Ulterior Motives In The Book Of The Duchess

The narrator in “the Book of the Duchess” is more than just a character unable to identify the truth behind the knight’s metaphors, he is seeking for something greater. The narrator has an ulterior motive to try and make the grieving knight discuss in greater detail of the tragic loss. In this paper, an argument will be make that the narrator has ulterior motives in regards to his interactions with the grieving knight. In particular, this paper will discuss the methods in which the narrator uses to better invoke an emotional responses from the knight. To clarify the thesis of this paper, narrator uses methods such as pretending to be ignorant of the situation or acting coldly towards the knight to extract more information about the loss. The

longer the narrator acts as if he does not understand the situation, the more the knight articulates about what he has lost. Through this strategy, both the knight and the narrator can reflect on the tragedy of the knight’s loss. This paper will discuss three different topics, which include the method of how the narrator extracts information from the knight, why he failed to use traditional consolation methods, and the final section will consist of a comparison of the argument of this paper to the arguments of T.S. Miller’s “Writing Dreams to Good”. Starting off with the method in which the narrator uses to extract more information about the loss of the knight’s wife.