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- DictionaryMo·ral·i·ty play/məˈrælədi/
noun
- 1. a kind of drama with personified abstract qualities as the main characters and presenting a lesson about good conduct and character, popular in the 15th and early 16th centuries.
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The term is used by scholars of literary and dramatic history to refer to a genre of play texts from the fourteenth through sixteenth centuries that feature personified concepts (most often virtues and vices, but sometimes practices or habits) alongside angels and demons, who are engaged in a struggle to persuade a protagonist who represents a g...
Morality play, an allegorical drama popular in Europe especially during the 15th and 16th centuries, in which the characters personify moral qualities (such as charity or vice) or abstractions (as death or youth) and in which moral lessons are taught. Together with the mystery play and the miracle.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Apr 17, 2024 · 1. : an allegorical play popular especially in the 15th and 16th centuries in which the characters personify abstract qualities or concepts (such as virtues, vices, or death) 2. : something (such as a court trial) which involves a direct conflict between right and wrong or good and evil and from which a moral lesson may be drawn.
What is a ‘Morality Play’? Morality plays originated in the medieval and Tudor period as a kind of theatrical, allegorical entertainment. As the name suggests, these plays were concerned as much with conveying a specific moral as they were with entertaining and telling a story.
A morality play is a genre of theatre popular in the medieval and Tudor period. Mortality plays were also called “interludes,” or plays with or without a moral. They featured a protagonist who comes into contact with personified versions of moral and immoral attitudes.
Morality play definition: an allegorical form of the drama current from the 14th to 16th centuries and employing such personified abstractions as Virtue, Vice, Greed, Gluttony, etc.. See examples of MORALITY PLAY used in a sentence.
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.
