Piers Plowman Passus 4-5

After the king commands Conscience to kiss Mede, Concscience refuses and runs away. Wrong is placed in iron fetters for his wrong deeds. At the end of Passus 4, I think the king states that he will see the union of Conscience and Mede by any means necessary. I thought the beginning of Passus 5 was particularly strange, as the man who is having this dream woke up from sleeping temporarily, and then passes out again. I am not sure of the purpose of this instant in the story, but it was certainly interesting that it was included. My understanding of this entire poem, is so far below 50% that it's not funny. Anyways, at some point Conscience comes back with a cross and puts everybody on blast. He tells each person what they are doing wrong, essentially giving a sermon to the people. While he is talking the actual person Repentance appears and everyone starts crying because of their sins and repenting. I think this illustrates how man's conscience stirs the heart to repentance. As this is a religious allegory, perhaps the author wanted to illustrate that even though people by nature may be bad, within them they know the right thing to do by their conscience. The character Glutton was interesting as he starts drinking right after Repentance was just present. He drinks so much that his wife and mistress have to carry him away after he stumbles and falls to the ground. He sleeps for two days wakes up and says, "where's the booze?" His wife lectures him and he is ashamed. Passus 5 ends with men weeping for their sins and hoping that Truth will appear so that they can receive grace. Also, clear sexism can be seen in the line "he warnede Watte his wif was to blame." (Passus 5) This just illustrates that there is still sexism in the earth at this time.

https://quod.lib.umich.edu/c/cme/PPlLan/1:6?rgn=div1;view=fulltext