42 pages • 1 hour read
The Pillars of the Earth
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Themes
Order Versus Anarchy
When Philip first enters Winchester, he marvels at the relative cleanliness and modernity of the city: “As he walked around, Philip gradually realized that part of the reason for the spacious feel was that the streets were laid out on a square grid pattern” (308). While towns like Kingsbridge and Shiring were developed around traditional trade routes, waterways, and the whims of common experience, it is suggested that Winchester was planned out with foresight and intentionality. This is what Philip wants for his own growing town.
Foresight and intentionality are moral qualities shared by the empathetic characters in Follett’s book, whereas the most wretched and inhuman characters act on impulse and immediate gain. These bad qualities, Follett suggests, derive from the feudal system of government and exist to uphold it. Therefore, the heroes of the novel are forced to endure hardship and setbacks as they construct their solid plans on the shifting sands of unchecked monarchical rule. There is no redress for lost bribes or writs signed by deposed rulers, and when a great leader is killed in a fit of irrational bloodlust, his followers have no redress but their own form of irrationality, raising the victim to martyr status in order that he not be forgotten.
At one point, Walerian struggles to explain a concept to William that any reader who has taken a contemporary high-school government course takes for granted. “I’m not sure I can explain it to you…Philip believes that the law should be king,” Walerian says, to which a flabbergasted William replies, “Stupid idea […] the king is king” (472). Therefore, the question of who or what rules over common men is constantly at odds in this time period. Though it is not mentioned in the text of the book, the spirit of the Magna Carta of 1215, written just 45 years after the Beckett affair, hovers over The Pillars of the Earth and informs its sense of right and wrong. The Magna Carta was a truce between the clergy and the king, one that limited the powers of the king and offered a referenceable form of redress that took precedence over the whims of the king. It is often cited as the ur-form of the sort constitutional government under which the protagonists of the novel might have thrived.
Creative Anachronism and Historical License
At one point, Prior Philip walks past a Winchester brothel and describes himself as “feeling hot and bothered,” but “hot” as a description of sexual arousal doesn’t appear until the 16th century, and the phrase “hot and bothered” didn’t appear until the 20th (309). Anachronism—the appearance of words and phrases where they don’t belong—is an understandable element in historical fiction. After all, in southern England in the 12th century, common people usually spoke Old English, while royalty and clergy spoke Norman French. If Follett had written his book in either language, it would pose serious difficulties to his modern audience (though it does explain how Jack, Aliena, and Philip can travel to the European continent with virtually no language barriers).
Such a decision does not come without consequences, however. With modern language come modern ideas that might not have not occurred to a population that had a limited vocabulary for science, government, and architecture. Philip admires the grid pattern of the streets of Winchester for a different aesthetic reason than did the city planners of New York when they established their own real-estate friendly city grid 500 years later. Yet it is a strong temptation for the contemporary writer to attribute his own hindsight to a historical character like Philip, making him a preternaturally far-sighted visionary quite by accident.
It should also be noted that the Anarchy of the English civil war does not represent the totality of English medieval life. Everyday life and natural rhythms of growth and harvest was arguably more important than who succeeded whom to the average person. Most common people in medieval England were farmers whose lives never touched war and whose accumulated knowledge contributed just as much to humankind as the isolated breakthroughs of great people. Medieval historians might say that using the Anarchy as an illustration of the values of medieval life would be like using World War II to explain the whole of modernity.
Coming of Age and Moral Character
The Pillars of the Earth is a book of historical sweep, covering the better part of a century, but it is also an intimate coming of age novel for the younger protagonists. In many novels in which a young person takes on adult responsibilities and attitudes, the influence and guidance from family and society are central to the story. In Follett’s novel, however, children are guided by their own capricious internal rudders and are inclined to good or bad by almost supernatural force.
Follett takes a dualistic view of good and evil. Good people are hardworking and act in service to the community. Bad people cut corners and act to benefit themselves. This is best illustrated in the tales of two groups of siblings. Follett depicts Tom Builder as a thoughtful, hard worker who takes every opportunity to illustrate the value of hard work to his children. This lesson is heeded by his daughter Martha, who grows into an unexceptional but good-hearted woman; yet his son Alfred grows into a selfish villain, willing to blackmail and bully members of his own family.
The children of Earl Bartholemew also show different moral character. Aliena learns quickly how to operate in society and give back to it, while her brother Richard preens and becomes a burden, leading her to scold him: “[Y]ou act like a boy and I need a man […] you’ve never done anything with a sword except play at war, and you have to start somewhere” (354). However, this is a lesson he never learns. He selfishly takes from his sister and never gives back, and it is a relief when he finally goes off to the Crusade, leaving Aliena to her independence.
Follett might argue that, in the argument of nature versus nurture, neither holds sway. People are instead the playthings of a benevolent god and a capricious devil, assigned specific roles like pieces on a chess board. Such an attitude aligns with a traditional view of medieval Christian thinking.
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By Ken Follett
