MORALITY PLAYS
What is Morality Play?
• A morality play is an allegorical play
popular especially in the 15th and 16th
centuries in which the characters personify
abstract qualities or concepts (as virtues,
vices, or death)
Morality Plays
Only five medieval English morality plays still survive:
1. The Pride of Life (a corrupted Anglo-Irish text)
2. The Castle of Perseverance
3. Wisdom
4. Mankind
5. Everyman (translated from a Dutch original.)
These are all that are left of an influential dramatic
genre.
The understanding of style has been developed
based upon the influence these plays had on
surviving literature and art
Morality Plays
• An attempt to educate via entertainment
• Dominican and Franciscan monks developed the morality play
in the 13th century by adding actors and theatrical
elements to their sermons.
• They hoped the (mainly illiterate) masses could more easily
learn the basics of Christianity through dramatic spoken word.
• The plays made complex topics such as original sin and
atonement more easily understood.
• By personifying Vices, Virtues, the Devil and the
Good Angel, stories of temptation were made accessible
to those who were unable to read.
Morality Plays
• The main theme of the morality play is
this:
1.Man begins in innocence
2.Man falls into temptation
3.Man repents and is saved.
• The central action is the struggle of Man against the seven deadly
sins that are personified into real characters
• The allegorical application of theatre to Christianity
was intended to help the audience understand sin and virtue
Seven Deadly Sins
Pride - I am so awesome, no one’s better than me.
Envy – I want what they have.
Lust – wanting someone physically.
Greed – wanting material things.
Anger –being negative or furious at unnecessary
things.
Sloth - laziness
Gluttony – consume more than that which one requires
Seven Heavenly Virtues
Humility - modesty
Kindness – being nice to others
Chastity- Purity
Charity – Generosity
Patience – believing that if you do good things, good
things will happen.
Diligence – Hard working
Temperance – abstain, get what is needed not what
you desire.
Create Your Own Morality Play
1. Create 4 characters, a Main Character who is
considered Everyman, one who is the
personification of a Vice, one who is a
personification of a Virtue and another person that
the Everyman character wrongs, the Angel.
2. Create a scenario that involves Everyman
succumbing to the Vice and hurting someone else.
3. Solve the conflict so that Everyman is forgiven.
4. Write your play.
5. Make sure each character has at least 8 lines.