Book of the Duchess (Cyclopedia of Literary Characters)
At a glance:
- Author: Geoffrey Chaucer
- First Published: 1370
- Type of Work: Poetry
- Type of Plot: Allegory
- Time of Work: Indeterminate
- Genres: Poetry, Allegory, Dream vision
- Subjects: Love or romance, Europe or Europeans, Poetry or poets, Dreams, England or English people, Death or dying, Kings, queens, or royalty, Allegory, Middle Ages, Knights or knighthood, Nobility, Fourteenth century
- Locales: Dreamscape
Characters Discussed
Dreamer, the narrator. He is dying over the loss—whether through death or through rejection—of his beloved lady. His lovesickness has led to sleeplessness and despair, and he seems unable to imagine any hope. Longing for sleep leads him to reading about loss of love through death, and this in turn leads to a dream in which he confronts that loss. Variously interpreted as naïve and bumbling, inept, or psychologically astute, the Dreamer must come to the point where he can state baldly the nature of his loss and accept that. This he does by taking on the...
[The entire page is 1059 words long]
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