My boy Piers 6-9
Today for my blog post, I would like to focus on Passus 8 specifically.
As I stated in an earlier blog post, I believe that the Dreamer nor Peres are the main characters,but rather God is. I explained this thought around the belief that since the Dreamer is a creation of God then his thoughts are a result of the creation by God. The Dreamer is having a vision of God and going through a mental journey of moral reprehensibility. We do not know whether the Dreamer was a good or bad person in the beginning, but we can tell by reading from the story that he is on a mental journey towards responsibility. Moving on previous passus, I think Passus 8 is the most biblical of all the passus so far in that the language seems almost to be directly interpreted from the Bible or another ancient Christian text. The quote in Passus 8 that really struck me as profound in both Biblical and Plowman sense was in lines 94 - 95, "Et qui bona egerunt, ibunt in vitam eternam; Qui vero mala, in ignem eternum." These lines almost exactly translate from Latin to English as ."And those who did good deeds, they will go into eternal life; Those, however, who did wicked deeds, into eternal fire." These two lines can almost be a direct interpretation of Christianity as a religion in that if you lead a good life, you will be blessed with heaven, and for those who sin are damned to hell for eternity. I feel that the author of the poem, whoever that may be, was trying to discover the flaws in the religion he had been forced into since his childhood.
The author also spends much of Passus 8 discussing the idea of "pardoun" for sins. The idea of indulgences that allowed humans on Earth to spend money to be forgiven of their sins. These indulgences were popular in Catholicism for much if the Middle Ages until Martin Luther came around in the early 1500s with his Ninety-five theses. He wrote these theses in direct conflict with the Holy Roman Catholic Church because he did not believe that you buy your way out sin and hell. This idea was very contrversial at the time as many church and public leaders were outraged by the fact that some =one was questioning the ideas of the all-powerful Pope. But after reading Piers Plowman, I have come to the realization that Luther was not original in his thoughts and that they had been around for many years before. In the story, specifically in Passus 8, Peres and the priest have a conversation about indulgences and pardons for sins. In line 66 - 67 the narrator says, "Beggers and bydderes beth not in the bulle, But the suggestionys be soth that him nede to begge." What this line is stating is that under the laws of serfdom/fiefdom of the Middle Ages, beggars did not have the luxury of paying for indulgences because they were too poor to afford them and had to resort to a life of begging. By begging, which is a sin, the beggars were destined to hell according to the papal court from the moment they were born because they were not perfect in their interpretation of the eyes of God. God though believes that everybody is equal in his eyes unless you are sinful and evil.
As I stated in an earlier blog post, I believe that the Dreamer nor Peres are the main characters,but rather God is. I explained this thought around the belief that since the Dreamer is a creation of God then his thoughts are a result of the creation by God. The Dreamer is having a vision of God and going through a mental journey of moral reprehensibility. We do not know whether the Dreamer was a good or bad person in the beginning, but we can tell by reading from the story that he is on a mental journey towards responsibility. Moving on previous passus, I think Passus 8 is the most biblical of all the passus so far in that the language seems almost to be directly interpreted from the Bible or another ancient Christian text. The quote in Passus 8 that really struck me as profound in both Biblical and Plowman sense was in lines 94 - 95, "Et qui bona egerunt, ibunt in vitam eternam; Qui vero mala, in ignem eternum." These lines almost exactly translate from Latin to English as ."And those who did good deeds, they will go into eternal life; Those, however, who did wicked deeds, into eternal fire." These two lines can almost be a direct interpretation of Christianity as a religion in that if you lead a good life, you will be blessed with heaven, and for those who sin are damned to hell for eternity. I feel that the author of the poem, whoever that may be, was trying to discover the flaws in the religion he had been forced into since his childhood.
The author also spends much of Passus 8 discussing the idea of "pardoun" for sins. The idea of indulgences that allowed humans on Earth to spend money to be forgiven of their sins. These indulgences were popular in Catholicism for much if the Middle Ages until Martin Luther came around in the early 1500s with his Ninety-five theses. He wrote these theses in direct conflict with the Holy Roman Catholic Church because he did not believe that you buy your way out sin and hell. This idea was very contrversial at the time as many church and public leaders were outraged by the fact that some =one was questioning the ideas of the all-powerful Pope. But after reading Piers Plowman, I have come to the realization that Luther was not original in his thoughts and that they had been around for many years before. In the story, specifically in Passus 8, Peres and the priest have a conversation about indulgences and pardons for sins. In line 66 - 67 the narrator says, "Beggers and bydderes beth not in the bulle, But the suggestionys be soth that him nede to begge." What this line is stating is that under the laws of serfdom/fiefdom of the Middle Ages, beggars did not have the luxury of paying for indulgences because they were too poor to afford them and had to resort to a life of begging. By begging, which is a sin, the beggars were destined to hell according to the papal court from the moment they were born because they were not perfect in their interpretation of the eyes of God. God though believes that everybody is equal in his eyes unless you are sinful and evil.
I definitely agree that Passus 8 was one of the most biblical passages out of the book because it constantly referred to different parts of the Bible. I find it very interesting that you mention that the author could be looking for flaws in his religion--I think that's totally reasonable. I liked how you incorporated history into your analysis and I also didn't really think about the idea that indulgences existed for a while.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting perspective. I personally took those lines to mean that Piers was somewhere in that middle point; he doesn't know exactly he will end up in heaven or hell because of his deeds. They definitely struck a chord in me though, the Latin only made the words more powerful than if they were written in standard English. This uncertainty in Piers' status in the afterlife might translate to some concerns in the Dreamer's mind, whom I can see as an extension of Piers in a way, about his own misdeeds and perhaps some of his anxiety about death.
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