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< Previous Page | Next Page > Chapter 4b: The Accord of Reason and Sensuality in DeathIn The Assembly of Gods, Death is not simply a symbolic or iconographic representation of the end of life. He, like the personifications in the morality plays (Davidson 6-8), does not just represent an abstract idea, but becomes a unique character with personality and feelings. He responds emotionally and naturally to the events of the poem. He “is undoubtably ‘dreary’” (P. Tristram 179) and yet at times the poem undercuts the seriousness of the character. Scenes such as his address to the gods (435-97) and his response to Righteousness’ mockery (1399-1400) reveal a concrete character who is perhaps the most human in the poem. These scenes are also key to the way that the poet uses Death to personify the accord of reason and sensuality and the process of seeing past the figures of an allegory to realize a deeper truth. When Atropos first appears he is an “offycere” to the pagan gods, and he reminds them of his charge, “All tho with [his] dart fynally to chastyse/ That [them] dysobeyed or wold [their] law dyspyse” (447-48). He claims to have been faithful in his assignment and invites them to check his claim with Dame Nature (451-58). After giving some examples of his work, he says he has, “brought euery creature/ To an ende bothe man, fysshe, foule & beste,/ And euery other thyng in whom Dame Nature/ Hath any iurysdiccion” (477-80), except Virtue, who has somehow managed to defy his power, and he threatens to leave the service of the gods if they do not “do [him] equyte/ Accordyng to [his] patent” (495-96). Of course this brings on the battle between Virtue and Vice, which goes Virtue’s way, “And when olde Attropos had seeñ & herde all thys,/ How Vertew had opteynyd, astonyed as he stood,/ He seyd to hymsylf, ‘Somwhat the ys amys’” (1310-13). He returns to Apollo’s palace to question the gods. When Apollo reminds him that, “The wordys of [his] patent, . . . / Streche to no ferthe but where dame Nature/ Hath iurisdiccion” (1324-26) and informs him that, “Vertu he ys no creature/ Vnder the predicament conteynyd of quantyte./ Wherfore hys destruccion longeth nat to the” (1328-30), Atropos says, “A haa!. . . , then I se well/ That all ye goddes be but counterfete” (1331-32). Later, when Atropos asks Righteousness if he can serve the Lord of Light the narrator records,
This realization and transformation in the character of Death provides the perfect allegory for the central theme of the poem. Like Doctrine, Atropos is a character in the narrative and cannot entirely break through the surface of the poem without undermining his own existence, but he learns that the gods are counterfeit and realizes the deeper truth that he has been serving the Lord of Light all along. This realization allows him to leave behind the errors of his deceived wits and serve the Lord of Light in truth. Atropos’ emotional response, indeed his glee, when he finds that the gods will be had in derision make it seem that perhaps he feels he has been cheated by the gods and is simply acting out of anger, but his first statement to the gods displays his understanding that his jurisdiction extends only as far as Nature’s. He knows that the gods have not violated the contract they had with him. It might also seem that he leaves the gods to find an employer who can give him more power, but, even in the service of the Lord of Light, Virtue remains outside his jurisdiction. Atropos leaves the employ of the gods because he realizes that they are not what he had perceived them to be. They are, as Doctrine later explains to the narrator, false figures. This realization comes to Atropos when he learns that, “Vertu he ys no creature/ Vnder the predicament conteynyd of quantyte” (1328-29) and is able to reason that if Virtue is not a real figure then the gods are counterfeit as well. That is as far as he can take the reasoning, but his experience is a representation of the process of bringing reason and sensuality together to see beyond the figure. It is by his reason that Atropos is able to see through the gods’ outward appearance and learn the truth about himself. Death is the ideal character to symbolize the coming together of the reasonable and the sensitive soul because he is the character who stands in the middle of the divided medieval world. Both Triggs and Spivack describe the relationship between the popularity of the image of Death in the Middle Ages and the medieval division of the spiritual and temporal aspects of the world. In Spivack’s words, “The divided universe held on one side the eternal joy of heaven, or the pain, no less eternal, of hell; on the other, the corrupt and mutable world of nature in which mortal flesh ached with immortal longings, craving and fearing. And at the juncture of these two worlds stood Death” (65, see also Assembly xliii-xliv). This positioning of Death between the spiritual and temporal, particularly as they relate to allegory, is made flesh in The Assembly of Gods. Righteousness’ rhetorical question, “Whether art thow double, or elles the same man/ That thow were furst?" accentuates the way that the poem literalizes the concept of the divided soul in the character of Death. Death is double. As Atropos he is led by his sensual aspect and is fooled by the figures of the gods. As Death he has overcome the deception and is lead by reason to understand his true nature. He not only represents the two aspects of the human soul, but through the course of the poem he comes to embody the process of bringing sensuality under the control of reason and does it by seeing through the allegory of the gods. In the same way, each individual is double in the medieval system. They are sensual and rational. The process of subduing the sensual and following the rational is the process that prepares the individual to, “holde the way of reson,/ The which, in soth, yif thou take hede,/ Doth a man to heven lede (Lydgate Reason 844-46), so that after the summons of death he or she will be, “blessyd with [the] hand” of Predestination,
Properly understanding allegory can help train the soul to conquer sensuality and follow reason. All of these ideas come together in the character of Death, who quite literally overcomes his sensual self and turns his back on the pagan gods to become a new man and serve the Lord of Light because he learns to see through the false figures that had previously deceived his wits. As the central character in the poem, Death brings together and drives home all the themes of the poem. The various conventional allegories of death that are included in the poem connect The Assembly of Gods with some of the most popular allegories of the late Middle Ages. In the poem they are arranged and altered to accentuate the importance of the accord of reason and sensuality and to connect that accord with death and judgement. In addition, the poet manipulates the popular images of death to create a unique and interesting character who, through his transformation, personifies the accord of reason and sensuality, the process of allegorical interpretation and the role of allegory in preparing the soul for death. < Previous Page | Next Page > |
ContentsChapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3: Literary, Visual and Dramatic Allegories Chapter 4: Death and the accord of Reason and Sensuality Appendix 1 Appendix 2: Critical response to The Assembly of Gods |
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