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The Canterbury Tales: Position Of Women In The Canterbury Tales

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Contents 1. Introduction 2 2. Chaucer and The Canterbury Tales 3 3. Position of Women in Medieval England 5 4. Women in The Canterbury Tales 7 4.1 The Second Nun 7 4.2 The Prioress 8 1. Introduction The purpose of this thesis is to analyze female characters in The Canterbury Tales. We chose to describe three female characters: The Second Nun, The Wife of Bath and The Prioress. Here, we shall discuss about their physical appearance, about their profession and their general characteristics. First of all, we shall say something about the writer, about the work and then about position of women in the medieval society, and we shall compare it with the three female characters. It will be difficult to find a point of contact between the three women except that they are all women, that they are on pilgrimage to Canterbury, and that they are within the sphere of medieval religious culture. 2. Chaucer and The Canterbury Tales Geoffrey Chaucer is known as the Father of English literature, and is considered the greatest English poet of the Middle Ages. Little is known about his personal life and his education. He was very appreciated during his life, and his verses became immortal. He was born in 1343 in London and died around 1400. As we can read in Brewer, he led a diverse life, travelling all across Europe, and experiencing many different roles in his career. Along with the most-known writing activity, he was a page, diplomat and a bureaucrat, among the

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