Medieval Mystery & Morality Plays and Thomas Hardy Themes
Medieval Mystery Plays
Mystery plays tell stories from the Bible, and each play was prepared and presented by a trade guild on wagons that moved about the town. The cycles usually coincided with trade fairs.
Mystery Cycles
Mystery cycle is a collection of mystery plays with stories from the Creation to the Last Judgment. Examples include:
- The Creation of Heaven and Hell
- The Annunciation
- The Nativity
Guilds and Performances
Guilds were groups of tradesmen. Each guild was in charge of a different play. Mystery plays performed by local craftsmen’s guilds had the economic and administrative means to stage them. They were often lavish and theatrical affairs arranged to coincide with trade fairs when many visitors came to the town. They were performed on wagons that traveled around the city—movable outdoor stages.
Morality Plays
Morality plays are a development of the mysteries and are closer to our modern ideas of theatre. They are often the work of a single writer rather than growing over time like the mystery plays. They were mainly 15th and early 16th century. They show allegories that reveal the dual nature of mankind and teach people how to live their lives and not succumb to temptation. They are more didactic and dramatize moral struggle. The characters represent vices and virtues (e.g., Greed, Pride, Patience), struggling for the human soul.
Thomas Hardy: Victorian to Modern
The works of the English novelist, poet, and dramatist Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) unite the Victorian and modern eras. In his novels and poetry, Thomas Hardy presents the spectacle of England from Napoleonic times to World War I and after. He revealed the changes that overwhelmed Victorian England and made it modern: the decline of Christianity, the shifts from reticence to openness in matters of sex, the move from an agricultural to a modern economy, and above all the growing sense of the disparity between the enormous universe and tiny man.
Hardy enjoyed commercial success and was very popular, but his work proved controversial, particularly his representation of women. We find a Victorian realism style highly critical of much in Victorian society, though Hardy focused more on a declining rural society. It is set in the semi‑fictional region of Wessex. His stories explore tragic characters struggling against their passions and social circumstances. They criticize beliefs—especially those relating to marriage, education, and religion—that limited people’s lives and caused unhappiness. Fate or chance is another important theme. Hardy’s characters often encounter crossroads on a journey, a junction that offers alternative physical destinations but is also symbolic of a point of opportunity and transition, further suggesting that fate is at work. This is particularly notable in Tess.
Eustacia Vye in The Return of the Native
In The Return of the Native, Eustacia Vye combines the strength of a man with the beauty of a woman. Like the heath, Eustacia is untameable, dark, and wild. Her association with the heath illustrates her masculine qualities. The Victorian ideal displayed in Eustacia’s feminine desires conflicts with this masculinity. Eustacia wants to escape the environment that keeps her from finding independence. Hardy creates an unconventional woman antagonized by the desires of passionate love and the independence of a male.
Tess of the d’Urbervilles
A similar conflict occurs in Tess of the d’Urbervilles. Tess, defined by sexuality, is characterized as “lush bit of nature, a sexual being.” In contrast with this sexuality, Tess possesses certain qualities traditionally associated with males. The thriving passion of Tess serves two purposes in Hardy’s novel. In her defiance of the Victorian ideal, Tess is empowered and strengthened. This passionate sexuality also results in her isolation from society and ultimately her death. Portrayed as a strong woman, Tess is capable of proving her purity and innocence despite the criticism of a cruel Victorian environment.