The Prioress has an attractive smile but this should not have been the first thing about her to attract attention. These un-prioress like attributes persists and seemingly make her seem fake. Her other characteristics ,-such as her nasal singing , her French education , her eating habits, her courtly manners and her longing to be regarded as a fine lady , are all not associated with a Prioress. Chaucer mentions the motto on her brooch, “Love conquers all”, which refers to something other than it’s supposed to in her case. The Wife of Bath, in fact, conforms to the standard of popular medieval life: noisy and assertive. Her complexion, her deafness and her gapped teeth give her a personality few of the pilgrims have. She follows her feelings, which are unbridled and have taken her through five marriages and three pilgrimages.
The Wife of Bath’s impulses are as overwhelmingly physical as the hips which set her firmly on her horse or as the ten-pound cover chiefs which she wears on Sundays. The references to her hips, legss—none of which the Prioress appears to possess—and the admission that the Wife is “gap-toothed” emphasizes the physical nature of the woman. She has a passion for sovereignty and is always a potential record-breaker, in the number of marriages and love affairs. She knows the art and also the remedies of love. She boasts of no bad manners and has few social pretensions supposedly. However, the Prioress pays attentions on her appearance so much, that a nun usually has a simple outlook. However, for the Prioress, she wears green coral rosary which hung a lovely golden brooch, that opposed the expectation of simple lifestyle. "Her nose well-shaped; her eyes bright as glass; her mouth very small, and soft and red: and indeed she had a fine forehead." Chaucer described she is good looking and has a typically feminine face. Furthermore, she cares much on her status, "she spoke French well and properly after the school of Stafford-at-Blow- for the French of Paris was unknown to her".
The commonality lies among some of the things both ladies either don’t possess that they should or do that they shouldn’t. Both are doing what they may not do and avoiding what they should do. Both respect God and Saints but both do not care for their sayings. They are following their own emotions and their own thoughts.
The Prioress is the head of nun, who received lots of respect. She can sing the divine service well and also temperate in manner so much. "She too much pleasure in proper etiquette." She eats a morsel every time, ensure that no drop will fall on her breast. We can tell that she concerns much on how she behave. What make this nun so special is that, she has tender care toward animals more than to human. " She was so charitable and so full of pity that she would weep if she saw a mouse caught in a trap and dead or bleeding." The Prioress likes animals so much that she always feel pity on them. She was also very generous to animals, feed them with roast meat, or milk and fine bread which at that time are consider as a kind of luxury food. From this, we can conclude that the Prioress is wealthy enough to buy meat for animals. Whereas wife of bath is wealthy too. She has earned respect for herself by working hard and by leaving other traders far behind due to his art of making cloths. She is not only physically strong but mentally and emotionally too, she want to have control over her husbands.
The Prioress is foolishly sentimental, "She was so charitable and pitous / She wolde wepe, if that she saugh a mous /Knaught in a trappe." But all her sentiments are for animals only, she don’t cares for men as ordered by the God and Charist, The Wife of Bath is more lively, she can sit with other men and can talk and laugh, she cares only for herself.
“Hir hosen weren of fyn scarlet reed,
Ful streite yteyd, and shoes ful moyste and newe.
Boold was hir face, and fair, and reed of hewe.
She was a worthy womman al hir lyve:
Housbondes at chirche dore she hadde five” (459-462).
We can conclude that both women were "by no means under grown"; the Prioress having a "forehead... fair of spread" and the Wife of Bath with "large hips" and "a hat broad as is a buckler or a shield". Both represent their respective class finely. We can say that although the Prioress as well as the Wife of Bath both respects God, although the Wife does it on a much lesser degree but both are doing what they should not do and avoiding what they should do.