How Will Piers Plowman Develop?

Finally, we have met the character Piers Plowman. At first, he seemed to be the perfect servant of Truthe, representing all that is good. He justly helped the poor and gave advice that seemed to be in line with the ideals of truth and Christianity. He still appeared to be in line with Christianity even during the parasites rebellion against him. He asked that they be truthful, and then came up with a clever way of testing their truthfulness by offering them what would have helped them should they be sick, but what they clearly did not want. Their outright rejection of his offer and their hatred against him seems to justify his out casting them and his threats against them.

But very soon (in passus seven primarily) we see that Peres begins talking to Hounger, which seems very similar to gluttony. He rapidly decays into a sinful person after taking Hounger’s advice, and Truthe denounces his actions (at the beginning of passus eight) and asks that the pope grant him forgiveness.

Piers seems to be one of the only characters without an allegorical name, and it seems apparent that he will become a major character given the fact that the book is named after him. Why? My hypothesis is that Piers will develop as a character into a more good-Christian role throughout the story, showing the hard development required to make this transition. But of course this is just conjecture.