Criseyde's Dream of the Eagle: Love and War in 'Troilus and Criseyde'

Author / Editor
Gallagher, Joseph E.

Title
Criseyde's Dream of the Eagle: Love and War in 'Troilus and Criseyde'

Published
Modern Language Quarterly 36 (1975): 115-32.

Description
Foreshadowing submission to Troilus and Diomede, Criseyde's erotic dream of the eagle symbolizes her fear of man's aggressive nature and her belief in love's ennobling influence. Throughout the poem love modifies the worst in Troilus, the warrior, inspiring moral virtues. Tragically love cannot resist war's greater aggression.

Chaucer Subjects
Troilus and Criseyde.