Tales of Piers and Perceval: Langland, Romance Aventure, and Doing Well

Noting that Piers Plowman has often been described as multi-generic, the conclusion reviews the claim that the five diverse allegorical narrative structures analysed in the book all occur in Langland’s poem. It affirms that in Piers Plowman they bring with them their own internal conflicts and disruptions, but are also in constant tension with each other. They overlay, pressure and contradict one other, illustrating the entrenched nature of the text’s dialecticism and its inexhaustible determination to unpack its own terms. The Conclusion ends with an analysis of the feast of Patience, in which many different descriptions of ‘do-well’ are brought together to ‘undo’ each other. Its implicit claim is that this is the kind of work allegory does best.