The Prioress
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- Category: English
- Date Submitted: 11/25/2010 09:27 AM
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1.
The Prioress’s portrait from Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales
The Canterbury Tales is one of the most important work in English literature, since it popularized the English language instead of the Latin or French literary use in the 14th century.
As for the plot,it is quite simple,:.it is about a group of pilgrims who are on the way to the shrine of Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral. Each of them is a participiant of a story-telling contest.in order to receive a free dinner .
Because of the story-.telling motive, the Canterbury Tales bears the influence of Bocaccio’s Decameron.As it may the title suggest, the author, Geoffrey Chaucer focuces on the stories being told and not on the journey itself.
In addition to these, literary features,Geoffrey Chaucer’s(1343-1400) frame tale is a great summary of his contemporary society.,referring to that turbulant time of English history.The characters and the tales are used in order to descript an ironic and critical portrait of the society and particularly ,of the church at the time.The society was divided in three estates:those who work, those who fight and those who pray(the clergy).
According to this,many characters in the Tales are religious, represented the different views of the church in Chaucer’s England. The pilgrimage’s destination-the shrive of a saint-also has strong religious connotations.But it’s clear from Chaucer’s critical point of view that in the case of these seemingly godly persons, the outside does not alway match to the inside. The accurate description of the prioress seems to imply this religious hypocrisy.
The Prioress is the „woman of two faces”. If we read the General Prologue carefully, we can see that in her description , Chaucer implied many characteristics that support this duality. One of the most important element in the Prologue is her name "[S]he was cleped madame Eglentyne," as the englentine, a flower, was a common symbol for Mary...
The Prioress’s portrait from Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales
The Canterbury Tales is one of the most important work in English literature, since it popularized the English language instead of the Latin or French literary use in the 14th century.
As for the plot,it is quite simple,:.it is about a group of pilgrims who are on the way to the shrine of Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral. Each of them is a participiant of a story-telling contest.in order to receive a free dinner .
Because of the story-.telling motive, the Canterbury Tales bears the influence of Bocaccio’s Decameron.As it may the title suggest, the author, Geoffrey Chaucer focuces on the stories being told and not on the journey itself.
In addition to these, literary features,Geoffrey Chaucer’s(1343-1400) frame tale is a great summary of his contemporary society.,referring to that turbulant time of English history.The characters and the tales are used in order to descript an ironic and critical portrait of the society and particularly ,of the church at the time.The society was divided in three estates:those who work, those who fight and those who pray(the clergy).
According to this,many characters in the Tales are religious, represented the different views of the church in Chaucer’s England. The pilgrimage’s destination-the shrive of a saint-also has strong religious connotations.But it’s clear from Chaucer’s critical point of view that in the case of these seemingly godly persons, the outside does not alway match to the inside. The accurate description of the prioress seems to imply this religious hypocrisy.
The Prioress is the „woman of two faces”. If we read the General Prologue carefully, we can see that in her description , Chaucer implied many characteristics that support this duality. One of the most important element in the Prologue is her name "[S]he was cleped madame Eglentyne," as the englentine, a flower, was a common symbol for Mary...