About Geoffrey Chaucer's "Troilus und Criseyde"

Table of Contents

1. Introduction

2. Criseyde – A Romance Heroine?
2.1 Characteristics in General
2.2 Analysis of Criseyde

3. Conclusion

4. Bibliography

1. Introduction

Dealing with female characters created by Geoffrey Chaucer one will certainly come across Criseyde, his heroine in Troilus and Criseyde. She was a much misunderstood heroine in the Middle Ages, her name a byword for female treachery and falseness. Criseyde, being in the unfavourable position as a wealthy woman, abandoned by her treacherous father, still has a rather ‘assured manner’ at the temple when Troilus first sees her. This Trojan heroine is definitely a character who can be interpreted in many different ways and it also carries a complex body of criticism. This work is not going to concentrate on Criseyde’s character in detail but on her role as a romance heroine. Thus, in this seminar paper, I want to consider whether Criseyde fulfils the typical criteria of a romance heroine or not.

To be able to discuss this issue, I am firstly going to provide a short definition of the attributes usually associated with a romance heroine. Secondly, I am going to analyze the presentation of Criseyde in Troilus and Criseyde, both in the physical and the psychological way. The main focus will be on her beauty and her virtue, with an intention to examine to what extent she acts according to the heroine’s rules.

2. Criseyde – A Romance Heroine?

2.1 Characteristics in General

Every English romance has the same basic features typical for it, so to say, such as the criteria that setting, characters and adventures are drawn from the knightly class (Finlayson). But one other criterion that must not be missing is the presence of either a hero or a heroine or both. As a matter of course the hero is characterized by his courage, openness to adventure and challenge, and by the love for his lady, whereas as we shift to the female part, it is of much interest how the heroine appears and behaves like. Let us therefore take a closer look at what the Oxford English Dictionary tells us about the original meanings of being a heroine:

A female hero:

1. In ancient mythology, a female intermediate between a woman and a goddess; a

Demi-goddess.

2. A woman distinguished by exalted courage, fortitude, or noble achievements.

3. The principal female character in a poem, story, or play; the woman in whom the interest of

the piece centres. (OED)

As we can see, a heroine is defined as a woman who distinguishes herself from other women. She is some kind of person who outperforms everybody else in appearance and behaviour. She is even considered some kind of ‘demi-goddess’ in ancient times and is naturally in the position of a protagonist in any kind of work. Regarding to relationships it is typical for a heroine to be obedient to her father, to devote herself to her husband and she is not to be represented as a mother. One will recognise her by her usually blond hair and her pink-and-white complexion, which gives her a virginal look. Also, a comparison with any kind of precious stone or flower is widely-used. All these physical descriptions show that beauty is an important convention, if not the basic one of romance heroines. ‘Virtue and beauty’, as Helen Cooper (16) rightly points, out are the quintessential requirements for a heroine.

Having read several romances, one can easily tell that authors avoid being too precise in their descriptions, rather leaving them to the readers’ imagination by using many similes and suggestions. Consequently, ‘the challenge for an author is to make the beauty of his lady resonant’ (Cooper, 16), to underline her uniqueness. For this reason, it is her function in a romance to be the ‘undesiring object of male desire’ (Cooper, 17). However, women are not only to be seen as pure sex objects in romances but they are ‘ frequently given their own thoughts and responses, expressed in soliloquies of self-analysis’ (Cooper, 19) as they fall in love.

2.2 Analysis of Criseyde

Now as it has been made explicit how a heroin woman is to be displayed, it is first of all of interest in which way Chaucer presents Criseyde to the readers in the first book of Troilus and Criseyde:

Now hadde Calkas left, in this meschaunce,

Al unwist of this false and wikked dede,

His doughter, which that was in gret penaunce,

95 For of hir lyf she was ful sore in drede,

As she that niste what was best to rede;

For bothe a widowe was she, and allone

Of any freend to whom she dorste hir mone.

Criseyde was this lady name a-right;

100 As to my dome, in al Troyes citee

Nas noon so fair, for passing every wight

So aungellyk was hir natyf beautee,

That lyk a thing immortal semed she,

As doth an hevenish parfit creature,

105 That doun were sent in scorning of nature. (G.Chaucer, 1.92-105)

He introduces her in ambiguous and contradictory terms: first as an abandoned daughter and distraught widow, which is said in the first stanza above, then as a beautiful angel, which seems to be sent from heaven. However, Criseyde’s position quickly diminishes as she seeks protection through Hector - she is then neither subhuman nor superhuman, but simply an ordinary woman. The picture that comes to one’s mind while thinking of an angel is certainly that of a woman with a rather light-coloured, pale complexion and long, maybe curled, blond hair. Thus, to support this image, one gets the confirmation firstly through the eyes of Troilus – her third description - and later on when Criseyde is being transferred to the Greeks. Of moderate statue is she, her limbs formed so well to womanly perfection:

[...]