The Presentation of Jocelin in Chapter One

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The Presentation of Jocelin in Chapter One

Dean Jocelin is a priest at St Mary’s Cathedral in Salisbury. He has a

vision that God has chosen him to erect a great spire on his

cathedral. During Chapter 1 we see many different qualities of

Jocelin. The first account we meet of him is a visual picture of a

laughing man; this represents a joyful, exhilarant person. It shows

that this is the beginning of his vision and everything is taking

place before him. In the second sentence our view shifts and we see

what he sees, the sunlight exploding through the glass, lifting up the

images of Abraham, Isaac and God. Our sense of seeing through his eyes

is strengthened with ‘additional spokes and wheel’. Each time the

sunlight appears inside the cathedral Jocelin recreates his vision,

and it reinforces the rightness of what he is doing. There is a

various repetition of Jocelin ‘laughing chin up’, this begins to sound

a little insane, however ‘chin up’ shows he is a very confident and

proud man who thinks he has all authority over everybody else. He also

thinks that St Mary’s Cathedral belongs to him, as he uses the

repetition of ‘my’ this would signify, that it is his territory. ‘My

place, my house, my people.’

The cathedral and the spire becomes an obsession to Jocelin as he

describes it as a living, breathing building. He describes the

building like a man lying on his back.

‘The nave was his legs placed together, the transepts on either side

were his arms outspread. The choir was his body; and the Lady Chapel

where now the services would be held, was in his head.’ He describes

the spire as ‘the crown and the majesty.’ The great one of all!

Jocelin seems to be a very religious man because when he enters the

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...erson who Jocelin has great affection for is his

‘daughter in God’, Goody Pangall. Jocelin thinks that she ‘is entirely

women’ and she is the one topic of conversation that he discusses with

interest with Pangall. For example when Pangall is worried about the

builders, the first question Jocelin asks is, ‘Is your good wife? Do

they work too near her?’ and Pangall reply’s no, ‘Do they treat her as

some men will treat women in the street? Call after her? Speak

lewdly?’

In conclusion to this essay, Jocelin has become obsess ional over the

spire because he has forgotten that the vision is from God and when he

thanks God, it shows he is grateful that god has given this vision to

him however it is not for Jocelin, it is for God. Jocelin also does

not listen to anybody else’s comments. All he cares about is himself

and how he looks rather than the cathedral.

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