Medieval ballad versus modern interpretation in Get Up and Bar the DoorA literary form often used in medieval English literature was the folk ballad, an example of which is "Get Up you and bar the door." A typical ballad is humorous, its author is unknown, and it focuses on a subject. That subject and the events of the story are conveyed by both the written words and the implied thoughts. are conveyed and emphasized using various literary techniques such as symbolism, repetition, and rhyme. The anonymous author of “Get Up and Bar the Door” tells his story using these and other literary techniques. The fundamental conflict in this ballad is a conflict, if not widely used, but easily recognizable: man versus woman, or more precisely, husband versus wife, a battle of wills. The setting for this story is mid-November, in the home of a man and his wife, probably from the bottom two-thirds of society, since the woman has to do the housework herself. The wind blows and comes in through the door, and the man, in typical masculine fashion, tells his wife to close the door. She replied...