Navigating the unreliable world of love, Chaucer’s The Complaint of Mars brings out an aspect that we don’t see as often in the traditional love story. Instead of a happy ending with the respective main characters united in romance, Mars and Venus are driven apart by godly fate. Through Mars’ complaint that questions the purpose of love itself, Chaucer asserts that love has a destructive nature, causing endless misery once the pleasure and joy of it has passed. He also believes that love is used as a tool of control by God that lures people to fall in love so that they can be inevitably forced to separate, following their predetermined fates. Mars’ infatuation with Venus is noticed almost immediately as he compliments her to be the source “Of
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Antagonizing God once again, Chaucer says that it’s not Venus’ fault for being so beautiful, but God’s fault for making her so desirable that Mars couldn’t help but fall madly in love with her. Mars also compares his sorrow of not being with Venus to the death of him and directly blames God for his death. With this accusation, he doesn’t offer any answer to the motives behind his God’s actions, but rather continues to display Mars as a victim whose happiness is long departed. Since there are no known motives behind the pain that God is apparently causing, we can infer that Mars is looking to blame anyone rather than himself, even if it means condemning the creator. Through The Complaint of Mars, Chaucer illustrates an unusual love story where the main character, Mars, warns us through his experiences about the destruction that love can cause. Chaucer seems to believe that God’s favor, or fate, is unavoidable. However, he also uses Mars’ story as a lesson to assert that we should be careful, avoid God’s “bait” and possibly stay away from love altogether in hopes of successfully evade our own predetermined
(264-271)
Antagonizing God once again, Chaucer says that it’s not Venus’ fault for being so beautiful, but God’s fault for making her so desirable that Mars couldn’t help but fall madly in love with her. Mars also compares his sorrow of not being with Venus to the death of him and directly blames God for his death. With this accusation, he doesn’t offer any answer to the motives behind his God’s actions, but rather continues to display Mars as a victim whose happiness is long departed. Since there are no known motives behind the pain that God is apparently causing, we can infer that Mars is looking to blame anyone rather than himself, even if it means condemning the creator. Through The Complaint of Mars, Chaucer illustrates an unusual love story where the main character, Mars, warns us through his experiences about the destruction that love can cause. Chaucer seems to believe that God’s favor, or fate, is unavoidable. However, he also uses Mars’ story as a lesson to assert that we should be careful, avoid God’s “bait” and possibly stay away from love altogether in hopes of successfully evade our own predetermined