Prologue to the Canterbury Tales

The Prioress:
 General Overview: Chaucer Introduces the Nun (Madam Eglantyne) as a character from
the French Romances. She even has a French name. She speaks French and is simple, coy, and
entertaining. She Spends enormous amount of time in perfecting her table manners. The nun
tends to appear herself as charitable, solicitous, sentimental, and tender hearted. She had couple
of pet dogs and used to feed them with roasted flesh, milk and fine bread and used to weep when
someone beats them if they misbehave. The Nun, possessor of true beauty, had a flawless attire
and wore a golden brooch which advertised proudly “Amor Vincit omnia” (Love conquers
everything).

 Comment: Chaucer introduces the Nun as a character from the French Romances and even
gives her a French name. This character is a gentle satire from Chaucer. Throughout the character
introduction Chaucer elaborately describes her table manners, attire, beauty etc. but there is no
mention of her religious activities because she has none. A Nun is supposed to be devoted to God
and prayers only, but this Nun spends enormous amount of time in perfecting her table manners
and her appearance. Despite of her desperate attempt to make herself appear as charitable and
tender-hearted her carelessness becomes apparent from her behaviour. She pretends to weep for
a mouse caught in a trap when in reality she does not care about such things. As a Nun it is her
duty to care about the helpless and troubled people, but she feeds her dogs roasted flesh, milk,
and fine white bread instead of feeding the hungry people. The nun wears costly jewellery among
them is a golden brooch that proudly announces, “Love conquers everything”. Thus, it becomes
apparent that this nun is more committed to attract men and get involved in relationship. This
character of Nun along with many other characters of the Prologue reveals much about the
corruption happening in the roman catholic church. It perfectly portrays how the church, and its
associates only pretends but are not concerned about people’s sufferings at all.

Wife of Bath:
 General Overview: Wife of Bath is a woman from the city of Bath. She earns her livelihood
by selling hand embroidered clothes. She is a skilled person in making clothes and her clothes are
said to be better than the clothes from well-known places like Ypres and Ghent. Unlike the Nun,
she is generous and charitable and donates a handsome amount. She is described as bold and
handsome and wore scarlet red pants. She was married five times and before that had many affairs
in her youth. She had gone to Jerusalem three times and travelled a lot too from Rome to Boulogne
and acquired a lot of practical knowledge.
 Comment: Wife of Bath stands out from the rest of the characters because the idea of an
independent woman earning her livelihood by some business and leading a self-sustained life all
by herself is very striking in the context of the society of that time. She, unlike the Nun who just
pretends to be kind and charitable, is actually charitable and donates a lot to the church. She is
also proud of herself and doesn’t tolerate if someone tries to front run her at the church. She
threatens to stop giving donation if someone dares so. Her physical appearance also bears her
carelessness attitude. She wore pants of scarlet red colour, a colour which was associated with
prostitutes or one with much sexual desire. Unlike the Nun who does or rather acts everything
just to appear perfect in the eye of other people, Bath doesn’t care about what other people think
about her. Bold, handsome are attributes generally used for describing a man. Use of such
adjectives for Bath indicates that she is no less than a man and does everything a man does from
earning her livelihood to enjoying her freedom. Besides a successful businesswoman, she is a
religious person too. She made the trip to Jerusalem three times when one visit is considered holy
enough in Christianity. She visited many places and wandered a lot from Rome to Boulogne and
acquired a lot of knowledge too. It can be said that she has the agency in her life, she controls her
life. This character in prologue reveals that a woman can be free when she is economically
independent. Her economic independency offers her the freedom to wear, freedom to marry,
freedom to travel, freedom of religious matters and above all the power to silence the patriarchal
society.