Christ's Humanity--Pier's Plowman

I read through this text much more quickly than I navigated through The Canterbury Tales in Middle English. I can understand how comprehension of the 18th passus would be difficult without a thorough understanding of the crucifixion story. I think it would have been a good idea to take the actual Biblical text of the crucifixion and paired it with Langland’s dream version to see how the two were similar and different.

One particular characteristic of Langland’s dream vision that stood out to me was the personification of abstractions like Love, Mercy, and Truth. There are a few passages where I thought these personifications were particularly effective, and if not, they were at least interesting. Langland describes Christ’s crucifixion not only as a battle between heaven and hell or good and evil or God and Satan. He also describes it as a battle between Life and Death. I think this portrays the crucifixion as a war for a more basic instinct, Life. One particular sentence struck me. It reads, “If you are Christ and a King’s son, come down from the Cross!/ Then we’ll believe that Life loves you and will not let you die.” Instead of the traditional Bible story in which spectators ask Jesus to reveal his power and God’s power by freeing himself and preserving his life, Langland points to Life as an omnipotent savior.

Another interesting use of personification is found on page 361 when Righteousness argues to Peace that those who dwell in Hell will not be saved. He says, “…their pain will be perpetual and no prayer should help them…” while Peace argues, “Love who is my lover sent letters to tell me that my sister Mercy and I shall save mankind.” I thought it was interesting that Langland seems to frame spiritual conflicts around interactions between personified emotions or other abstractions. The conversations between Peace and Righteousness seem to remove the reader from seeing Salvation as a gift from God, and cause them to instead feel that the abstractions hold power over heaven and hell. Maybe this was just my reading though.