In The Legend of Good Women, the God of Love bases his definition of a “good woman” on the actions of surrounding characters rather than on the protagonist herself. Being “virtuous” requires no action in these legends. Instead, a passive and emotional response to the action of a treacherous man is insisted upon. The construction of Dido and Ariadne in their respective legends follows exactly the commands 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 advance the story. To follow the instructions of the God of Love while still writing a cohesive legend, Chaucer creates secondary female characters in the form of sisters. Geoffrey's creation of Anne and Phaedra and manipulation of their development fills narrative gaps that "good" women need. They are not antagonists, but a complement to the protagonist sisters. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay As individuals, Dido and Ariadne have no balance between feeling and thinking. The narrator is ignorant of their backstories, and their personalities are virtually indistinguishable. The men of history are given structural precedence; Theseus and Oeneus appear before Ariadne and Dido. Furthermore, the narrator develops Aeneus as a character before he arrives in Carthage, and his encounter with Dido does not compromise his identity as a man or a Trojan. Similarly, Theseus arrives in Crete from the troubled city of Athens and the Minotaur threatens his life. Although the narrator disapproves of their motives, Oeneus has a reason to leave Dido, and Theseus has a reason to ask for Ariadne's help. In contrast, the narrator provides no rational motivation for Dido and Ariadne's intense emotions beyond superficial attraction and pity, and each of them is still uniquely motivated by these feelings. These empty characters cannot advance the narrative and therefore threaten to keep the story in stasis. Their earlier development indicates that Ariadne would continue to listen sympathetically to Theseus, and Dido would continue to silently yearn for Oeneus. As such, their inadequacy as individuals begins to affect their viability as narrative devices. Indeed, Legend's titles are misleading in terms of narrative. Ariadne and Dido's importance to the story is miniscule in terms of what they actually do. A good woman must only feel, but a good protagonist must also think. Because thought and feeling are mutually exclusive for the purposes of the God of Love, Anna and Phaedra also serve as narrative devices that spur the climactic actions of their respective legends. The supposed main action in The Legend of Ariadne is Ariadne's decision to provide Theseus with a weapon and a way out of the labyrinth. However, Phaedra gives rise to the idea, and the pity that motivates their assistance is plural – "and of her pain they had compassionioun" (1974, emphasis added). The responses to Theseus' predicament seem very similar. Arianna says that "He will be helped, how can we do it!" and Phaedra says "To her aid the best rod I can..." However, Phaedra's threshold of ability is much higher than Ariadne's. The fundamental difference is between Ariadne's “we” and Phaedra's “I”. They both feel pity for Theseus, but only Phaedra can act on her feelings. Phaedra continues her declaration of mercy with a plan to actually save Theseus, and this plan ultimately succeeds. Although Anne does not influence insignificantly the end of The Legend of Dido, serves to absorb and process Dido's excessive emotion while providing a rational balance to Dido's Feelings. Unlike the story of Phaedra and Ariadne, Dido's emotions ultimately take precedence over Anna's thoughts. When Dido talks to her sister about Oeneus, she speaks only of Oeneus' superficial qualities – "I think he is so well made / And wants so easily to be a man" (151). Although Anna does not encourage Dido to pursue Aeneus, she "seen as hir thinke, and somdel it resisted" (151). This brief interjection is representative of the internal struggle that a fully developed Dido would experience if she considered the pros and cons of marrying Oeneus. 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. Theseus and Oeneus both leave while the women sleep, and both sail to more politically viable places than Naxos or Carthage. To remain in character, Dido and Ariadne must also remain in stasis for the completion of the legends. Physically, Ariadne remains in Naxos and Dido remains in Carthage. Emotionally, they spend their last moments as protagonists “complicating themselves” (“Arianna” 2216, “Dido” 1357). Dido's suicide is more dramatic than Ariadne's planting of a white flag, but both illustrate the same point. Without Theseus and Aeneus, Ariadne and Dido are narratively blocked. Because bad men have created their identities as good women, their individual stories can no longer progress without Aeneus and Theseus. Phaedra and Anna play substantially different roles in the classical versions of these myths because they are primarily characters rather than narrative devices. In the Heroides, simply listening to Ariadne's voice rather than that of the narrator develops her character far beyond the confines of the God of Love's instructions. Arianna is not simply saddened, but rationally angry at his betrayal. The recipient of the Legend of Theseus' promises is ambiguous, but the Heroides makes it clear that Theseus "said to [Ariadne]: 'By these perils of mine, I swear that, as long as we both live, you will be mine!'" (Heroides 59) Furthermore, Ariadne he takes credit for his role in saving Theseus: “O Theseus, I had not slain with a gnarled stick him who was part man and part bull, and had I not given you thread to show the way of your return – thick thread; recaptured and passed through the hands guided by it” (Heroides, para. 99). Furthermore, in the Metamorphoses, Ovid gives full credit to Ariadne and agency for her actions in saving Theseus and no blame for leaving Crete with Theseus: “The door/So difficult, that none of those before/Could find, with Ariadne's help/It was found, the thread that traced the way rewound/Then Theseus, seizing Minos' daughter, unfurled/His sails to Naxos, where , on the shore/That cruel prince abandoned her and she/Abandoned, in pain and anger found/Comfort in the arms of Bacchus” (Metamorphoses 176). The action of the two versions is essentially identical, but the manifestation of Ariadne's thought process gives credence to her emotions and thus develops her character. Although Ariadne leaves Crete with Theseus against her will in the Metamorphoses, Ovid provides her with a story after Theseus abandons her. His pain and anger lead to action: finding comfort in the arms of Bacchus. Significantly, Phaedra is not mentioned in Ovid's Metamorphoses and Heroides because she is not needed as a narrative device. A fully developed Ariadne does not need a Phaedra to think for her or initiate a plan. Likewise, Anna has not.