Wednesday, June 14, 2017

Can you give me some details regarding Chaucer's description of the Nun in "The General Prologue" to The Canterbury Tales?

The nun who captures the narrator's attention is the Prioress. As depicted, she comes across as far more worldly than religiously pious. For instance, we are told she is pleasant and easy to get along with and has manners that mimic courtly ways: courtly people, called courtiers, were often flatterers and not held in high regard. In other words, her manners come across as insincere. We also learn that her smile is "a very simple one and coy." Coy, especially, which means shy, suggests that she simpers and perhaps pretends to shyness when she smiles, as she otherwise does not seem timid. What her description conveys is a phony woman putting up a false front.
That she is very concerned with outward appearances is confirmed in the quote below. Chaucer's narrator does what is called "damning with faint praise." He focuses on praising her table manners, which in itself is a red flag: if the best you can find to talk about is someone's table manners, that is not a good sign. Further, her exaggerated pains to be dainty and outwardly spotlesss point to a concern with the petty and the superficial. Our portrait is of a woman overly concerned with image rather than interior, spiritual goodness, not perhaps what we would most like to see in a prioress:

Of table manners she had learnt it all,
For from her lips she'd let no morsel fall
Nor deeply in her sauce her fingers wet;
She'd lift her food so well she'd never get
A single drop or crumb upon her breast.


There are technically two nuns mentioned in "The General Prologue" to Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales. There's a main nun—more typically known as the Prioress—and another nun who travels with her. Since Chaucer spends a considerable amount of time describing the Prioress and basically no time telling us what the second nun is like, I'll assume you want to know more about the Prioress.
The Prioress is a pious, dainty, sweet woman with impeccable manners. Overall, Chaucer describes her as being sentimental and kind, and one senses she is a little removed from the harsh realities of life. The Prioress tells a story about a zealous young boy murdered for his Christian faith, so it's obvious the Prioress is an earnest Christian woman who holds her faith in the highest degree.
It's difficult to get an idea of what the second nun looks like, as Chaucer never really describes her. Since the second nun's tale is similar to the Prioress' tale (both deal with some kind of martyr), we can assume she is like the Prioress: sweet, sentimental, and pious. 
https://www.owleyes.org/text/canterbury-tales/read/the-prioress/root-218779-1

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