Masters Theses

Date of Award

6-1981

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Major

English

Major Professor

John H. Fisher

Committee Members

Mary Richards, Allen Carroll

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the female characters in William Langland's Piers Plowman to determine what his treatment of these characters was and how it fit in with the medieval view of women. Piers Plowman has three different texts; for the purpose of this study the last, the C-text, was used because it includes some female characters who do not appear in the other two texts.

The treatment of women in Piers Plowman owes a great deal to an allegorical tradition in which virtues of wisdom and strength were usually personified as women. This tradition began with classical mythology and continued in the works of Prudentius, Martianus Capella, Boethius, and Alanus de Insulis. Boethius' Consolatio Philosophiae evidently had the greatest influence on Langland, for his Lady Holy-churche and Lady Mede are a balanced pair of characters representing good and evil, or the Mary-Eve dichotomy, very much like Boethius' Lady Philosophy and Dame Fortune.

Lady Holychurche and Lady Mede are the two major female characters of Piers Plowman. They appear only in the first section of the poem, but they play important roles in these few passus. Lady Holychurche acts as a guide for Will as well as assuming a motherly role toward him. She advises, encourages, and sometimes scolds him. Like many of her literary ancestors, she is a source of knowledge who is halfway between humanity and divinity. Her opposite is Lady Mede, who represents bribery and reward. While Lady Holychurche is like a saint or folk heroine because she often takes the initiative, Lady Mede is more like a romance heroine because she is the motive for other people's action rather than being an actor herself. Holychurche and Mede also represent charity and cupidity, the Augustinian dichotomy. Holychurche tells Will repeatedly that charity is necessary for salvation, while Mede encourages men to be greedy, soothing their consciences by representing herself as just reward rather than bribery.

Many other female characters appear in the poem, but most of them are only mentioned briefly and do not participate in the action. Some of these women are mentioned by the Seven Deadly Sins in their confessions; one, Pride, is herself one of the sins. Others represent virtues and vices, and two, Kytte and Kalote, were apparently real women, the wife and daughter of the poet. Two of the more significant women are Dame Studie and Scripture. Most of the women in the poem, like the men, are not completely or realistically characterized. Langland makes some general comments about women, especially poor women, which indicate that he had sympathy for their plight.

Although Langland could not be described as "profeminist," his poem displays none of the antifeminist sentiments of his time. He seems to have made no real distinctions between "male" and "female" characteristics, but personified virtues and vices as both male and female. Langland is more clearly sympathetic toward women than other medieval authors such as Chaucer.

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