All is fair in love and war

Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde tells the story of ill-fated love. In this essay, however, I shall argue that the love between Troilus and Criseyde was not ill-fated, but rather failed as a result of too much outside intervention. Pandarus acts as the third person in the relationship between Triolus and Criseyde, and when Criseyde leaves to join her father in the Greek camp, there are no longer three people who are actively partaking in the progress of the relationship. In this paper, I shall consider Criseyde 'breaking off' from not only one person, her lover, Troilus, but from two people, Troilus and Pandarus. I shall argue that through Pandarus' eyes, intervening in Troilus and Criseyde's relationship and prompting this relationship is a good thing. Pandarus seems to strategise in a military-like way to get Troilus and Criseyde together. Ultimately, because all is fair in love and war, Criseyde accepts the love of Diomede. I shall argue, additionally, that this occurs because there are only two participants in the relationship between Diomede and Criseyde.