Is This a Mannes Herte?

Description: Argues that Chaucer's characterizations of the three main actors in TC produce an "Oedipal triangle" that helps to explain the power of the feelings in the consummation scene. Considers the changes Chaucer makes to Boccaccio's "Filostrato," focusing on Troilus's swoon which, though "puzzling," is "psychologically 'right'" insofar as it reflects the hero's "intrapsychic conflicts" and regression. The poem depicts "a primal relationship and the primal infidelity."

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