Finally Meeting Piers Plowman
In passus six, we are finally introduced to the character of Peres (Piers) Plowman. As the others are asking what seems like a well-traveled man if he knows how to find Truth, a plowman "putte forth his hed" (passus 6, line 24) and said that he knew Truth well. I'm not sure why, but I was expecting Piers to be a young field-hand, so it surprised me when he said he had been a follower of Truth for forty years. We aren't told exactly how he is so familiar with Truth, but he promises to lead the people "ryghth to his place" (passus 6, line 41). While reading this section, this was the most pressing question I had: who exactly is Piers Plowman? How was he able to provide such a detailed description of the relationships of Truth. And most importantly, how does such a common worker know the Truth so well? Based on all of the themes so far, we can assume that Truth refers to religious (Christian) truth. How could a plowman reach such a high level of religious achievement? This is one of the many ironies of the poem, and one that especially caught my attention.
Your assumption that Piers Plowman would be a young field-hand had me thinking about who I thought Piers was going to be. And to be honest, I didn't have much sense of that at all. The only thing we really knew about him going in is that he was a plowman, which implies that he is poor and not of high standard. I guess I kind of assumed that Piers would be going on some sort of journey to achieve Truth, not having already been a staunch follower of Truth as is the actual case. Again, I don't really know what shaped that assumption, but it might be worth looking into.
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