SOURCE: Schultz, Andrea. “Absent and Present Images: Mirrors and Mirroring in John Gower's Confessio Amantis.” Chaucer Review 34, no. 1 (1999): 107-24.

In the following essay, Schultz describes Gower's use of the metaphor of mirrored self-reflection in the Confessio Amantis in conjunction with the poem's themes of self-knowledge, self-delusion, and self-awareness.

John Gower's Confessio Amantis fits a number of medieval genres. It is a consolation poem, a dream vision, a “love allegory,” and, most obviously, a confession. As such, despite the social commentary of the Prologue, the poem's most important feature is its unhappy title character, its focus is his state of mind, and its purpose is the restoration of his balance and good judgment. Comprised within this last is his reunion with the rest of history, humankind, and ultimately God. What is so interesting about the Confessio, given its various generic models, is that the work itself, in both its...