Characteristics of Old and Middle English Literature

In many works from the Old English period, which was approximately between 600-1100, there were many distinguishing characteristics, which included heroism, a strict class system, religion, and teachings of moral behavior.
Some different characteristics of Old English literature, which is a language derived from Old German, include a strong belief in fate in a very poetry dominated era. Many of the poems are called elegies of that time, which were sorrowful poems, such as “The Wanderer.” Another large characteristic of Old English literature is that of praising or honoring heroes of any kind, especially ones that prevail in battle. Some of these include the Cross from, “Dream of the Rood,” Beowulf from Beowulf, the lost hero in “The Wanderer,” Judith from “Judith,” and the biggest hero who is included in almost all poems and pieces of Old English literature, Christ. Many of these works express much religious faith having to do with Christianity.
The Anglo-Saxon people also had a very strict class system. Going along with the faith they believed in the Great Chain of Being, which said that when God made the entire world each creature was put in their position. God made a monarchy and put the members of that high status position there for a reason and did the same for a person who was a slave, God made them that and put them in that position in society. The people on the top of the chain are supposed to help the others on the lower end of the chain, not oppress them. Alfred was a good example of this because he was one of the good monarchs who helped the lower end of the chain and stopped a free for all civil war. He knew how to read and write which many did not, especially kings because they had people to do that for them, but he used this gift to become a promoter of learning to people. There are many pieces of literature that emphasize this characteristic, such as in Beowulf, when Beowulf does anything that he can to help the king because he is of higher status to him and so he will do anything that he can for him and then the king in return is not greedy, but instead gives him many gifts, which helps and rewards Beowulf instead of keeping all the glory and riches for himself. The largest sin to the Old English people was that of greed, which we see in many pieces of literature. This is most definitely shown in Beowulf when there is the battle between Beowulf and the dragon because the dragon symbolizes greed.
Some other distinguishing factors of Old English literature are there was much teaching of moral behavior through poetry or prose. There was also a major motif of exile in many works, such as in “The Wife’s Lament,” which is a riddle that had a possibility of meaning being that the woman in the poem is in such a dark cave in her own head that she is in her own sense of exile, which usually meant there was no coming back. When someone in this time period was exiled it was considered the worst punishment because it was lonely and most of the time ended in death.
There were many distinguishing characteristics, which included heroism, a strict class system, religion, and teachings of moral behavior in Old English Literature. All of these elements provided the Anglo-Saxon people with a sense of meaning and pride. Every action that was done during this time was to help another person out and if someone chose not to do that they were not considered a good and worthy person under the eyes of God, which is all brought to our attention through the words of the Old English prose and poetry.
Themes of chivalry, secular classical elements, importance of allegories, symbolism, and class hierarchy best characterize Middle English Literature.
Language is a major shift from Old English to Middle English literature, which goes from purely Germanic to that of a Creole of Germanic and French. There is cultural change from a large focus on the Anglo-Saxon traditions to that of Lords and Danes. Poetics went from three to four beat alliterative lines to now rhyming and actually having meter. There is also more of a use of poetic devices and metaphors have more interest.
Many ideas that come up in Middle English Literature are that of courtesy, courage, humility, chastity, and trawpe, which means fidelity and loyalty, piety, and courageousness to duty. Chivalry is a largely thought about theme among Middle English Literature, along with courtly love and knights. Chivalry also goes along with other very common themes of this time, such as, combat, courtesy, courage, chastity, responsibility, and piety. Feudalism is another very important theme of this time.
Allegories are seen a lot more explicatory and important and are also more prominent and grounded. They are also beginning to recover secular classical elements. Since monks were copying the Middle English literature it became more secular because they would not copy down such gruesome, dirty, and vulgar humored pieces. This copying of literature took place in a monastery, which was a sacred place, which is another factor of the literature becoming more secular. These stories were history to the people living at this time, not the way we think of history today, but still had this effect on these people. Fairytales are used overtly, which gives this sense of lightness of heart, but still has much seriousness to the literature of this time.
The religion is still widely Catholicism, but getting seeds of Protestant, church satire, and clerical abuse, which is widely found in the literature of this time through the use of allegories. Literature had a growing audience with much more diversity among social classes with there being much more leisure class and women having a larger role in not only the literature of that time, but also as an audience of the growing Middle English literature. The monarchy was a monumental influence on the religion someone was at that time because you had to be what the monarchy was, which meant everyone had to be the same religion and if they were not they did not tell because a person could get in much trouble for that, which is again a populous subject of Middle English literature again through the use of allegories. Many of these religious aspects come out in Piers Plowman where the author describes the society in terms of its failure to represent an ideal society living in accord with the Christian principles.
There is a large theme of Maryanism in the Middle English literature, which is when the Virgin Mary is very present in the literature, such as in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Mostly everything in Middle English literature points up and leads to many vertical metaphors. There was this large theme about keeping your eyes away from the bottom or the dust and looking up to perfection because that was the ultimate goal. Walter Hilton talks about this scale of perfection.
There are also mystery plays or cycle dramas, morality plays where there is a lesson taught, and mysticism in Middle English Literature. There are also such things as Lyrics, which is a kind of poem that describes nature and emotions, such as “Miller’s Tale.” There is a large theme of color symbolism throughout many works of Middle English, such as in “Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale” where the woman has red features, which is a symbol of passion. She also has a gapped tooth, which is a symbol of treachery because the use of symbolism in this time was a widely used literary technique. There is also a large use of number symbolism in many works, which many are mainly symbolically religious.
This idea of social class is a large theme in Middle English Literature, which we see in Geoffrey Chaucer’s, Canterbury Tales, when the knight gets to tell his story first because he is of the highest rank of all the other men.
Themes of chivalry, secular classical elements, importance of allegories, symbolism, and class hierarchy best characterize Middle English Literature. The literature of this time is starting to impact the people in a monumental way. More and more people are beginning to enjoy the luxury of literature and it is becoming a way of life for these people. Literature is not just something that was for fun, but it is now an entity describing the norms of society of this place in time.