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The Prioress

Sophia Iossa

Created on November 10, 2023

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Transcript

PRESENTATION

The Prioress

CANTERBURY Tales

Index

The nun of Monza of the Betrothed

Geoffrey Chaucer

Pag. I-II

Pag. XI-XII

Canterbury Tales-plot

Thanks

Pag. III-IV

Pag.XIII

The Prioress

Pag. V-XI

PRESENTATION

Goeffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales was written by Geoffrey Chaucer, who is considered the ‘father’ of English literature, because he was the first to write in the dialect spoken in London which became standard english.

PRESENTATION

Goeffrey Chaucer

Biography

Geoffrey Chaucer was born in London in 1340. He belonged to a rich family, therefore he lived in close contact with nobles. Then he travelled to France and Italy, where he discovered the works of many italians authors. His masterpiece, in fact, has a structure very similar to Boccaccio’s “Decameron”.

PRESENTATION

The Canterbury Tales

Structure

The poet meets 29 pilgrims on the way to a pilgrimage. They are going to visit the shrine of Thomas Becket. Each pilgrim was supposed to tell 2 stories on the way to Canterbury and 2 stories on the way back. Chaucer is invited to join the company. The stories were supposed to be 120 but the poem was never finished, so just 23 pilgrims told their stories.

PRESENTATION

The Canterbury Tales

Plot

In describing his characters the poet uses irony. The fact that Chaucer joins the pilgrimage gives credibility to his narrative. He introduces his characters without consideration of rank to say that the old feudal values are disappearing.

PRESENTATION

The Canterbury Tales

The Prioress

One of Chaucer’s pilgrims is the Prioress. Her biggest curse is "By Sant'Eligio!" and she is known as Mother Eglentyne. She is the head of a convent of nuns and she belongs to the upper class.

PRESENTATION

The Canterbury Tales

The Prioress

Therefore she is an aristocratic lady as we can see from her behavior at the table. In fact Chaucer underlines that she never let any piece of food fall from her lips; she always wipes her upper lip so well that not the slightest trace of grease can be seen in her cup when she has drunk and she doesn’t dip her fingers into the sauce.

PRESENTATION

The Canterbury Tales

The Prioress

She speaks French fluently and elegantly with a beautiful nasal accent as she learned at the Stratford-Atte-Bowe school.

Her physical appearance is described in every detail: she has an elegant nose, gray eyes, a small mouth and wide forehead.

PRESENTATION

The Canterbury Tales

The Prioress

Her way of dressing reveals that she was not indifferent to the fashion of her time. Her veil was gathered in a good way and her cloak was charming. She actually breaks the monastic rules which require nuns to cover their foreheads and sides of their faces but the description of the Prioress’ head reveals that it was not covered properly. She dresses in fine, expensive clothes, demonstrating again that she prioritizes her own appearance over her role.

PRESENTATION

The Canterbury Tales

The Prioress

Moreover she wore a coral bracelet with a golden brooch on which a quote from the Roman poet Virgil was engraved: "Amor vincit omnia”. This sentence is ambivalent since it could refer to divine love but it may also refer to worldly love. This broach is inappropriate for a prioress both because it's a show of wealth and because it references a pagan text concerned with romantic love.

PRESENTATION

The Canterbury Tales

The Prioress

In describing the Prioress, Chaucer hints at the corruption of the Church using a gentle irony. At first she seems to be all good feelings and tender heart, but then we understand that her charity is more directed to her own dogs than to poor people, who are supposed to be helped by the nuns. She used to give her dogs white bread and the finest meat which were far better food than most of the English populace ate.

PRESENTATION

The nun of Monza of the Betrothed

In Alessandro Manzoni's masterpiece, "The Betrothed'', there actually is a character that is really similar to the Prioress, the nun of Monza. Both these characters came from an aristocratic family and were forced to become nuns. In past centuries, in fact, rich people used to leave all the properties to the first-born son and force the other daughters to become nuns.

PRESENTATION

The nun of Monza of the Betrothed

Goeffrey Chaucer and Alessandro Manzoni

The two authors underline precisely this: the corruption of the church. Also, both these characters probably had a relationship with a man; in the case of the nun of Monza, Alessandro Manzoni describes their love story, but in the case of the Prioress, Chaucer just hints at a worldly love.

presentation

Thanks for the attention

Cutolo Dina, D’Aponte Rebecca, Iossa Sophia, Mungiello Alessia