Dreams in 'Troilus and Criseyde."

Author / Editor
Corsa, Helen Storm.

Title
Dreams in 'Troilus and Criseyde."

Published
American Imago 27 (1970): 52-65.

Description
Argues in Freudian terms that dreams in TC disclose psychological aspects of the characters. Criseyde's dream (II, 925-31), added by Chaucer to his source, Boccaccio's "Filostrato," indicates her desire for ravishment and marks her early submission to Troilus's pursuit. Troilus's two "anxiety" dreams (in Book V), especially the second--a "primal scene" nightmare--and its variations from the version in "Filostrato," "point in the direction of shaping Troilus as an Oedipal figure."

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