A Critical Theory Review of

Louis Althusser's: 'Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses'

Louis Althusser’s theory explains how we, as subjects, are interpellated by ideology. Interpellation is the operation by which ideology recruits subjects by hailing them. Althusser believes this is caused by prevailing ideology, also know as hegemony, and forms the attitudes and beliefs of people in society. This interpellation crafts people’s views due to the fact that we are constantly being hailed by ideology. There is no ideology except by the subject for the subject. Althusser also believes that misrecognition/ignorance is the basic definition of ideology. This is because subjects freely acknowledge their compliance to the ideologies in which they live.

In the Franklin’s Tale, as with many of the other tales, there is a three-way love triangle. However, the difference here is that nobility through ideology overtakes the character's actions. For example, the noble and courageous knight Arveragus married a beautiful maiden named Dorigen. The fact that he had to bind his love through the institution of marriage, shows the prevailing ideology of the time. Here, the knight was interpellated or hailed by the dominant hegemony in the society in which he lived. Arveragus’s worldview was shaped by the belief that two people could not truly love each other without being religiously coupled through marriage.

Arveragus also played the part of the subject being interpellated by ideology. When Dorigen told him the story of her disingenuous arrangement, he replied to her that, “Ye sholde youre trouthe kepe and save.” He was being hailed by the existent ideology of the time that said, “Trouthe is the hyeste thyng that man may kepe.” Even though all of the information provided in the text points to a very loving relationship between the two, interpellation became the paramount factor that allowed Arveragus to give up his wife.

Aurelius, who won the lovely Dorigen with his ability to move the rocks from the coast of Brittany, was also interpellated through ideology. When he had learned of the nobility and sacrifice of the great knight in giving up his wife, he immediately ended his side of the bet and said, “Madame, seyth to your lord Arveragus/ That sith I se his grete gentillesse…” Aurelius was hailed by ideology because his actions were indirectly influenced by what he believed to be proper and noble. Arveragus was noble in allowing Aurelius to have his wife because he was determined to make sure that she would keep her word. Aurelius realized the great sacrifice that Arveragus made to keep his wife’s word, therefore reciprocating the good dead by one of his own. He was interpellated by his own ideology that represents such clichés as, “Do unto others as you want done to you.”

At the end of the tale, even the student that Aurelius owed money to, dropped his part of the bargain. In all, ideology and nterpellation were what influenced all the deciding good deeds and nobility that were present in this tale. The characters involved all freely acknowledged their compliance to the ideologies in which they lived. Arveragus could have declined to give up his wife, Aurelius could have accepted the embrace of Dorigan, and the student could have demanded his money; however, they were all cognizant subjects of interpellation of the societies beliefs and ideology.

©2000 Jack Brimhall. All Rights Reserved.
Published by "The Wretched" Through Express Written Permission of the Author.