The Prioress's Prerogative

I just wanted to say more about my claim in class to see The Prioress's Tale as an Easter fable. I say fable because the story cultivates a clear villain in the Jews, which though I think chosen particularly, has an obvious tone of untruth with regard to their illustration (though not obvious to the Prioress). This feeds into the notion of a phantasmagoria Prof Wenthe discussed early on in class such that Jews, in this story, are spectre-like, more metaphor than actuality, a perfect "other" to embody a threat to Christianity.

I think Jews were chosen as the villain in this story for - what seems to me to be - an obvious reason: the denial of Christ as Messiah. I do not claim to know the biblical historicism involved with this age-old, mythologized and propagandized notion that the Jews were "the cause of Christ's death" and that is obviously important because this Christian propaganda is ignorant and scornful because, though it trys to validate Christianity it really just condemns Jews, but the idea that Judaism must maintain itself (or something important about itself) only by denying Christ - even more earnestly since Christ himself was a Jew - is more applicable here. Since I see this tale as an Easter fable - in the redemption of the innocent lamb of a child from his violent death, maintained post-death in life as a message to the Christian mother and Abbot who rescue him (read the Church) - the implicit message of her tale (not Chaucer's) is that death is not the end of life...for Christians.

This is not to excuse the overt anti-Semitism but to put it more into context. I don't know: would Chaucer play off the idea of Jews as Christ-deniers in order to make a Christian tale more poignant to Christian readers? I thought it was interesting at the end of class when Prof Wenthe discussed the usage of Jews killing Christian children while invoking King Herod and the Massacre of the Innocents, flipping it on its head for what? To further the metaphor of the Judeo-Christian tension over the Messiah? Herod killed innocent Jewish children because he was afraid of the Messiah coming to usurp his throne so it is fitting for Chaucer to illustrate Jews killing Christian children in a tale about Christian redemption?