremely proper manner. She does not seem defiant in any way, yet she is abusing her position as a nun in order to gain independence, furthermore, while people stave in the streets, she would rather seemingly feed her dogs “rosted flesh, or milk and wastelbreed” (line147) thus suggesting that her manners and charity are just a facade.  Finally, the Prioress and the Wife of Bath seem to be atypical in at least one way-the Prioress, though typical in her behaviour, is able to achieve nonconformity through her religious position, and the Wife, though she believes in marriage, has the opposite personality of the typical wife.  Both the Prioress and the Wife of Bath on the surface represent completely different values, expectations and morals, however as we have seen, both women share a common purpose as both strive for liberation and independence,  yet are tied to the same societal expectations.

Bibliography

Abrams, M.H., et al. The Norton Anthology of English Literature: Major Authors Edition. 7th ed., Volume A, New York: W, W, Norton & Co. Inc., 2001.