The treatment of character types and methods of character portrayal in Patience and Purity considered with reference to other literature of the late fourteenth and early fifteenth century including drama

Abstract

Some initial consideration of character types and usages in mediaeval literature is undertaken before an examination of the poems' structures which seem to be adaptions of the homiletic genre. The Gawain-poet uses the homiletic framework but presents his themes, not by the customary argument, but by the use of exemplary characters. The narrator's voice is adapted to become more positive, like that of the dream vision genre, and less didactic. The poet characterizes mainly by amplifying the Vulgate with realistic detail. Other literary traditions used are the description of behaviour in the sin-manuals, and the romance and drama which have parallel with the complementary King-figures in Purity. Other characters without such well-defined social roles are more difficult to place in mediaeval literature. Abraham, the embodiment of Purity's theme that the pure see God, is presented initially through his actions, and, although a figure of purity, he is shown as an individual and not a type figure. Lot, too, is individualized but he is seen as a fallible man and presented in a humorous light, as is Jonah. He is disobedient to God, but he is not totally condemned, which is in itself unusual. In a longer presentation than any in Purity, his thought processes and feelings are only detailed where they show impatience and further the theme. That characterization is dependent on the effective presentation of theme is clear from the non-development of Noah (considered with Abraham and Lot), when the poet emphasises instead God's character of wrath at impurity. The poet uses character as he does imagery by accumulating examples, in a paratactic structure to present a loosely-knit, composite picture of the theme. His purpose is not only didactic, and his characterizations are unusual in their individual presentation of reality, through the dramatizing of action and speech.