The Prioress would like the other travelers to think she is worldly and sophisticated. Instead, her pretentious effort to put on airs regarding her worldly experiences is just Chaucer's attempt to degrade the female character by describing her as shallow.
Chaucer uses the example of the Prioress's table manners as another method of characterizing the female with unfavorable qualities. The narrator says that "At mete wel ytaught was she withalle: / She leet no morsel from hir lippes falle, / Ne wette hir fingers in hir sauce deepe; / wel coude she carye a morsel, and wel keepe / That no drope ne fille upon hir brest" (ll.127-131). According to these lines, her manners are exquisite because she remained neat during mealtime. This seems like a trivial quality, hardly worth mentioning. In Fact, the next few lines: "Hir over-lippe wiped she so clene / That in hir coppe ther was no firthing seene" (ll.133-134) could indicate that her tidiness is due to the fact that she is a woman of the church, obeying her religious nature. Chaucer's emphasize on her table manners appears too sarcastic to be a good quality. Table manners are not something that one feels that they should be known for. Hence, Chaucer does not use this example as a virtuous quality for the Prioress or a woman of the church, but rather as a way to demean her quality and degrading the female gender as a whole.
Chaucer also debases females by way of addressing the Prioress's impiousness, her unfaithful relationship with the church. The Prioress is supposed to be a woman of the church and men and women of the church are required to live in sub-poverty with no .
worldly possessions. The "brooch of golde ful sheene," (l.160) is a symbol of her unchristian character rather than her connection to religious vocation. The fact that the brooch is inscribed with "Amor vincit omnia [Love Conquers All]" is another strike against the Prioress's character.