Volu m e II - Purdue University Calumet

Troilus is woeful, but it is his banal reason for despair, his common lust for Criseyde, that renders him a
problematic philosopher and a flawed chivalric lover. While Boethius is portrayed as a willing and able
pupil in the Consolation, Troilus fails in his attempts to better understand the divine order that decides his
situation. Moreover, the triviality of Troilus’ complaint becomes even more evident when framed against
Boethius’ valid complaint, and Chaucer’s intent seems to be to delineate not only the superficiality of
Troilus’ woe but also the lack of responsibility and agency that Troilus exhibits in his actions. Troilus’ lack
of agency and understanding seems to reinforce, therefore, the ultimate irrationality of courtly love and
inverts the virtues present in the Consolation.
In the Consolation, the second most compelling philosophical tenet is found when Lady Philosophy
advocates the attainment of self-knowledge to Boethius in his search for enlightenment. Lady Philosophy
wants her pupil to overcome his initial bitterness towards Fortune in order to come to know himself and to
obtain divinity. Because men have the ability to achieve the true good, Philosophy argues that man must
consciously and constantly fight the urge to fall into a nature that is below him (i.e. a nature in which
avarice rules). She states, “The status of man’s nature is this: it excels all other things only when aware of
itself, but if it ceases to know itself, it falls below the level of the beasts” (Boethius 31). As Philosophy
addresses the “moral blemish” that is a lack of self-knowledge, Boethius obediently listens, absorbs, and
appears to accept this particular teaching.
Like Boethius, Troilus is also cynical at the outset of Troilus and Criseyde, but the similarities between
the male protagonists end there. While Boethius is bitter because of his unjust imprisonment, Troilus’
bitterness and cynicism is directed merely towards women because he believes that women are a needless
enterprise; in essence, Troilus loses the chance to attain self-knowledge because his stubbornness debilitates
his ability to discern his own ideological failings. Troilus’ misogynistic demeanor quickly changes when
Cupid strikes Troilus with his arrow; indeed, he is transformed from naysayer to love-stricken fool in a
matter of seconds. His sudden change is addressed by the narrator thus: “With a look his heart wex a-fere,
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