The Disabling Qualities of The Prioress in Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales

This semester my Middle English Literature class explored several texts looking specifically at gender, disability, and religion in the texts and identifying the links between them. While I had read some of the texts in the past, this new perspective allowed for a fresh read and new insight into these works. One of the texts, Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, explores the intentions of several religious figures through the implications of the tales they tell on their pilgrimage.

My term paper for this class looked closely at the Prioress' introduction in the General Prologue and the implications of her tale. Through my discussion I examined the possibility that the Prioress is not a good Christian woman and that she disables those around her with her inability to look past her own self. This is implied as early as the General Prologue with the physical descriptions of the Prioress. Thomas Farrell discusses this in his article “The Prioress’s Fair Forehead” in which he seeks to understand Chaucer’s attention to the Prioress’ physical description, specifically her forehead: “But sikerly she hadde a fair foreheed-/It was almost a spanne brood, I trowe” (Chaucer ll.154-155). Farrell tries to determine what a “spanne” is in Chaucer’s time and explain how this is a way of implying the Prioress’ size (Farrell 212). This would show that she indulges in large amounts of food and beverage which is not typical of someone involved in the clergy who should be giving more to others and taking less for themselves. This is evidence of her selfishness which takes away from others and therefore has a disabling quality.

Another oddity in the tale is the way the Prioress uses apostrophe in order to cover up her inappropriate comments regarding the Jews. Jessica Fenn identifies this tactic in her article “Apostrophe, Devotion, and Anti-Semitism: Rhetorical Community in the Prioress’s Prologue and Tale” where she cites examples of the Prioress’ language. One example of this is her call to God followed by the reference to the Hugh of Lincoln (Chaucer ll. 683-684). She calls to God to gain authority over what she is going to say and then references a well-known story to bring credibility to her own tale (Fenn 435). However, introducing the Hugh of Lincoln adds to the idea that she is trying to present the Jews in a negative light and her anti-Semitic beliefs. Geraldine Heng provides helpful information about the Hugh of Lincoln in her article “England's Dead Boys: Telling Tales of Christian-Jewish Relations Before and After the First European Expulsion of the Jews.” Heng’s article brings to light the fact that the Prioress’ tale includes a much more extreme punishment of the Jews than in the original story that her tale parallels. This is evidence of her blinding hatred which disables the Jews in her eyes. The Prioress’ selfishness coupled with her inability to see beyond her own point of view disables not only those around her, but also herself as she is unable to fulfill her Christian duties.

Image of the Prioress