|
Allegorical and symbolic,
the poem is a bitter satire on the social vices of the 14th century of
England and arouses great sympathy for the oppressed peasants. The whole
work reflects feudal English in the second of the 14th century: the social
injustices, the corruption of the church, and the sufferings of poor
peasants, the uprightness of labors, terrible class struggles and the
political situation. The poet praises Piers, simple, honest, and
straight-forward, who is a representative of the most oppressed section of
the peasantry. The poem has its conventional religious theme with long
moralizations. The Christian religion with its dogmas of Christ as the
savior is presented in the poem and piers becomes in effect the incarnation
of Jesus Christ, seeking to help those people who are led astray by worldly
concerns and to guide them along the correct path to heaven. Piers is
described to be an image like Christ to devote to religion in the way to
lead people to heaven.
The poem is written in unrhymed alliterative verse: each line
contains three alliterative words, two of which are placed in the first
half, and the third in the second half. But the verse is flow and flexible,
different from that found in alliterative poem in the Old English period.
Try to communication with his readers, the poet use very ordinary and simple
speech in the poem. Envy of the Seven Deadly Sins says in the poem:
“I would that each were my servant.
If one has more than I, that angrieth me sore,
Thus I live loveless like a vicious dog,
And all my body swelleth, so bitter is my gall.”
The poem is an allegory which the characters and
events symbolize some underlying meaning. The personages in the allegory are
personifications of abstract ideas such as Truth, False, Reason, and
Conscience etc.
Like many medieval literature, Piers the Plowman is
written in the form of dream vision. It is a mirror to England in that age,
vividly presenting English society in the 14th century with dramatic
descriptions and living dialogues. When we read the poem, we seem to be face
to face with the characters in the street. The scene of the picture of
Gluttony in the tavern on his way to church is vividly portrayed as it seen
in the followings:
“Forth he went upon his way fasting, on a Friday,
But Betty the Brewster bid him good morrow,
Then in goes Glutton……
There was laughing and chattering and ‘Pass the cup round,’
Bargaining and toasts and songs, and so they---till even--- song.
And Glutton had gulped down a gallon and a gill.
He could neither step nor stand till he had his staff.
Then ‘gan he walk like a blind singer’s dog,
Now to this side, now to that, and sometimes backward,
Like a man who lays lines to catch wild birds;
And when he drew to his doorstep, then his eyes grew dim,
He stumbled on the threshold and fell flat on the floor;
Then Cobbler Clement caught him by the waist
To life him up on high and get him to his knees;
But Glutton was a heavy churl and groaned as he life him,
And coughed up his drink in Clement’s lap.
With all the trouble in the world his wife and his wench
Bore him home to his bed and laid him therein;
And after all this surfeit he had a sleeping fit,
All Saturday and Sunday he slept till the sin went to rest.
Then waked he from his winking and wiped his eyes,
And the first word he threw was, ‘ Where’s the tankard?”
|
