Blood and Rosaries : Virginity, Violence, and Desire in Chaucer's 'Prioress's Tale'

Author / Editor
Hobbs, Kathleen M.

Title
Blood and Rosaries : Virginity, Violence, and Desire in Chaucer's 'Prioress's Tale'

Published
Cindy L. Carlson and Angela Jane Weisl, eds. Constructions of Widowhood and Virginity in the Middle Ages (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1999), pp. 181-98.

Description
Although women and Jews were "equivalent others" in medieval orthodoxy, the doctrine of Mary's perpetual virginity enabled the Church to sever the "historical ties between Christianity and Judaism" and to "exalt itself as a fixed and timeless institution." PrT reflects its narrator's frustration with her constrained role in the Church, contributing simultaneously to the Church's claim to absolute truth.

Alternative Title
Constructions of Widowhood and Virginity in the Middle Ages.

Chaucer Subjects
Prioress and Her Tale.