Entrance to Busra Theater in Syria, not unlike a theater where morality plays would have been

performed.

MORALITY PLAY:

AMorality play is a type ofdramaticallegory, performed in a theater, in which the protagonist is

met by personifications of various moral attributes who try to prompt him to choose a godly life
over one of evil. The protagonist him or herself is also, quite often, a personification of the
entire human species, as is the case with characters such as Everyman and Mankind. The stories
usually follow a path where the protagonist is tempted to sin by the antagonists and only
through God does the protagonist find peace, salvation, or hope. The plays were most popular in
Europe during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Having grown out of the religiously
based mystery plays and miracle plays of the Middle Ages, they represented a shift towards a
more secular base for European theater.

Contents
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 1 History
 2 Characteristics
 3 Representative morality plays
o 3.1 Everyman
o 3.2 The Castell of Perseverance
 4 Modern performances
 5 See also
 6 Notes
 7 References
 8 External links
 9 Credits
Morality plays survived the disenchantment of the church and the wrath of the Reformation,
maintaining their popularity to near the end of the sixteenth century, when the the public's
interest turned in other directions. They are a representation of humankind's fascination with art
andcreativity and the desire to use those gifts to bring about positive ends.

History
The morality play has its roots in the miracle and mystery plays of the eleventh century.[1]Miracle
plays were dramas that revolved around the lives of Saints or the Virgin Mary. Mystery plays
revolved around stories from the Bible and were also known as Pageants or as Corpus Christi
plays. Mystery plays were performed across Europe during the thirteenth to sixteenth centuries.
Miracle plays were performed even earlier, often as a church service (until the thirteenth century,
when they were separated from church services and could instead be seen performed at public
festivals).[2] However, most miracle plays were lost in the zeal of the Reformation, when the
scripts were burned and destroyed.
Morality plays rose from this tradition, and represent a transition between such religion-based
plays to secular, professional theater. The earliest surviving example in English is the long Castle
of Perseverance (c. 1420), and the best-known is Everyman (c.1510). By the dawn of the
fifteenth century, morality plays were common throughout medieval Europe as didactic plays
intended to teach good moralsto their audience.
Morality plays were originally quite serious in tone and style, due to their roots in religious
drama.[1] As time wore on and the plays became more secularized, they began to incorporate
elements from popular farce. This process was encouraged by the representation of the Devil and
his servant, the Vice, as mischievous trouble-makers. The Devil and the Vice soon became
figures of amusement rather than moral edification. In addition, the Church noticed that the
actors would often improvise humorous segments and scenes to increase the play's hilarity to the
crowd. By roughly 1500, the Church no longer officially sanctioned the mystery, miracle, or
morality plays.[1]
By the sixteenth century, these plays started to deal with secular topics, as medieval theater
started to make the changes that would eventually develop it into Renaissance theater. As time
moved, morality plays more frequently dealt with secular topics, including forms of knowledge
(in Nature and The Nature of the Four Elements) questions of good government
(Magnificence by John Skelton and Respublicaby Nicholas Udall), education (Wit and Scienceby
John Redford, and the two other "wit" plays that followed, The Marriage of Wit and
Scienceand Wit and Wisdom), and sectarian controversies, chiefly in the plays of John Bale.
Morality plays survived, however, even through the Reformation in the sixteenth century, and
only gradually died out as tastes changed towards the beginning of the seventeenth century.
Throughout his career, which continued until the early seventeenth century,Shakespeare made
references to morality characters and tropes, confirming that the form was still alive for his
audiences, at least in memory, if not in practice.
Characteristics

An open air theater much like where morality plays would have been performed.

A morality play is essentially an allegory, told through drama.[1]It shares the feature of allegorical
prose and verse narratives. That is, it is written to be understood on more than one level. Its main
purpose is two-fold, and the characters are personified abstractions with label names
(aptronyms).
Most morality plays have a protagonist who represents either humanity as a whole(Everyman) or
an entire social class (as inMagnificence). Antagonists and supporting characters are not
individuals, per se, but rather personifications of abstract virtues or vices, especially the seven
deadly sins. Most often, morality plays were an externalized dramatization of a psychological or
spiritual struggle: "The battle between the forces of good and evil in the human soul."[1] Some
morality plays attack sins like greed while some focused on more timely concerns, like trends
in education, social injustice, politics, and ecclesiastics.[2] However, these more secular centered
plays did not become prominent until near the sixteenth century. Morality plays are typically
classified by their subject matter.
Morality plays were typically written in the vernacular, so as to be more accessible to the
common people who watched them. Most can be performed in under ninety minutes. In fact,
morality plays are very similar to another form of theater common in the same time, called
"moral interludes."[1] There is no clear dividing line between moral interludes and a morality
play, and many works are classified under both headings. These works include The Pride of
Life, The Castell of Perseverance, Wisdom,Mankind, Like Will to Like, and many others. Moral
interludes were typically 1000 lines long and written in a very rough verse. These were often
written to be entertainment at courts, in noble houses, at colleges and University, and at the Inns
of Court.[1]
Similar to medieval and Tudor period dramatic works performed in about the same period,
morality plays were structured simply, so that they could be performed in almost any open public
space, without scenery, and with a minimum of props. Locations were introduced through the
dialogue between characters, and after that, were left to the imagination of the audience. As with
other types of drama of the period, the stage was typically on the same level with the audience,
rather than on a raised platform like modern stages. Being on the same level gave the audience a
tighter connection to the actors, the character and the story being presented.
Early morality plays, in particular, were quite crude and the writing was often uneven, the author
almost always unknown.[1] While the format of the later morality plans continue to follow the
formula of a protagonist (nearly always Christian) who, confronted by personified Sin of all
magnitude (the seven deadly sins, the world, the flesh, the Devil, Vice, and so on), turns to his
one and only hope: God, with whose help, he triumphs overevil and learns a valuable lesson.
However, as time went on, the plays became better written and the characters showed increasing
signs of sophistication and psychology.

Representative morality plays

A scene from a contemporary revival ofEveryman.

Everyman
The morality play Everyman is generally considered to be a translation of the fifteenth century
Dutch morality play, Elckerlijc, written by Peter van Diest, and first printed in 1495. In the
English version of the drama, after a discussion with Satan about the cause of human sin, God
sends Death to a person named Everyman, in order to explain that sinning is acting against God's
wishes. Everyman attempts to bribe Death into giving him more time. Death, of course, is not
tempted by this bribe, but concedes that Everyman may find a companion for the journey—
someone to speak of Everyman's good attributes.
At this point, a man named Fellowship happens along and states he will do anything to help the
sad Everyman. Upon hearing Everyman's request, however, Fellowship refuses, offering to play
instead. All of Everyman's friends, Kindred, Cousin, Goods, and Knowledge, refuse as well.
Good-Deeds is too weak as Everyman loved her too little, so Everyman goes to see
Confession—which gives Everyman penance and, further, gives Good-Deeds strength. She then
agrees to go with Everyman.
Good-Deeds and Knowledge tell Everyman he must also call forward Discretion, Strength, Five-
Wits and Beauty. They all agree to go with him after he goes to a priest to takesacrament. Again,
when Everyman tells them where his journey ends, all but Good-Deeds forsake him. A
messenger then comes and tells the audience that without good deeds, every man would be
punished eternally, making the moral of the story quite plain.[3]
Another well-known version of the play is Jedermann by the Austrian playwright Hugo von
Hofmannsthal, which has been performed annually at the Salzburg Festival since 1920.[3]

The Castell of Perseverance

The Castell of Perseverance comes in at roughly 3649 lines, quite long for a morality play, an
exhaustive compendium of common morality features. There is the battle between vice and
virtue, the mixing of allegorical and diabolical figures, and the enactment of Deathand
Judgment.[4] It is one of the oldest and one of the best known of all morality plays and is highly
significant in the history of English theater.
The plot of the drama begins with humankind's enemies: The World, The Devil, and the Flesh,
declaring the nature and scope of their power. With this background, a character called Mankind
appears, Good and Bad Angels on either side. Mankind is a new-born child about to begin his
progress through "the ages of man."[4] His first sin is committed by becoming a servant of the
World, who sends him to Avarice and the other Deadly Sins. When Penance pierces him with a
lance, he confesses to Shrift; he then receivesabsolution and enters the Castle of Perseverance.
Mankind's enemies, however, summon the Sins to a siege of the castle. The Virtues succeed in
opposing and repelling six of the Sins, but Avarice succeeds in enticing the aging Mankind back
to worldly goods. Then, the coming of Death causes Mankind to repent. Mankind realizes that all
of his worldly possessions will go on to an heir. He dies calling on God for mercy.
The Soul approaches the body and cries again for mercy, until he is carried off to Hell by the Bad
Angel. Then, the Four Daughters debate Mankind's case—after which, God rescues him.[4] The
allegory, again, is clear in this tale, as Sin and worldly temptations lead one to hell.
Modern performances

A modern performance of a morality play, performed in a church.

Morality plays can still be seen in modern culture, and are again popular in churches. Some
churches emphasize the horrific aspects of the plays—Devils and demons and Vice—in a kind of
haunted house aimed at teaching values. In fact, one Halloween in Denver, one of these morality
plays posed as a regular haunted house ride. Expecting regular heart-pounding shocks and
ghoulish Halloween fun, comers to the "haunted house" instead got a church-run "Hell House
Outreach," a morality-laden tour of adultery,abortion, homosexuality, and date rape.[5]
The morality play has also entered common vernacular as an analogy for any kind of good versus
evil situation. For example, topics as broad as environmental responsibility, modern films such
as Babel and Gone, Baby, Gone, as well as game theory have all been compared to morality
plays.
Modern morality drama has also become more politically correct. Browne Walter's
drama Everywoman is an example of an update Everyman, and though it was written in 1908, is
an example of a morality tale for more modern audiences. There is little doubt that morality tales
greatly influenced modern fiction and drama; that influence can still be seen today, ingrained in
European andAmerican culture.