Theme: Geoffrey Chaucer’s "Canterbury Tales" as a panorama of English society Contents: Introduction

Conclusion
Consequently, through his veiled criticisms disguised as characters in what appear to be conventional chivalric romance tales, Chaucer illuminates the manufactured, fallacious nature of courtly love and the authenticity and stamina of its opposite, traditional love. From the beginning of the “Franklin’s Tale,” the Franklin “enlists the readers’ sympathies against the courtly lover,” Aurelius, and “for the preservation of the institution which this presence of courtly love attacked:” marriage, the contractual bond between Dorigen and Arveragus (Holman 251). Although Arveragus is outwardly characterized as a potential courtly lover, his mannerisms and actions eventually reveal him as a man of tradition. Furthermore, although Dorigen loves her husband with the devotion associated with the doctrines of courtly love, the lack of reciprocal romance removes the couple from the chivalric dynamic. Throughout Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde, Pandarus leads the readers (and his pawns, the two lovers) to believe that he is constructing the perfect courtly love relationship; however, through a closer examination of his tactics and actions, his role in the tale and the merits of courtly love become increasingly complex. In almost all of his strategies to orchestrate his plan, he defies Andreas Capellanus’ “A Treatise on Courtly Love,” which outlines the doctrines that must be followed in a chivalric romance: he shatters the secrecy of Troilus’ lovesickness, disregards Criseyde’s widowhood, forces Criseyde to love Troilus through both mental and physical manipulation (not through true affection), and references traditional wisdom (which clashes with the novel, unorthodox nature of the courtly love dynamic). Finally, “Parliament of Fowls” creates a dichotomy between true, natural love and the chivalric, courtly love prevalent in the higher class, underscoring the artificial nature of the latter. The courtly game that takes place between the royal eagle suitors illuminates the shallow nature of the concept, as the chivalric lovers make steep promises with little evidence to support their lofty claims. As a result, the idealized feminine figure of the poem, the female eagle, chooses to continue her search for true love, indicating the difference between natural romance and the artificial charade and preventing the story from fulfilling the structure of a courtly love tale. In all, these complexities buried in the depiction of Chaucer’s characters prompt readers to investigate the merits of this “utopian” chivalric romance, revealing the fragile, manufactured nature of the dynamic.