Chaucer - Impossible Role Models

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The importance of virginity in relation to the sacred is also heightened by its opposition to otherness, which is displayed by the society’s violent reaction to Hugh’s murder. Jocelyn Wogan-Browne, in Saint’s Lives and Women’s Literary Culture c. 1150-1300: virginity and its authorizations, explains the connection between virginity and otherness, stating: “Jewishness and virginity are intimately opposed in the construction of symbolic purity and filth. In Cursor Mundi… the layperson’s biblical and salvation history, the foundational purity of the Virgin’s body is the fulcrum of redemptive history, and its antitype… is the collective body of Jewish culpability for the crucifixion” (Wogan-Browne, 118). Similarly, in this tale the significance of virginity is magnified in opposition to a threatening, impure otherness and by how retributive violence is justified by a virgin’s murder. Thus, virginity is viewed not only as a holy quality, but also as a quality so revered that any violence taken up against it justifies an equal, if not greater, response. The result is that a simultaneous and paradoxical demand for both motherhood and virginity is presented by the Prioress’ account of female divinity.

Finally, the tale portrays Mary’s passive behavior and spiritual, but not physical presence as a model for female divinity. Hugh’s last words describe Mary’s traditional saintly qualities: “This welle of mercy, cristes mooder sweete, / I loved alwey, as after my konnynge” (656-657).[2] Mary is described as a “welle of mercy,” but her great mercy and importance in the tale belie the fact that her actions and physical presence are absent. Instead, she simply becomes the object of Hugh’s adoration. Similarly, Pelikan reveals that in Chaucer’s day, Mary was also believed to be a “lodestar and guide of mariners,” occasionally called “’Mary, the star of the sea”’ (93). In both these representations Mary is a guiding force and an object, but mainly serves as a spiritual compass (or actual compass) who is neither physically present, nor given a powerful voice. Pelikan goes on to state that Mary was “the one who became the instrument of the divine plan. In every century she served as the model of patience, indeed of quietistic passivity and unquestioning obedience…. she could be held up to women as a model of how they ought to behave, in submissive obedience to God, to their husbands, and to the clergy and hierarchy of the church” (83-84). Similarly, this tale emphasizes Mary’s passivity as a model for female divinity, as Mary is portrayed more as an object (or an “instrument”) than as an active agent[3].

Thus, the representation created by the Prioress is wrought with contradictions and a sense of female limitation. The speaker emphasizes a paradoxical ideal of virginity and motherhood, while the model offered for sainthood and holiness finds numerous parallels with social and religious patriarchal expectations contemporaneously imposed on women (such as the need for blind faith, obedience, and a lack of visibility).

Both The Second Nun’s Prologue and The Second Nun’s Tale reinforce the paradoxical elements presented in the Prioress’ accounts, while also offering a different archetype for female divinity. The following examination of The Second Nun’s Prologue focuses on virginity and motherhood, while the analysis of the tale focuses on similar themes along with patriarchal influence. Unlike in the Prioress’ account, however, an active and rebellious character is presented as a model for female sainthood, creating a tension between the two depictions.

The speaker in The Second Nun’s Prologue describes Mary’s virginity and motherhood in paradoxical terms that both resemble and differ from those used by the Prioress. She is first addressed as “Thow mayde and mooder, doghter of thy sone” (36). By addressing Mary as the “doghter of thy sone” the speaker continues to build on the Prioress’ traditional paradoxical depiction. Interestingly, the speaker also addresses Mary in unconventional, corporeal terms: “Withinne the cloistre blisful of thy sydis / Took mannes shap the eterneel love and pees, / That of the tryne compas lord and gyde is” (43-45). By using certain imagery, such as naming the womb a “cloister,” the speaker makes physicality a positive focal point and notably different from the Prioress’ depiction of Mary, which lacked her physical presence. In this context even the flesh becomes dignified as Mary’s body transcends the sins traditionally associated with it through her relation to God and her virginity. Wogan-Browne contextualizes the importance of this description by revealing that Mary’s virginity served as model for all other female saints, setting the stage for Saint Cecilia’s characterization (246).

In The Second Nun’s Tale, similar to the Prioress’ tale, virginity becomes the origin and foundation of sainthood, while also revealing the power of masculine authority over holy female figures. After her marriage, Cecilia tells her husband Valerian that she has an angel watching over her “And if that he may feelen, out of drede, / That ye me touche, or love in vileynye, / He right anon wol sle yow with the dede” (155-157). Cecilia’s need for divine protection evidences the importance of her virginity and how, in a marital context, it possibly functioned as an affront to masculine expectations and control. Her husband agrees to a chaste marriage on the condition that he witnesses the Holy Spirit himself, threatening Cecilia with death should no such experience occur. Wogan-Browne explains Cecilia’s position, stating “if she combats the earthly patriarchy’s demands for her marriage and child-bearing, it is in order to enter into spiritual patriarchal marriage with a top-ranking bridegroom and a truly omnipotent Father and Lord” (5). Consequently, Cecilia, even in a tale that promotes female strength, is protected and threatened by men and left without full independence, indicating the degree to which even female saints faced patriarchal restrictions and the imposition of male ownership.

While Cecilia’s virginity and her rejection of marriage and motherhood are significant themes in the tale, they are presented in the contradictory context of Cecilia serving as a mother figure for the young English church. For instance, an angel who “hadde of roses and of lilie / Corones two,” crowns Cecilia and Valerian (220-221). While the lilies in this depiction emphasize Cecilia’s virginity, the reader must be aware of the context for this ceremony: it is hidden away at a time when Christians are outlaws and the church is a secret society. This Pre-Constantine era tale is as concerned with the origins of English Christianity as with the