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Chaucer basically offers an idea of the acceptance of the temporal quality of the world and how that relates to life and love. This can also be seen as a lack of consolation; however, in this lack of consolation he is admitting that there is no consolation and that that fact alone should act as a consolation. The man is destined to grieve for his wife as this is how the temporal world works. There is no consolation for the grieving.
There is not one of the two characters whom find any kind of consolation, though it is clear that the Dreamer is quite taken with the dream. We aren't able to say what happens next -- after he wakes up; however, it is somewhat accepted that the Dreamer and the Black Knight are a bit closer to making peace with their situations. Neither of them have been on a path that has led to any kind of comforting conclusion, but we understand that this journey has been something that they have needed. It has woken them both out of the funk that they were in.
The journeys of both the Dreamer and the Black Knight can be viewed as the way in which the reader reads the poem. Both are happening simultaneously. In the very beginning, we are not aware of how the Dreamer and the Black Knight's grief is affecting them. It is only through the Dreamer's questions that we are able to understand the Knight as he stops with all of his courtly descriptions (such as the speech earlier in this paper) and then cries out, "She is dead!" (1310). It is this grief that he exhibits that...
It is after this outpouring that a bell rings and the King leaves and the Dreamer is awakened. He promises to write the poem down as best as he possibly can.
There is both a unity of structure and a sort of consolation to the poem's problem of love and death (Phillips 1). In reference to the unity, there is general consensus that it comes through "dream substitution" and a series of parallel figures and episodes (1). However, when it comes to questions of consolation, where the consolation is or to whom it comes, there is not consensus.
The Dreamer is believed to effect consolation through his tact and his Christian beliefs (Phillips 1). The consolation is in the healing outpouring, in the remembrances of past love and in the moderation of the Dreamer. For many individuals, the poem gives a certain set of guidelines to be the defense against grief. However, for other people, it is believed to show that pity is the ultimate offering a person can give.
Works Cited
Chaucer, Geoffrey. & Lynch, Kathryn L. Dream Visions and Other Poems. W.W. Norton & Company, 2006.
Fichte, Jorg O. Chaucer's 'Art Poetical: A Study in Chaucerian Poetics. John Benjamin's
Publishing Company, 1980.
Phillips, Helen. "Structure and Consolation in the Book of the Duchess." The Chaucer
Review. Vol. 16, No. 2. The Pennsylvania…
Works Cited
Chaucer, Geoffrey. & Lynch, Kathryn L. Dream Visions and Other Poems. W.W. Norton & Company, 2006.
Fichte, Jorg O. Chaucer's 'Art Poetical: A Study in Chaucerian Poetics. John Benjamin's
Publishing Company, 1980.
Phillips, Helen. "Structure and Consolation in the Book of the Duchess." The Chaucer
She is also a dreamer in that she believes that she will be able to help everyone. When Walter loses the money, her view changes somewhat in that she understands the world a little better. She knows that no doctor can cure "what ails mankind" (2254). She does come to realize that what truly ails mankind is something that cannot be cured because it is not a physical sickness
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