DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH

UNIVERSITY OF DELHI
INTERNAL ASSESSMENT ASSIGNMENT
COVER SHEET
SEMESTER I

DEEKSHA DEVI CHOUDHARY

NAME OF THE STUDENT:.....................................................................................
HINDU COLLEGE
COLLEGE:...............................................................................................................
21026708005 PAPER CODE............................................
EXAM ROLL NO.:…………………… 120351102
MEDIEVAL LITERATURE
PAPER NAME:........................................................................................................
ESTATE LITERATURE
TITLE OF THE PAPER............................................................................................
……………………………………………………………………………….………….…..
31ST MARCH 2022
DATE OF SUBMISSION:..........................

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 Choudhary 1

Deeksha Devi Choudhary

Medieval Literature (120351101)

31st March 2022

Literature of the Estates of the Realm

As the great chain of being itself follows orderly progress, so, the best must command

and others must follow to maintain social order. Historically in English Parliament, the

estates were divided into three classifications- Lords Spiritual, Temporal, and Commons. In

France, the estates were divided into Nobility, Clergy, and commoners. In Scotland, the three

estates comprised prelates, lairds, and burgh commissioners. Similarly in India, we had the

‘Varna system’ which was divided into Brahmin, Vaishya, Kayastha, and Shudras based on

the division of labor. But, in the later Vedic period, this Varna system became hereditary.

The medical ages were split into three estates: Laboratores (those who work), Bellatores

(those who fight), and Oratores (those who preach) (those who pray). Because William of

Normandy did not have control over the English people when he conquered England in the

twelfth century, he established a military control structure. The priests were the protectors of

spirituality since the king was ruled by divine rights. They awarded territory to nobles in

exchange for military services for the king. Knights and common people were given fiefs by

noble lords, and common people provided them with food for the necessities of all classes,

and all were loyal to the king, who was ruled by divine rights. Feudalism is the name given to

this system.
 Choudhary 2

After the Hundred Years' War (1337-1453), the War of Roses (1455-1487), the

Peasant Revolt (1381), and the Black Death (1346-1352), there was an increase in social

mobility in England, resulting at the end of nepotism and the development of estates based on

effort and action rather than inheritance. In Chaucer's Prologue to Canterbury Tales, John

Gower's Vox Clamantis, Confessio Amantis, and Speculum Hominis, William Langland's

Piers Plowman, and even the anonymous poem Mum and the Sothsegger, the disparity of

social maneuvering and heteroglossia may be traced. In the words of Jill Mann-” Chaucer

portrays idealized representatives of the three estates which form the skeletal structure of

medieval society - Knight, Parson, Ploughman.” (Mann)

Through the characters in Canterbury Tales, we can see different social classes.

Chaucer begins with The Knight and his Squire belongs to the aristocratic class. The

ecclesiastical class includes Pardoner, Parson, Nun, Monk, Prioress and Friar . Other

characters who reflected the emerging middle class included Miller, Reeve, Cook, Wife of

Bath, Franklin, Merchant, and Shipman. There is one more hidden class in the tale which

talks about women of the period. The women whose sexual practices indicate their social

class. As Schwartz explains in her essay, “she is defined in relation to the men with whom

she sleeps, used to sleep, or never has slept” (Schwartz). The ‘Wife of Bath’ dignifies the role

of ‘widow’ and ‘wife’ class of the feminine estates whereas the Prioress who is a nun comes

under the category of a virgin. Chaucer's clerk points to a distinct intellectual field that does

not pursue a career in the clergy. After the knight's tale, the story is followed by Miller's tale,

which challenges the class structure of the Canturbury tale. It is clear from all of these

individuals that Chaucer uses his writing to present an estate satire of his period.
 Choudhary 3

When we read Piers Plowman's visions, we may see "a fair field full of folk"

(Langland) in the narrator's dream, where there is a demonstration of people of various

occupations active with their individual tasks. Gower uses "the voice of the people" in his

Confessio Amantis. This voice advocates for the common good, calls for the restoration of

love and order in the several estates, and calls the king to account, notably by reminding all

classes and individuals of God's will and urging them to repent. Gower condemns clerics in

his earlier French Mirour de l'omme, published around 1377. Overall, Gower and Langland

reflect the social structure of their time, and Chaucer may have been inspired by them as he

was inspired by other classical writers.

‘Literature’ was ‘not exist as a word in English until the fourteenth century’ (Allen).

As we now categorize literature into various categories like history, politics, law, medicine,

etc., the divide between classes and their rigidity gradually brought sub-divisions, social

mobility, and modernity to England. As George Duby denotes- “Some are devoted to the

service of God; others to the preservation of the state by arms; still others to the task of

feeding and maintaining it by physical labors. (Duby)” As a result of the social order in

England in medieval times, England is still ruled by the latest monarch Queen Elizabeth II in

the 21st century following modernized estate order. As the time is getting modernized, the

estate literature of a time gets modernized too.

 Choudhary 4

Works Cited

Allen, Valerie. English Literature in Context- Paul Poplawski. United Kingdom: Cambridge
University Press, 2017.
Duby, Georges. The Three Orders- Feudal Society Imagined. Trans. Arthur Goldhammer.
USA: The University Of Chicago Press, 1980.
Langland, William. William’s Vision of Pier's Plowman. Ed. Ben Byram-Wigfield. 2006.
<http://ancientgroove.co.uk/books/PiersPlowman.pdf>.
Mann, Jill. CHAUCER AND MEDIEVAL ESTATES SATIRE. UK: CAMBRIDGE
UNIVERSITY PRESS, 1973.
Schwartz, Dr. Debora B. The Three Estates. California Polytechnic State University, n.d. 31
03 2022. <http://cola.calpoly.edu/~dschwart/engl430/estates.html>.