The Complaint

, as the opening segment of Hoccleve’s

Series

, tells the story of its narrator’s recovery from a “wylde infirmitee” and establishes the subject matter for the

Series

’ second section, the

Dialogue with a Friend

. As a poem it is thematically interesting, connected to issues of self and subjectivity, autobiography and literary convention, intentionality and textual artifice. The poetic persona of

The Complaint

relates how he experienced a period of apparent mental instability, and the poem also touches upon the narrator’s perception of his own subsequent social stigmatization as he considers the change in the reaction of the community towards him. Essentially the poem can be seen as split into two segments: a short introductory prologue in which the persona considers…

1591 words

Citation: Cummings, Raymond. "The Complaint". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 18 March 2008 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=1214, accessed 29 March 2024.]

1214 The Complaint 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

Save this article

If you need to create a new bookshelf to save this article in, please make sure that you are logged in, then go to your 'Account' here

Leave Feedback

The Literary Encyclopedia is a living community of scholars. We welcome comments which will help us improve.