Character Analysis Of The Second Shepherds Play

The Wakefield Master is a very famous play from the medieval times, written by an anonymous playwright, this production is part of the two series mystery plays based on the bible. The play possibly was performed in the town of Wakefield located in the west part of England, during the end of the middle ages, around the 1400 and 1450. From this series the Second Shepherds play is very popular, as britannica.com, (n.d.) says: “Second Shepherds’ Play is widely considered the greatest work of medieval English drama”. The play is about three shepherds and the birth of baby Jesus, an angel announced the notice of the birth of Jesus Christ and the shepherds go to Bethlehem, but before of this the shepherds need to find one lost sheep that was stolen by a well known thief. The plot of this play initiates with the conflict, at the beginning the three shepherds complain about their lives, the conflict is the struggle …show more content…
The sheep is a symbolic character, as well as the angel who is a messenger that delivered the notice of the birth of baby Jesus; the angel sings to the shepherds about this. The baby Jesus and his mother Mary are static characters because they stayed the same during the all play, they are flat characters. Mary accepts the gifts from the shepherds for her child. In the character analysis for the three shepherds, they are the protagonists of the play. The antagonists are Mak and Gill, the thieves who dressed the stolen sheep as a baby. According to the website enotes.com, (n.d.) “The antagonist and the protagonist have opposing goals for some reason”. The angel, baby Jesus and Mary are foil characters very important because they give to the story a significant end, they turned the sheep story into a biblical