The Nun In The Canterbury Tales

    Chaucer's view of the clergy class is not as positive as his view of the ruling class.  For example, Chaucer describes the Prioress/Nun using a great amount of satire.  He speaks of how the nun has excellent etiquette and manners.  She tries so hard to be respected and viewed as one with higher status.  Her character is best described in the quote:

The Nun is not viewed in the same light, and as a result she wishes to gain the respect of others. The Nun is described as “a counterfeit of a courtly kind of grace” (Chaucer 148.143). The author views her as a fraud of courtliness because although she possesses a low position in society as a nun, she tries to act in a worldly fashion. Chaucer uses both of these pilgrims to contribute to the overall theme of one’s need to be liked by others by showing how the Nun goes out of her way to look sophisticated to gain others’ respect and fondness of her.

All through Canterbury Tales, women are dealt with as objects in everyday life. In the “Miller’s Tale,” an old man marries a younger, attractive women for her looks. In the “Wife of Bath’s Tale,” a virgin woman has her virginity and innocence taken from her by what is suppose to be a noble and honorable knight and when his punishment is later to marry an older, less attractive women, all respect for his newly wife vanishes. A woman’s level of recognition in Canterbury Tales are through her class in society, whether she is young and beautiful, or old and disgusting, and her degree of experience in life. Women are not desired for their intelligence, wisdom and capabilities which might of kept a relationship deceitful-free. The “Wife of

In the “General Prologue”, the Nun exposes the hypocrisy and manipulation of the Church through her actions. Nuns are supposed to devote their lives to Christianity while portraying a positive Christian figure. Chaucer describes the Nun’s actions toward being well mannered.

There are three women in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, the prioress, the wife of Bath and the prostitute in the Shipman’s Tale. The prioress and the wife of Bath are the only ones of the three that have a fully developed part of the overall work. They are equal to the male characterizations; the prostitute is only minor player. Women are rarely mentioned in the other pilgrim’s tales. The wife of Bath and the Prioress are examples of strong medieval women. As Chaucer depicts them, they are a departure from the typical sinful daughters of Eve with the exception of the prostitute. The wife Dame Alisoun, and the prioress are both pious, successful females but they are still under the domain of men. Chaucer’s women are still part of the patriarchal world of the late middle ages.

In Thousand and One Nights and Canterbury Tales, both women in the story are fighting to save their kingdom. In Thousand and One Nights, Shahrazad volunteered to stay with the king hoping to change his ways. In Canterbury Tales, the wife is standing up for the women in her kingdom and teaches the Knight a lesson. These women are very important in both stories because they step up to make a change in their kingdom.

In this time period, animals weren’t as treasured as they are today so this behavior from the nun is seen as odd. The nun displays many different traits of good manners, daintiness, and tender feelings, but are they really genuine? In the prologue, Chaucer gives many hints that the nun may not be exactly what she seems. For example, Chaucer mentioned she spoke French which was a very highly looked upon language at the time but “French in

While the Pardoner’s tale mainly focuses on a moral and the Wife of Bath’s tale focuses on entertainment, The Nun’s Priest manages to combine both into one tale. Because of this, the Nun’s Priest’s tale exceeds the others in terms of meeting the Host’s criteria. Wife of Bath’s tale lacks a solid moral and focuses mainly on entertaining the characters through the events of a woman and her many husbands. Pardoner’s tale lacks any entertaining content because of the morals the story is too concentrated on. The Host specifically says that he wants a tale both instructional and entertaining, which is exactly what the Nun’s Priest tale delivers. The Nun’s Priest wins because it can balance both a fun plot and a meaningful moral.

When you think of “religious” people who do you think of? Priests, Christians, any other religion, there is throughout the world… but, does anyone ever think about nuns? The Canterbury Tales is one that does not overlook nuns by any means. The Second Nun is one great example. Chaucer really gets into what she thinks is right and everything she believes in.

Despite all of this mockery from Chaucer at the prioress' expense, it is clear that there is no actual malice in the comments that are being passed. Chaucer does not comment too much on her work with the Church and with other people, he merely highlights the flaw of the prioress' vanity, a flaw that should not be present in a lady of the Church. This type of presentation if typical throughout the Canterbury Tales' general

In the 21st century, many women have been successful because of feminism. Women empowerment in our current time is a lot strong than in the Medieval period, but it is still weak. In “The Canterbury Tales” by Chaucer it represents strong feminist characters in, “The Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale”. The characters such as a Wife of Bath, an old hag, and also a Queen from “Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale,” play a feminist character in the male-dominated society during that time. Through these three characters, we see strong examples of feminism.

In Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, the prioress’s behavior can be interpreted as being part of the change occurring within religious institutions, which were changing to allow for freedom of thought and individual choice, as the nun does when she takes the liberty of customizing her fine garb by wearing it with beads and a gold brooch. The nun is one of the first characters to be given a name and as such is identified as being an individual, and not just seen as being a nun. The nun’s deviation from expected behavior and norms can thus be seen as a positive trait which Chaucer praises as women became more independent and redefined their own roles in society. Excessive understatement, negative imagery, and refined diction, however

       The characters introduced in the General Prologue of The Canterbury Tales each represent a stereotype of a kind of person that Chaucer would have been familiar with in 14th Century England. Each character is unique, yet embodies many physical and behavioral traits that would have been common for someone in their profession. In preparing the reader for the tales, Chaucer first sets the mood by providing an overall idea of the type of character who is telling the tale, then allows that character to introduce themselves through a personal prologue and finally, the pilgrim tells their tale. Through providing the reader with insight about the physical and personal traits of

In the Canterbury Tales the Host is the main person and the one who proposes the game the pilgrims will play on the trip. The Host is assumed to be a jolly fellow, large, bright eyes, and is in charge of the adventure the pilgrims were going on. The Host is explained to be a man who just wants to have fun and very serious. The Host often also tries to keep everyone happy, basically like a peace keeper. In the Canterbury Tales the host is not revealed but could be Chaucer, Harry Bailey, or other pilgrims.

The “General Prologue” provides us with no evidence as to the character of the Nun’s Priest. Only in the prologue to his tale do we finally get a glimpse of who he might be, albeit rather obtusely. As Harry Bailey rather disparagingly remarks: “Telle us swich thyng as may oure hertes glade./Be blithe, though thou ryde upon a jade” (p.235, ll2811-2812). I say this cautiously because much criticism has surrounded the supposed character of the Nun’s Priest, his role in the tale, and his relationship to the Canterbury Tales as a whole. One example, in my opinion, of an unsatisfactory reading is exemplified by Arthur Broes’s 1963 article “Chaucer’s Disgruntled Cleric: The Nun’s Priest’s Tale.” Broes argues that the Nun’s Priest is an “erudite