Conventions of Courtly Love in Troilus and Creseyde From the beginning the reader knows that "Troilus and Criseyde" is both a love story and a tragedy, because if the The poem's name and setting of doomed Troy is not a sufficient clue, Chaucer's narrator explicitly tells us. This is the story of: The double fate of Troilus to be told,... In love, how his adventures ended From wo to wele, and then for joy2 This waxing and waning of happiness in love with Troilus and Chryseis allows to Chaucer to explore the different manifestations of love in contemporary society and what the costs of love might be. In particular, Criseyde's fear of love and Troilus' betrayal of love raise the question: who is allowed to choose to love? Yet despite readers' foreknowledge of a tragic ending, Chaucer's skill lies in exploring this theme, making the outcome of the story seem anything but set. He "directs our responses and controls the narrative situation,"3 so that we are constantly waiting. One scene in particular strikes me as a powerful example of Chaucer's ability to evoke this feeling of uncertainty and infinite possibilities that suddenly coalesce into the next inevitable movement of the plot. In a relatively short passage in Book II (lines 876-931) Criseyde makes the point of the symbolic decision to love, despite her concerns about the power plays involved in "true" or courtly love. She "is somehow able to convert"4 her fears into love for Troilus. This scene consists of what appears to be a simple convergence of four important elements: Antigone's song of true love and her certain and convincing faith in true love (as opposed to mere passion - "hoot")... middle of paper ... Cambridge University Press, 1986) pp. 213-226. This from page. 213.4. Benson, Book II, 903, p.501.5. Benson, Book II, 892, p.501.6. David Aers, “Criseyde: Woman in Medieval Society,” The Chaucer Review 13 (3) (1979), 177-200. This from page. 180.7. Benson, Book II, 872, p. 501.8. Benson, Book II, 874-875, p. 501.9. Benson, Book II, 887, p.501.10. Benson, Book II, 891, p. 501.11. Benson, Book II, 894, p. 501.12. Benson, Book II, 922, p. 502.13. Aers, p. 186.14. Benson, Book II, 922, p.502.15. Benson, Book II, 930, p. 502.16. Eugene Vance, “Wonderful Signs: Poetics, Sign Theory, and Politics in Chaucer's Troilus,” New Literary History 10 (1979), 293-337. This from page. 328.17. Aers, p. 180.18. Aers, p. 181.19. Benson, Book II, 903, p. 501.20. Benson, Book II, 890-891, p.501.