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Grisilde In The Canterbury Tales

194 Words1 Pages
She is one of the most enigmatic—and maybe most troubling—characters in all of the Canterbury Tales. For one thing, she's an almost impossibly perfect daughter and wife. On top of that, her perfection seems to consist in her ability to be completely subordinate to her male superiors, nearly erasing herself in the process. Grisilde is almost entirely virtuous. The tale implies several times that this is due to the fact that she grew up in poverty. Because of this poverty, Grisilde knows nothing of "likerous lust," or illicit desires. She's led a life of hard work and no nonsense. Did you catch the detail that she sleeps on a hard bed and gets by on little more than herbs and water? Our heroine has also spent all of her life caring for her
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