The Double Sorrow of Troilus: A Study of the Ambiguities in "Troilus and Criseyde"

Description: Explains the ambivalences, ambiguities, paradoxes, and ironies--the double meanings--that are generated in TC by Chaucer's combination of Boccaccio's plot with Boethian philosophy (inflected by twelfth- and thirteenth-century philosophy of love), magnified by the "interventions" and "specious dialectic" of the narrator, and reflected in the characters' ambiguous and sometimes manipulative uses of the traditional language, imagery and actions of medieval love narratives. Attends also to the comedy and wit of the poem that vie with its tragic events, the importance of the readers' experiences in perceiving its meanings, and the ways by which we can perceive both Chaucer's intentions and the unity of the plot and epilogue. Includes an appendix entitled "'Kynde' and 'Unkynde'."

Chaucer Subjects: Troilus and Criseyde; Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations; Style and Versification; Language and Word Studies