Why Piers Plowman is the Epitome of Literature
Piers Plowman is beginning to regrow on me. The last two passi (four and five) have been easier to understand so I can now get a clear understanding of the plot. As far as I can tell, Mede is getting married to both the king and Conciens or something along the lines of that. I feel that this both odd and normal at the same time. In the times we live in now, since Conciens is a close relative of Mede, it would be weird that a close relative is making a move at Mede. It is also normal at the same time in that in those days it was not uncommon but more of a commonplace that two members of a royal family would procreate together. They did this to maintain the purity of the family who believed they were chosen by God to lead their people and therefore could not be corrupted by the low lives.
One of my biggest qualms with the last two passi was that both Reason, Wisdom, and Conscience were all included within the story along with Wit. From what I have learned before is that Reason and Conscience are the same thing in that they both are there for the human mind to make the morally reprehensible decision. It confuses me as to why they are making the same argument that Conscience should not marry Mede because she is the daughter of Wrong. Reason and Conscience should not marry her because it is not God wold have wanted. God would classify that it is an unjust marriage to a person of lesser stature than them. The king disagrees because he believes that he is a descendant of God and therefore has the authority to make the decisions God would make. These arguments both contradict themselves in that God created all three of them and they cannot speak for God because he is the creator. God gave them free will and allows them to make their own thoughts and ideas but not speak for other people because each person was created as their own individual by God.
On page 76, "God wot," qwath Wisdam, "that were not the beste; And we amemded mowe make, lat meynpris hym have And be borwe for his bale; and bryngen hym bote, Amende that mysdede, and evermore the betere."
This quote is able to describe the thoughts that wisdom is better than God and illustrates the point I made in the blog post.
I honestly didn't understand the last Passus at all so good job figuring that out. I like your analysis on the first part of the reading and how much times have changed. It makes us think about the setting and how different their views are from our present-day society. The way I read it, I thought the king wanted Mede to marry only Conscience, not himself, but honestly who knows at this point. Also, I didn't know Conscience and Reason were the same person so thanks for pointing that out. It's like how we talked about how False and Wrong may or may not be the same person during class.
ReplyDeleteBro, I don't know where the God factor is coming from at all, but Reason and Conscience I'm quite sure are not the same person. They may be aspects of the human mind, but I don't believe they are one and the same.
ReplyDeleteWe had very different interpretations of this part of the text. The king originally wanted Concience to marry Mede, which Conciense was against, so they brought Reason in to decide and then everyone agreed with Reason that Mede would be a terrible wife and Conceins didn't have to marry her
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