In The Legend of Good Women, the God of Love bases his definition of a "good woman" on the actions of the characters surroundings rather than on the protagonist. se. Being “virtuous” requires no action in these legends. Instead, he insists on a passive, emotional response to the action of a treacherous man. The construction of Dido and Ariadne in their respective legends follows exactly the commandments of the God of Love. As such, Dido and Ariadne are morally good women. However, as protagonists, Dido and Ariadne are inadequate on two levels. As individuals, they lack compelling depth. As narrative devices, they lack the complexity necessary to move the story forward. In order to follow the instructions of the God of Love while writing a coherent legend, Chaucer creates secondary female characters in the form of sisters. Geoffrey's creation of Anne and Phèdre and manipulation of their development fills the narrative gaps that "good" women need. They are not antagonists, but a completion of their sister protagonists. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay As individuals, Dido and Ariadne lack balance between feeling and thinking. The narrator is unaware of their stories and their personalities are virtually indistinguishable. The men of history have a structural priority; Theseus and Aeneas appear before Ariadne and Dido. Additionally, the narrator develops Aeneas as a character before his arrival in Carthage, and the encounter with Dido does not compromise his identity as a man or a Trojan. Likewise, Theseus arrives in Crete from the troubled city of Athens and the Minotaur threatens his life. Although the narrator disapproves of their motives, Aeneas has a reason to leave Dido, and Theseus has a reason to seek Ariadne's help. Conversely, the narrator provides no rational motivation for Dido and Ariadne's intense emotions beyond superficial attraction and pity, and each of them is always singularly motivated by these feelings. These empty characters cannot move the narrative forward and therefore threaten to keep the story at a standstill. Their earlier development indicates that Ariadne would continue to listen to Theseus sympathetically, and that Dido would continue to silently lust after Aeneas. As such, their inadequacy as individuals begins to affect their feasibility as narrative devices. In fact, the Legend titles are misleading in terms of storytelling. The importance of Ariadne and Dido in the story is tiny in terms of what they actually do. A good woman only feels, but a good protagonist must also think. Because thought and feeling are mutually exclusive for the purposes of the God of Love, Anne and Phaedra also serve as narrative devices that spur the climactic actions of their respective legends. The supposed main action of The Legend of Ariadne is Ariadne's decision to provide Theseus with a weapon and a way out of the labyrinth. However, it was Phaedrus who originated the idea, and the pity that motivates their help is plural – “and of his plight they had compassion” (1974, emphasis added). The answers to Theseus' fate seem very similar. Ariane says: “He will be helped, what can we do!” » and Phaedra says: "To help her, the best reed I can..." However, Phaedra's threshold of ability is much higher than Ariadne's. The main difference lies between the “we” of Ariadne and the “I” of Phaedra. They both pity Theseus, but only Phaedra can act on his feelings.Phaedrus continues her declaration of pity with a plan to save Theseus, and this plan ultimately succeeds. Although Anne does not significantly affect the ending of The Legend of Dido, she serves to absorb and process Dido's excessive emotion while providing a rational balance to Dido's feelings. Unlike the story of Phèdre and Ariadne, Dido's emotions end up taking precedence over Anne's thoughts. When Dido speaks to her sister about Aeneas, she speaks only of Aeneas' superficial qualities – "I think he is so well made/And that he seeks so well to be a man" (151). Although Anne does not encourage Dido to pursue Aeneas, she does so “as her thought, and sometimes she resists it” (151). This brief interjection is representative of the internal struggle a fully developed Dido would experience when considering the pros and cons of marrying Aeneas. The final scenes of each legend illustrate Dido and Ariadne as singular characters after being abandoned by their respective men. Without a complementary character to create variation, the scenes are necessarily similar. Both Theseus and Aeneas leave while the women sleep, and they both sail to more politically viable places than Naxos or Carthage. To stay in character, Dido and Ariadne must also remain in stasis until the legends are completed. Physically, Ariadne remains in Naxos, and Dido remains in Carthage. Emotionally, they spend their final moments as protagonists being “completed” (“Ariane” 2216, “Dido” 1357). Dido's suicide is more dramatic than Ariadne's planting a white flag, but both illustrate the same point. Without Theseus and Aeneas, Ariadne and Dido are narratively blocked. Because evil men have created their identities as good women, their individual stories can no longer progress without Aeneas and Theseus. Phaedra and Anne play significantly different roles in the classic versions of these myths because they are primarily characters rather than narrative devices. In the Heroides, simply hearing Ariadne's voice rather than that of the narrator develops her character far beyond the limits of the God of Love's instructions. Ariadne is not only grief-stricken, but also rationally angry at his betrayal. The recipient's promises in the Legend of Theseus are ambiguous, but the Heroides specify that Theseus "said to [Ariand]: 'By my own perils I swear that as long as we both live, you will be mine!' » (Heroid 59) Furthermore, Ariadne takes credit for her role in Theseus's salvation: “O Theseus, you did not kill with a knotted club him who was part man and part bull; and I had not given you the thread to show the way of your return – thread often caught up and passed by the hands it led” (Heroid, para. 99) Moreover, in the Metamorphoses, Ovid gives all the credit to Ariadne and free will for her actions to save Theseus and no fault for leaving Crete with Theseus: “The door/So difficult that none of those before/Was able to find, with Ariadne's help/ Was found, the thread that traced the path rewound/Then Theseus, seizing the daughter of Minos, spread/His sails towards Naxos, where, on the shore/This cruel prince abandoned her and her/Abandoned, in his pain and his anger found/Solace in the arms of Bacchus” (Metamorphoses 176). The action in both versions is essentially identical, but the presentation of Ariadne's thought process gives credence to her emotions and thus develops her character. Although Ariadne reluctantly leaves Crete with Theseus in the Metamorphoses, Ovid tells her a story after Theseus abandons her. Her grief and anger lead her to action: find.