Vision of society by William Langland and Geoffrey Chaucer.
... In his dream vision in The Field Full of Folk, Plowman reports ‘There were tramps and beggars fast about flitting,/ Crammed with bread in wallet and belly,/ Lying for their food, and fighting in taverns’1, and ‘Frairs?All four orders, I found them there,/ Preaching to the people, and glosing the gospel/ For their own profit.’1 As we can see Langland’s satire in his moral poem falls heaviest on idle beggars, hypocritical churchamn and oppressors – ‘Some serve the king, collecting his moneys,/ In the Court of Chancery, in the wards and ward-motes,/ They claim his debts, in dues of waifs and stays.’1 He judges this society as imperfect but at the same time establishes the cure for that evil. In TheVision of Piers Counsel Langland preaches how people should leave. His character Piers, as a symbol of Christ, advises that all estates should do their duty and that will help an organism (society) be praiseworthy. He also states that all people, no matter what their state is, should live by Christian virtues, and these are: charity, humility and mercy. Chaucer’s criticism, when there is any, is not as explicit. In Canterbury Tales he shows us the diversity of human life. Characters presented in The General Prologue are individuals and at the same time are morally and socially representative, with their stories being even a fuller representation of themselves, their interests, attitudes and antagonisms. And within this diversity the combat between the two antagonists – Summer and Winter, the Old Year and the New, the Old Divine King and the New takes place. This recurrent feature of medieval poety is depicted in The Prologue by two characters – the Knight and his son. Although they are both knights, they have different codes of values. The old Knight believes that the ultimate value is loyalty, s...