In Defense of Diomede: 'Moral Gower' and 'Troilus and Criseyde'

Description: Critics have argued that Chaucer intended the reader to view Criseyde as a woman destined to be a whore, Diomede as an unscrupulous seducer, and Troilus as an ideal knight. But if a fourteenth-century view is adopted, Diomede can be viewed in a favorable light, whereas Troilus cannot. In the "Confessio" and in other works, the "moral Gower" argues that "Troilus lost Criseyde because he was guilty of sacrilege," that Criseyde was a prostitute, and that Diomede was "gentil."

Chaucer Subjects: Troilus and Criseyde.; Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations.