Lears considers the relationship between the Dreamer and the Knight as both an act of confession and that of gossip. How do either interpretations effect the lamentation by the Knight for Lady White?
ENGL 450 | Chaucer
Prof. Myra Seaman | Spring 2018
If the long speeches by the Black Knight are presented in a “confessional discourse”, then the poem would direct the reader to a sense of guilt from him (215). The poem never says why White died. We know that Chaucer wrote the poem to comfort John of Gaunt’s loss; however, what if Chaucer wrote the Knight to express his feelings of guilt about the death of White? If the Dreamer took on the confessor role, he could be validating the Knight’s guilty feelings by allowing him to speak about his lost love Lady White. Also the part of the poem where the Black Knight praises the inner and outer qualities of his lost love could point to his feelings of guilt. Many times people idealize loved ones who are gone or passed away to make themselves feel better or remember them in a better light regardless how they were in reality.