Visualizing the Moral Life: Medieval Iconography and the Macro Morality Plays (Ams Studies in the Middle Ages)

A Morality play is a type of dramatic allegory, 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.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 and creativity and the desire to use those gifts to bring about positive ends.