La Male Regle is a poem by English poet Thomas Hoccleve that explores his overindulgence during his youth. Considered as his most flexible and factual work, Hoccleve highlights the struggles of maintaining intimate relationships when you lack any source of wealth or influence. Social acceptability is detrimental in his survival as a youth who is trying to build an identity that would be acceptable based on cultural standards.
The need for the individual to be accepted into a group that has a similarity in his ideology is detrimental in his inclusion of societal systems. Hoccleve integrates bureaucracy and other literal forms into his writing as he explores the formation of social identities. La Male Regle offers a vivid exploration into how an individual curves his/her place in a group setting.
It’s impossible to differentiate between the narrator and Hoccleve since their traits align with each other. He however understands the impact his social identity could have on his physical health as he searches for where he belongs. He fails to make the right choice and joins the wrong group that damages his health.
The narrator puts his younger self on trial for joining a group that represented bad ideologies. Luckily, he realizes his wrongdoings weren’t as severe as the group he was a part of. By remaining an individual, he can easily separate himself from the toxicity of the group. Hoccleve’s self-indictment serves as a prototype to the reader who seeks to correct his past indiscretions.
