The Tale of the Eloquent Peasant Analysis Essay Example

The Tale of the Eloquent Peasant is a text that demonstrates the responsibilities the royal court in ancient Egypt had to common people. The story is centered around an injustice done to an ordinary Egyptian peasant, who eventually turns to the pharaoh to right the wrongs he has suffered. Through the appeals of the peasant to the High Steward and the ideals he cites, it is evident in the The Tale of the Eloquent Peasant that the pharaoh and his court were believed to be obligated to maintain order in Egypt and protect the well-being of the pharaoh’s subjects.

The story of  The Tale of the Eloquent Peasant begins with a disruption to order and justice, which in the case of the story, constitute the stability of society and the punishment and mending of unlawful behavior. An ordinary peasant, Khumansup is beaten and robbed by a high status man, Nemtinakht, despite doing nothing wrong. Khunanup subsequently tries to appeal for justice, first by attempting to contact Nemtinakht himself to get him to return his goods, and then by going to Nemtinakht’s liege, the High Steward of Egypt. It is to this High Steward that Khunanup relays his messages to the royal court. These events in the text are described in a way that makes clear that Nemtinakht’s actions are neither justified nor ordinary for a man in his station. For instance, when Nemtinakht first spots Khunanup, it is said that Khunanup’s goods “tempted his heart” (Parkinson, 59), which implies that Nemtinkakht knew internally that he wasn’t supposed to do what came to mind. Additionally, to say that his heart was tempted possibly suggests that his inclination to rob Khumansup was failure of purity on the part of his soul, which Egyptians believed resided in the heart. It is also explicitly said by Khunanup that what Nemtinakht did was wrong, when he says to him that the High Steward of Egypt, Nemtinakht’s direct authority, punishes all robbers in their land (Parkinson, 60). While it may be obvious to state that robbing and beating a man is wrong, understanding that this was a punishable violation from the Egyptian point of view and not a justified act by a servant of the royal court against a peasant certifies that something like this wasn’t supposed to happen, and was an act of injustice that deserved rectification. 

Khunanup’s nine appeals to the High Steward are where the story reveals to readers the ways in which peasants typically viewed the roles of their rulers in society, and does so through Khunanup’s lamentations about how seemingly out of order Egypt is in the story. Initially, his speeches only concern his immediate issue, but as Khunanup increasingly feels that he is being ignored, he begins to criticize the High Steward’s perceived lack of action. One instance of this is in his first speech to the High Steward, where Khunanup refers to him as a “destroyer of Falsehood” and a “Creator of Truth” (Parkinson, 61), but later in his second speech tells the Steward that “truth flees from under you” while “officials are doing evil” (Parkinson, 63). It is evident from these phrases that Khunanup believes that Khunanup is obligated as the local ruler to uphold the Truth that he cites, and that in ignoring his pleas, he is failing that task. Khunanup states this more directly in his eighth speech, saying “The officials who were appointed to outlaw evil are a shelter against the predator - those officials who were anointed to outlaw Falsehood!” (Parkinson, 72). Since member’s of the court are evidently expected to preserve “Truth” and combat “Falsehood”, it can be inferred from this that their subjects expected them to maintain fair justice in their realm. This responsibility to uphold justice, according to Khunanup, was unjustly denied to him even though it should have been. Through Khunanup’s charges against the High Steward, it can be determined that when Egyptian society is functioning properly, at least in Khuanup’s view, members of the royal court like the High Steward were expected to uphold justice and protect commoners like Khunanup from unjust harm.

Khunanup’s speeches are eventually answered at the end of the story by the Pharaoh, which indicates that The Tale of the Eloquent Peasant supports the viewpoints of Khunanup. Had the tale ended with Khunanup being totally ignored or perhaps even punished somehow, it could be interpreted as a criticism of the Pharaonic authority as unjust or incompetent. Instead, everything works out for Khunanup in the way that he wished, with himself being both compensated and rewarded while Nemtinakht is punished. The supposed lack of justice and Truth that anguished Khunanup was never present in the first place. It could be argued that the Pharaoh’s delaying of justice in order to hear Khunanup's appeals is unjust, but it is made clear after the court hears the first appeal that Khunanup would be supported since he and his family are presented with food. The disturbance of order and justice that occurred through the robbery at the beginning of the story was ultimately fixed by the Pharaoh and his Steward, demonstrating that they are the distributors of Truth and justice that Khunanup said that they were supposed to be. The story lays out the responsibilities and ideals Pharaonic authority was supposed to fulfill through Khunanup’s speeches, and then reinforces the validity of those views by having the Pharaoh fulfill them. This consequently relays to the reader that in ancient Egypt, the pharaoh and his court were expected to maintain justice and protect Egyptians harm.

The Tale of the Eloquent Peasant explains and demonstrates the responsibilities the rulers of ancient Egypt had to their subjects. By having the peasant Khunanup speak about the pharaoh and High Steward’s duties of preserving justice in Egypt, and showing them act on them, the story indicates that Khunanup’s views were correct. Fundamentally, the plot of The Tale of the Eloquent Peasant exhibits the Egyptian royal court’s obligation to ensure justice and well-being for their peasant subjects.