What is the central subject of Chaucer's Parlement of Foules?

• A. Birds gathered in a council to discuss courtship
• B. A political allegory about Parliament
• C. A catalog of birds in a royal menagerie
• D. The life and death of a hero

Answer: (A)

At heart, the poem is about love and courtship, dramatized through a dream-vision in which birds gather in a garden to form a parliament on Valentine’s Day and discuss which mates to choose. This parliamentary setting is a literary device that lets Chaucer explore how birds—like people—navigate attraction, desire, and social expectations, rather than focusing on politics, a catalog of species, or heroic life. The central action is the birds debating and deciding about love, which makes that topic the main thread of the piece. Other readings miss the core moment by treating it as politics, a mere list of birds, or a life-and-death tale, when the driving energy of the poem comes from love and mate selection among the avian participants.