Monday, May 31, 2010

Medieval Morality Plays

I thought Everyman was fine for what it is, a medieval morality play. It is heavy handed and not terribly dramatic, but this was not its purpose necessarily. I first read it in a high school Humanities class. It compared poorly to Oedipus Rex, Hamlet, and Ibsen's The Wild Duck.
The Second Shepherd's Play is terrible. It is bizarre and poorly constructed. The grafting of the Nativity Play doesn't work either.
Adam, a morality play not included here is even worse. It reeks of anti-Semitism and is unoriginal and formless. The first few scenes are drawn directly from Genesis, probably the point, and the testimony from other prophets doesn't add much to the work.
Maybe these plays achieved their purpose of instructing the faithful, but I' concerned with the dubious nature of the material conveyed.
Czar

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