Langland’s Piers Plowman: A Cultural Analysis

Abstract

Across the 12th and 13th centuries, the population of Europe increased hugely. In the feudal system society was organized as a pyramid of sorts. The clergy and nobles were at the top, with a great many peasants at the bottom. In the middle were the scientists, merchants, craftsmen and yeoman farmers. Certain aspects of the Middle Ages seem rather glamorous such as kings, queens, knights, and other rumors that surrounded the time period, but overall, the Middle Ages were not a fun and fancy-free type of time. Many fundamental ideas of western culture developed in this middle period. The Middle Ages produced many works that reveal the culture and thought of that age. William Langland’s Piers Plowman is one of the defining works of late medieval literature, as well as of the English canon. Piers the Plowman or The Vision of Piers the Plowman is an impressive allegory, deeply concerned with social, religious, ethical and economic problems of the time containing a profound consideration of the good life and of man’s religious vocation. The poem is a fine synthesis of social realism and religious vision.