English Language and Literature ETDs

Publication Date

5-19-1969

Abstract

From early textual, philological and biographical concerns, studies of the Middle English poem Pearl have in recent years, shifted to extended debates. The question of whether it is allegory or personal elegy; discussion of the poem's use of symbol, myth, theology, and exegesis; and comparisons of the poem to contemporary literary works and types have occupied its students. The present study seeks to discover in Pearl the genesis of the poem's inspiration, and in conjunction with this, proposes that medieval theory of literary symbolism, and particularly that in Pearl, was based on a conscious analogy between the Incarnate Word and the word. Specifically, as Jesus Christ is God's Word Made Flesh, so the poetic symbol is the poet’s word made concrete, or given form. There may be applied to medieval poetic form developed under the apparent influence of such a theory, due allowance being made, the comparative term "incarnating." In the light of the Incarnate Word the meaning of Pearl no less than its technique, takes on a new fullness and brilliance of conception. The Incarnation may be established as the source of aesthetic that differs fundamentally from Platonic mimesis. A further differentiation between allegory and symbolism can also be made in terms of this mystery of faith. The sacramental nature of literary symbolism emerges from the contrast. An association of sacrament and symbol may be made on the basis of shared characteristics. For example, found in both sacrament and symbol is an exterior (visible, material, and concrete) which simultaneously exists with an interior (invisible, spiritual, or abstract). The Pearl's structural devices are intended to be symbolic, or sacramental, in that each provides a form through which a corresponding thought may be conveyed. Such structural devices as rhetorical figures and tropes; rhyme and linking of stanzas; alliteration; and word-play are constructed upon the organizing principle of "conversion". The poem's symbols operate on a similar principle of equivalence through processes that may be designated as "recollection" and "identification." And the thematic schema of Pearl is expressed in terms of the paradox wherein opposites are reconciled. The Pearl's structure, its symbols, and its theme are united in the Incarnate Word, the model for the union of earth and heaven. An example may be drawn from the fact that each of the Pearl's stanzas is linked to the next, the last word of one stanza being repeated in the first line of the stanza following. In Pearl not only are all stanzas so linked, but also all stanza groups; moreover, the phrase "prynce3 paye," used in the first line of the poem, is brought into the refrain of the final stanzaic group as well. Identical words are repeated, but the context creates a different meaning each time they appear. The sameness established a unity throughout the stanzas. The differences add delight through variety and freshness of verbal wit, and perhaps heighten the poet's theme of unity in spite of diversity. And the repetition at the beginning and the end is a structural representation of the Christian Alpha-Omega: the beginning and the end are one in Christ. Also inherent in this repetition is an echo of the idea predominant in the vision, that all in the company of the blessed have the same bliss and yet each one in his particularity is different. By an interrelated series of demonstrations like the preceding, the sacramental "incarnating" nature of the poem may be determined. The abstract ideas directly stated in Pearl lead the reader to cognition, but the sacramental aesthetic is designed to lead him to imaginative experience of these ideas. Though not exactly equivalent to the sacrament, a symbol (such as the pearl symbol) is, like the sacrament, an instrument whereby communion may be accomplished. The symbol brings together reader, poem, and poet in a unique way, just as the sacrament binds together man, creation, and God.

Degree Name

English

Level of Degree

Doctoral

Department Name

English

First Committee Member (Chair)

Illegible

Second Committee Member

Edith Buchanan

Third Committee Member

Joseph Benedict Zavadil

Language

English

Document Type

Dissertation

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