비극의 동인(動因): 트로일루스의 무기력

Abstract

This paper is a defense of Troilus' acedia, which has been the target of severe criticism in the tragic denouement of Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde. Troilus, a shy, inactive, and excessively depressed hero, makes himself a tragic victim of this play. It can't be easily denied that Troilus is at the core of the tragedy. He looks like Hamlet, lost, trapped, and paralyzed in the maze of thought.Troilus, an ideal courtier and honorable knight, consistently hesitates over and keeps a low profile to Criseyde, the lover, while both Pandarus and Diomede are busy taking action. Pandarus, who diagnoses Troilus' acedia as a disease and tries to cure it, and Diomede, who is an active and aggressive warrior of love, are foils to Troilus' acedia. For them, love is a kind of work, an object of action, and a labor to be planned and manipulated. Chaucer intentionally uses Pandarus and Diomede's rashness, activeness, and secularism to emphasize Troilus' inactive and passive characteristics as tragic flaws. Troilus' acedia can be considered a tragic flaw that brings about the hero's tragic end but must not be criticised or under-evaluated. Chaucer doesn't take a negative approach to such psychological symptoms as procrastination, lethargy, and negligence. As for the outcome of Idealism, Troilus' acedia is in sharp contrast to the secular view of love, and makes the man, who wanders off in the maze of love, nobler and more sublime. Balanced with Troilus' consistency, sensibility, and nobility, it helps create a real human being, and makes Troilus' love ideal and spiritual, remote from practicalism and secularism of Pandarus and Diomede.