Contradiction and Corruption in the Canterbury Tales

The individual anecdotes in Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales make a fundamental contribution to the satire and irony of the story, but one particularly sensitive account seems to bring the chronicle full circle. The Prioress's Tale appears to intrigue readers in ways that the other tales cannot; Chaucer expresses pathos, or appeal driven by emotion, through the character of the Prioress and her tale. The Prioress appears in the General Prologue as exceptionally sophisticated and mild mannered, but Chaucer intends to prove irony through the tale she discloses in which her callow and irresponsible manners are revealed. To fully understand the tale of the Prioress, one must wholly comprehend the dynamics of her character, the character's environment, the foundation of Chaucer's depiction of her, and the sardonic parable itself.

It was likely that during her time, the Prioress was the daughter of aristocrats who could not get her wedded; she was more concerned with acting courteous and softhearted than pious and devout to her order. In proving that her character was at odds, Chaucer dubs the Prioress "Madame Eglentyne," a name that symbolizes the Virgin Mary (Chaucer 121). Perhaps irony exists in her name because the Virgin Mary stood for everything amorous and gracious, and the Prioress was suffering an inner turmoil. Chaucer wildly exhibits the Prioress's attachment to animals and her paradoxical struggle for motherhood.

The Prioress is still regarded as one of the most controversial pilgrims in The Canterbury Tales; she was viewed as anti-Semitic and spiteful. She performs another stark display of irreverent behavior when she wears her veil "loosely" so that her forehead is exposed. Most pious women of her time would have worn their veils pinned tightly against their eyebrows, but the Prioress reveals hers as a symbol of excellent procreation. In addition to her tactless mannerismr, the Prioress was known for her jeweled rosary, her trendy outerwear, and her stunning brooch inscripted "Love conquers all." Poking fun at the Prioress, Chaucer proves that her rosary is an important connection between who she is and the role it plays in her tale; the Prioress "gives [the boy in her tale] the very colors of her green and coral beads to symbolize his chastity and martyrdom" (Condren 203).

During the middle ages when Chaucer wrote, the most tolerated and practiced religion was Roman Catholic. Chaucer was very concerned with his own personal religious views and that of the people around him. In order to satirize the church, he had to take a weak image and compare it to the behavior of the church at that time. The image Chaucer chose was a woman who was flawed, materialistic, and self-important; she was a leader of her order only because of the money and power of her family. His main objective of writing The Prioress's Tale was to demonstrate the discrepancies and imperfections within the church of his day and to bring about an awareness that would strike the people.

The Prioress's inconsistencies are further exposed when she relates her unmerciful story in the voice of a twelve-year-old to convey its innocence. The tragic story unfolds as a schoolboy learns a Latin hymn (Alma Redemptoris) about the Virgin Mary and sings it everyday as he walks through the poverty-stricken neighborhoods of the Jewish community. The Jews think the boy is mocking them, so they slice his throat. Miraculously, his widowed mother finds him in the fertilizer trench where he is still singing his hymn. He should have been dead, but the Virgin Mary laid a pearl upon his tongue so that he may sing; the Virgin Mary said, "My little child, soon I will come for thee, / When from thy tongue the little bead they take; / Be not afraid, thee I will not forsake" (Chaucer 304-306).

In finding connections between the character of the Prioress and her account, she most closely relates to the little boy in that she is immature. The Prioress proves to be unlike the Virgin Mary in that she is quite unmerciful, and it surfaces that she despises Jews. She herself asks for mercy at the end of her tale; she is ignorant to her plea and hypocritical to her prayer. She does not realize that by asking for mercy for Christmas and not Jews, that her hypocrisy will inescapably overcome her being. In retrospect, "the Prioress does not see that her prayer for mercy on 'us sinners' is inconsistent with this zeal for 'justice' against the Jews" (Ames 200). Chaucer uses the word 'mercy' three times in the last four lines to exhibit that he himself sees her as a superficial, caustic, and vile woman.

The Prioress is quite a captivating character in that her life is built on the themes of irony, hypocrisy, and ignorance. She is wedged between two appearances; the self that praises and values purity, placing emphasis on the virginity of the slain boy, which is contrasted by her own lust for blood and vengeance. Her story is a tragic one with lessons of love; "[the Prioress's] tale reads like an unhappy chapter in the history of thirteenth century England, seen through the eyes of a sentimental, pious, and bigoted woman; and that may be as Chaucer meant us to read it" (Ames 198).

Her tale is full of imagery that illustrates her yearning to venture towards "[the Virgin] Mary's virtuous world of childlike spiritual perfection," yet the infantile imagery also connects the reader with the Prioress's desire for a womanhood that she cannot have (Condren 200). She was placed in a life that was not satisfying to her lifestyle and longing. The fact that she cannot have what she wants makes her one of the most relatable characters within The Canterbury Tales, but perhaps one of the most heartbreaking. Although I cannot share her anti-Semitic values or her undying need to use violence within her tale, I can connect to her unrelenting feeling to be close to naivety and innocence. The true story here is the struggle in the midst of who she is, who she wants to be, and who she has to be. Chaucer relates her internal strife through her spirituality, her materialism, and her ominous tale.