Prioress And The Wife Of Bath

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The Canterbury Tales written by Geoffrey Chaucer is one of the greatest works of English of the late fourteenth century. This book describes a pilgrimage of 30 people, who are going to the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral. Among the 30 pilgrims, there are two significant characters who offer us inspiration about the medieval society, and they are the Prioress and the Wife of Bath. Through analyzing their character's differences and similarities, we are able to see the insight of the society at that time. The Prioress is the head of nun, who received lots of respect. She can sing the divine service well and also temperate in manner so much. "She too much pleasure in proper etiquette." She eats a morsel every time, ensure that no drop will fall on her breast. We can tell that she concerns much on how she behave. What make this nun so special is that, she has tender care toward animals more than to human. " She was so charitable and so full of pity that she would weep if she saw a mouse caught in a trap and dead or bleeding." The Prioress likes animals so much that she always feel pity on them. She was also very generous to animals, feed them with roast meat, or milk and fine bread which at that time are consider as a kind of luxury food. From this, we can conclude that the Prioress is wealthy enough to buy meat for animals.The Prioress pay attentions on her appearance so much, that a nun usually has a simple outlook. However, for the Prioress, she wears green coral rosary which hung a lovely golden brooch, that opposed the expectation of simple lifestyle. "Her nose well-shaped; her eyes bright as glass; her mouth very small, and soft and red: and indeed she had a fine forehead." Chaucer described she is good looking and has a typically feminine face. Furthermore, she cares much on her status, "she spoke French well and properly after the

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