An Inspector Calls - Literary Context

AN INSPECTOR CALLS Literary Context

Objectives  To know the meaning of mystery play, morality play and everyman  To understand the links between An Inspector Calls and other texts   To complete set tasks 

Mystery Plays 

Mystery plays are among the earliest formally developed plays in medieval Europe.. Their origin is obscure, but the Europe most common theory is that they developed from the representation of  Bible stories in churches as tableaux with accompanying song. These simple structures were developed with tropes tropes,, verbal embellishment of the liturgical text, and became more elaborate. As these liturgical plays became more popular, vernacular analogues began to develop as traveling companies of players and civic c ivic theatrical productions became more common in the late Middle Ages.

Mystery Play  The mystery play developed, in some places, into a series of plays dealing with all the major events in the Christian calendar, from the Creation to the Day of Judgment. By the end of the 15th century, the practise of acting these plays in cycles on festival days was established in several parts of Europe.  Sometimes, each play was performed on a decorated cart called a pageant  a  pageant that that moved about the city to allow different crowds to watch each play. The entire cycle could take up to twenty hours to perform and could be spread over a number of days. 

Morality Play Morality plays are a type of theatrical of theatrical allegory 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 plays were most popular in Europe during the 15th and 16th century; century; having grown out of  the religiously based mystery plays or miracle plays of the Middle Ages, Ages, they represented a shift towards a more secular base for European theater.  Examples of morality plays include the French Condemnation des banquets by Nicolas de Chesnaye and the English The Castle of Perseverance, the earliest surviving complete morality play in English and Everyman 

Everyman 

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Everyman, sometimes considered the best of the morality Everyman, plays. During the 16th century morality plays often dealt with secular topics, including forms of knowledge (in Nature and The Nature of the Four Elements) Elements) questions of good government (Magnificence (Magnificence by John by John Skelton and Respublica by Nicholas Udall), Udall), education (Wit (Wit and Science by  John Redford, Redford, and the two other "wit "wit"" plays that followed, The Marriage of Wit and Science and Wit and Wisdom), Wisdom), and sectarian controversies, chiefly in the plays of  John  John Bale. Bale.  Throughout his career Shakespeare made references to morality characters and tropes, suggesting that the form was still alive for his audiences, at least le ast in memory, long beyond the period of its textual t extual flowering.

Everyman 

In literature and drama, the term everyman has come to mean an ordinary individual, with whom the audience or reader is supposed to be able to identify, and who is often placed in extraordinary circumstances.

Everyman  The everyman character is written so that the reader or audience can imagine themselves in the same situation without having to possess knowledge, skills, and abilities outside their everyday experience.  Also, such characters react realistically in situations that are often taken for granted with traditional heroes. For example, an everyman character (unless he happens to be a pugilist pugilist)) who gets into a fight is likely to hurt his hand if he punches someone in the face. 

Responsibility 

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No man is an island, entire of itself...any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee." John Donne Individual Responsibility Collective Responsibility

An Inspector Calls 

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When reading to the end of act 1 think about the following: Is this a mystery play or a morality m orality play? Is the play trying to promote the idea of  individual or collective responsibility? Who, if anyone, is the Everyman character? Now, continue reading Act 1.