Barnes & Noble Digital Library

Love. War. Sex. Betrayal. And finally: a hero''s violent end. Chaucer''s masterwork Troilus and Criseyde is an epic with the inner turmoil of medieval romance, a tragedy with comedic self-reflection. The story tells of two lovers: Troilus, a young Trojan hero, and Criseyde, the beautiful widow with whom he falls desperately and dramatically in love.

The fate of this love seems to be controlled by various self-serving forces-from Criseyde''s pandering uncle, to the political machinations of the war-yet the central theme upon which this text­­ hinges is the degree of Criseyde''s own culpability in her change of heart regarding Troilus. At the core of this question exist crucial issues regarding the position of the individual in relation to medieval society, to God''s plan, to human history, and ultimately to the literary canon itself. Indeed, in the plight of the ill-fated lovers, and in Chaucer''s inspired treatment of them, we can find a prototype of the star-crossed lovers in Shakespeare''s later Troilus and Cressida and Romeo and Juliet.