Analysis of the characterization of the prioress from General Prologue by Geoffrey Chaucer

This work is meant to find out the strategies the poet used to characterise the character of the prioress.

To the present the character the poet used the telling technique, indeed there’s a narrator that tells about her.

The strategy the poet mainly used to connote the character is the Nun’s behaviour. Firstly, the expression “Her way of smiling very simple and coy” creates immediately a positive imagine of the character in the reader’s mind, while thanks to the expressions “At meat her manners were well taught withal” and “For courtliness she had a special zest” the reader can understand the Nun is a well-educate person of a noble social abstraction. The nobility of the Nun is underlined even more by the expressions “And she spoke daintily in French, extremely, After the school of Stratford-atte-Bowe; French in the Paris style she did not know.” And also by the fact that she was called Madame. Moreover, the fact that she was very entertaining, pleasant and friendly makes the reader understand the Nun is a desired person and contributes to create a positive idea of the character. Furthermore, the expression “A stately bearing fitting to her place, and to seem dignified in all her dealings” and in particular the articles stately and dignified makes the reader understand the nun is also an authoritative character, in according with her role in the monastery.

Later the poet goes on connoting the character with the expressions “As for her sympathies and tender feelings, she was so charitably solicitous”, making the reader understand the Nun has an inner nobility too, also highlighted by the fact that she used to weep if she but saw a mouse Caught in a trap, if it were dead or bleeding. Besides the expression “She -was all sentiment and tender heart” underlines even more the emotionality of the character.

Later the poet uses the strategy of the physical aspect to connote the character. The description of his look gives to the reader an idea of elegance, while the expression “She was indeed by no means undergrown” connotes the honesty of the Nun.

Finally the fact that the wears trinket Whence hung a golden brooch of brightest sheen On which there first was graven a crowned A, And lower, Amor vincit omnia highlight even more time the emotionally of the Nun.