"The General Prologue" and the Prioress

Paper Summary:

This paper examines how, like all of Geoffrey Chaucer's "General Prologue", the passage about the Prioress is written in iambic pentameter form consisting of rhyming couplets. It discusses how the text introduces us to the Prioress and how it goes on to give a detailed account of her character with an emphasis on her physical description.

From the Paper:

"The passage tells us little of the Prioress's spirituality or of her understanding of her sacred vocation. Chaucer leads us to wonder about a woman whose conscience and charity work is depicted through concern for mice and dogs and whose interest in sacred ritual is the song not the substance, "Ful weel she soong the service dyvyne". However, her concern with emotion, tenderness and the diminutive could also be seen as part of the late fourteenth century shift in sensibility which led to the flowering of English mysticism - an emotional style in the arts and the ascendancy of the heart over the reason in religious matters. "

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• Analytical Essay # 57892 : "Women in Medieval Society"
• Analytical Essay # 5637 : "The Canterbury Tales" and "The General Prologue"

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