The Use Of Love In Troilus And Criseyde
Scholars of Chaucer agree that Latin poet Dante influenced the former’s writing of Troilus and Criseyde. As Barry Windeatt says, “Close verbal parallels are relatively few, but there a range of significant parallels in both poets’…understanding of love…which suggest how Chaucer may have had the example of the Divine Comedy in mind as he worked on his Troilus” (125-6). The extent of Dante’s influence has remained an issue of debate, especially when talking about the closing stanzas of Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde. What exactly do the last six stanzas of Troilus and Criseyde mean? Are they a reference to Dante’s Divine Comedy, and if so, how much of a reference are they? Was Chaucer reiterating Dante’s thoughts on love, or was he mocking them? It is my argument that the narrator of Troilus and Criseyde, while not completely condemning earthly love, ultimately agrees with Dante’s implication in the Divine Comedy that people should focus their attention on the Divine Love of Go!d instead of the earthly love of humans, because it is only through God’s Love that one can reach heaven. My claim will be supported by dividing the paper into two parts. The first part will deal with how Troilus and Crise
My final point regarding this section of the paper is what happens to Troilus after Achilles kills him. According to the manuscript on which the text I used is based, his soul ascends to the “eighth sphere,” (V. 1809) which, according to Dante’s Divine Comedy, is the sphere of the constellations. He is placed among the stars, but this is not Heaven. According to Dante’s Paradise, true Heaven, where Dante saw the pinpoint of light that is God, is the Defende, and to thy mercy, everichon, The reason why he’s not in Dante’s Hell is because of his love for Criseyde. Dante’s Hell has various levels, which are described as rings in Earth’s center. The outer rings contain the souls of people who committed lesser sins, and the inner rings contain the souls of the great sinners. The sins progress in severity to the very core of the earth, Satan’s home of Inner Hell. According to Dante, the order of sinners, from least to greatest, is: Virtuous Heathen, Lustful, Gluttons, Avaricious and Prodigal, Wrathful, Heretics, Violents, Simply Fraudulents, and Treacherous. Recall the sins from which Troilus flees after receiving Criseyde’s favor. They are pride, envy, ire, and avarice. The sin of avarice is directly mentioned in the circles of Hell, and pride, envy, and ire are related to the sins of heresy, lust, and wrath. If Troilus courtly upper class, which consisted of people who were devout Christians. Chaucer needed to please his audience in order to keep his job, and so to mock their faith would not have been a smart career move. Chaucer had nothing to gain by making a mockery of Divine Love, and in fact doing so could have cost him his job. It makes no sense that he would have put his career on the line in such a fashion. For he nyl falsen no wight, dar I seye, (a person).” The word appears three times in Troilus and Criseyde, once in the above instance, and twice in Book III (Tatlock 294). In the above example, Jesus Christ will not “falsen” any living creature who trusts in him. The narrator is very emphatic on the point that Jesus won’t deceive, using both alliteration (For, falsen; nyl, no) and double negatives (nyl, no) to stress the importance of his assertion.
Some topics in this essay:
Troilus Criseyde,
Criseyde Criseyde,
God’s Love,
Divine Love,
Divine Comedy,
Heaven Troilus,
Lord Thow,
Troilus” I1,
Survey Poetry,
Nancy Reale,
troilus criseyde,
earthly love,
divine love,
eighth sphere,
six stanzas,
divine comedy,
god’s love,
final six stanzas,
final six,
dante’s divine,
narrator troilus,
narrator troilus criseyde,
dante’s divine comedy,
pride envy ire,
chaucer’s troilus criseyde,
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Approximate Word count = 3564
Approximate Pages = 14 (250 words per page double spaced)
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