Courtly Love Conventions in Troilus and Creseyde Essay -- Troilus Cris

Courtly Love Conventions in Troilus and Creseyde  Ã‚        Ã‚  Ã‚   From the beginning the reader knows that "Troilus and Criseyde" is both a romance and a tragedy, for if the name of the poem and the setting of doomed Troy are not enough of a clue, Chaucer's narrator tells us so explicitly. This is a tale of:    The double sorwe of Troilus to tellen, ... In lovying, how his aventures fellen Fro wo to wele, and after out of joie2    This waxing and waning of Troilus' and Criseyde's happiness in love allows Chaucer to explore the different manifestations of love in his contemporary society, and what the costs of loving might be. In particular, Criseyde's fear of love, and betrayal of Troilus' love, raises the question: who is allowed to choose to love?    Yet despite the readers' foreknowledge of a tragic ending, Chaucer's skill is in exploring this theme, while making the outcome of the story seem anything but fixed. He "directs our responses and controls the narrative situation,"3 so that we are in constant anticipation. One scene in particular strikes me as a powerful example of Chaucer's ability to evoke this feeling of uncertainty and infinite possibility suddenly coalescing into the next inevitable movement of the plot.    In a relatively short passage in Book II (lines 876-931) Criseyde makes the symbolic decision to love, despite her concerns about the power games involved with 'true' or courtly love. She "wex somwhat able to converte"4 her fears into love of Troilus.    This scene is made up of what appears to be a simple convergence of four important elements: Antigone's song of true love, and her certain and convincing belief in true love (as opposed to mere passion - "hoot"... ...Cambridge University Press, 1986) pp. 213-226. This from p. 213. 4. Benson, Book II, 903, p.501. 5. Benson, Book II, 892, p.501. 6. David Aers, "Criseyde: Woman in Medieval Society," The Chaucer Review 13 (3) (1979), 177-200. This from p. 180. 7. Benson, Book II, 872, p. 501. 8. Benson, Book II, 874-875, p. 501. 9. Benson, Book II, 887, p.501. 10. Benson, Book II, 891, p. 501. 11. Benson, Book II, 894, p. 501. 12. Benson, Book II, 922, p. 502. 13. Aers, p. 186. 14. Benson, Book II, 922, p.502. 15. Benson, Book II, 930, p. 502. 16. Eugene Vance, "Mervelous Signals: Poetics, Sign Theory, and Politics in Chaucer's Troilus," New Literary History 10 (1979), 293-337. This from p. 328. 17. Aers, p. 180. 18. Aers, p. 181. 19. Benson, Book II, 903, p. 501. 20. Benson, Book II, 890-891, p.501.