The Presentation of Jocelin in Chapter One Essay -- Dean Jocelin Willi

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 ... ...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.