Mankind - An Interpretation of a Medieval Morality Play

Seminar paper from the year 2001 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 1 (A), Justus-Liebig-University Giessen (Instiute anglisitc linguistics), course: The Medieval Drama - Texts and Cultural Backgrounds, language: English, abstract: There are some obvious differences between the morality and the miracle plays. Thelatter did stress moral truths besides teaching facts of the bible, but on the whole didnot lend themselves to allegorical formulation except when there was no well defined Bible story to be followed. A good example in this case is the life of MariaMagdalen, before she was converted. The miracle play dealt with what were believedto be historical events and its main characters were for the most part ready- made forthe playwright by the Bible and inherited tradition. The morality play on the other hand, stood by itself, unconnected to a cycle, and theplots were extremely stereotyped. They afforded less scope for original creationthan those of the miracles, which were crowded with major and minor characters,Herold, Pilate, Pharaoh, Noah s wife, Satan, Adam and Eve, (Kinghorn 1968:p.116) and a host of others, both scriptural and non-scriptural. As far as thecharacters in the morality plays are concerned one could say that these characters,like for instance the Seven Deadly Sins, did only offer very limited opportunities fordevelopment. Gluttony could hardly be other than a fat lout, Sloth a half- awakelounger, Luxury an overdressed woman, Avarice a grasping old man and Angercontinually in a rage ( Kinghorn 1968: p.116). As far as allegorical formulations are concerned it has to pointed out that themorality play characters were always personified vices and virtues, producing aconflict of sorts and providing enough material for a plot. The Christian Virtues, theSeven Deadly Sins, Pride of Life, World, Flesh Youth, Age, Holy Church, Wealth,Health, Mercy, Learning and, of course, Mankind are just a few examples forpersonages which were made to behave as though they were human by the didacticaim of the author ( Kinghorn 1968: p.116), but all these characters are alwayscontained within their own narrow definition. Since these allegorical personageswere not characters but walking abstractions, they provided the playwright only verylimited opportunities for development. Everything that was said and done by thesecharacters showed clearly the moral truth which was of course the subject of the plot. The late medieval morality plays mark a well - defined movement away from thereligious drama towards the completely secular drama in England. [...]