The Pillars of the Earth

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.