Piers Plowman Prologue and Passus 1

A typical mystery involves some sort of crime, followed by an investigation, followed by a listing of suspects (most of which will be incorrect guesses, despite seeming like they each have reasons for committing the crime), and finally, a conclusion by the detective(s) in which they figure out how the crime was done and who did it. In a mystery story, the criminal is unknown, and the details of the crime aren't always clear. 

When I think of a crime story, I think more of something more along the lines of a somewhat simpler investigation in which the crime is pretty clear (as in there isn't much dispute as to what happened), and the only real question is who did it, and why did they do it. Another example of a crime story would be something like Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky. The crime itself is committed at the beginning of the book, so the part of the story that makes it compelling isn’t so much the crime, but the reasons for the crime, the aftermath (mental turmoil), and the eventual consequences. 

The mystery in the story comes primarily from how evidence is presented (whether it be suspects, clues, or theories proposed by the investigators), and how the evidence is manipulated to create a compelling story.

After reading the prologue and Passus One of Piers Plowman, I must say that it was a challenge to read. Passus one is like six pages long, and it was still pretty painful because of the language and my lack of understanding as to what was going on. There was a lot of religious talk, namely about hevene and helle, God and Lucyfere, synnes, curses, and some stuff about betrayal. Basically what I got was that there is a father of faith that created us all, some stuff about drinking and doing what the devil wants, something about a curse, Adam and Eve, and an elder hanging himself. Then there’s stuff about the Holy church, betrayal, Lucifer, never ending pain, something about being weighed down, and the passus ends by saying may our lord look after you. 

I didn’t really get any mystery vibes from this reading, the main mystery to me was what exactly was going on. I wasn't clear as to whether or not someone was speaking to someone else or if it was just a narration, but the whole thing was pretty confusing. There were, however, a lot of things that seemed crime related. It felt like there were a lot of warnings about the stuff that will happen to you (curses, never-ending pain, and going to hell) if you stray from the word of God and the Church. I would guess that the point of these warnings would be to illustrate the fact that these crimes have undesirable consequences (so it would be wise to not commit the crimes).