Like other morality plays of its time, Doctor Faustus is the story of how a mortal yields to temptation and ultimately suffers the wrath of God for his sinful deeds. The play involves characters such as Good and Evil Angels, The Seven Deadly Sins, God and the Devil, typical of morality plays.

The moral message is simple. Everyman searches to give an account of all he has done in the wake of dying. His friends who have enjoyed the fruits of his expenditure and profess to love him refuse to foray into death with him. His family, neglected and ignored, have always been there for Everyman.

Everyman is an allegorical morality play that was performed to teach a lesson to the medieval audience. The play teaches us that every man must face his death alone with only the good deeds that he has completed during his life, for this is all that truly matters.

Morality play, also called morality, 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.

Miracle play, also called Saint’s Play, one of three principal kinds of vernacular drama of the European Middle Ages (along with the mystery play and the morality play). A miracle play presents a real or fictitious account of the life, miracles, or martyrdom of a saint.

The Crucible is considered a morality play due to the following events that occur in the play: Proctor is an example of being evil due to him being guilty of lechery, and not being faithful to his wife. This play was written to highlight the differences between good and evil.

Elizabeth

Preview — The Crucible by Arthur Miller

• “Because it is my name!
• “I speak my own sins; I cannot judge another.
• “Life, woman, life is God’s most precious gift; no principle, however glorious, may justify the taking of it.”
• “It is rare for people to be asked the question which puts them squarely in front of themselves”

Reverend Hale’s purpose in returning to Salem is to speak with the condemned prisoners and convince them that they should give false confessions rather than martyr themselves. He chooses to do this because he is tormented by guilt.

Proctor has the motivation to confess because he wants to stay with Elizabeth and the baby. He sees the confession a sin but is not a witch. In the play’s climax, Proctor destroys his own confession.

In Act III, Reverend Hale acts as an intermediary between the citizens whose wives have been accused of witchcraft and the Court. Hale also supports John Proctor by asking the judges to listen to Mary Warren’s testimony against Abigail Williams.

The Reverend Parris, a selfish, hypocritical and petty man, once a prominent and wealthy minister of the community, is by Act IV reduced to a financially broken man, disillusioned and humbled.

In act 4, Reverend Parris immediately reveals that he is upset at discovering that Abigail and Mercy Lewis have stolen thirty-one pounds from his lock box and fled Salem. He comes to the court visibly shaken and upset and reports to Danforth that his niece Abigail and Mercy Lewis have run away.

This act takes place in a jail cell in Salem. Marshal Herrick wakes up the occupants, Sarah Good and Tituba, to move them to a different cell. The two women speak of their plans to fly away to Barbados after the Devil comes for them and transforms them into bluebirds.

What does Samuel Parris report about Abigail Williams and Mercy Lewis and why is he afraid for his safety? Parris reports that the girls have left town and he is afraid for his safety because most of the people in the town dislike him. However, Danforth does not care for this new news.