Representations of the 'Third Estate': Social Conflict and Its Milieu around 1381

Description: Assesses depictions of the working class by Langland, Chaucer, Gower, and the chronicler Walsingham, considering what they disclose about conditions and attitudes at the time of the 1381 Uprising (Peasant's Revolt). Sharply criticizes Gower's and Walsingham's affirmations of repressive social hierarchy, argues that Langland affirms but then denies this hierarchy, and discusses PF and ShT as Chaucer's depictions of the inevitable "antagonism between social groups" and his rejection of "unreflexive moralizing" and "traditional social hierarchy."