'The House of Fame : Virgilian Reason and Boethian Wisdom

Description: Argues that in HF Chaucer achieves "symbolic cohesion" and unity by combining the narrator's Virgilian epiphany of a "higher sense of duty" (his response to the Aeneas/Dido exemplum) with the Boethian imagery of philosophical ascent (effected by the eagle). Combined with the dominant concern with journey, these strands together depict the theme of rejecting the passions in favor of "rational ascent to discovery and revelation."