By analysing the language used in ‘The Last Judgement’ I will endeavour to explore the pageant’s intended effect on the audience, looking specifically at the significance of place and the pageant’s structure.
The York Corpus Christi play is structured so that within one day the audience are told the story of Christianity from the creation of the world to judgement day, which, if viewed from an Aristotelian perspective, could be seen as having a tragic plot structure (a fall from good to bad). This tragic plot is seen in the fall from the joyful beginning of the world in ‘The Creation’ to the warning about inevitable judgement in the final play ‘The Last Judgement’. As Greg Walker summarises, the York Corpus Christi plays aim to ‘create […] contemplation within everyday life’, which applies to the tragic structure leading up to and ending with the ‘The Last Judgement’, as the reminder that everyone will be judged according to their sins might aim to encourage the audience to contemplate their own lives and repent for any sinful things they might have done.
The rhythmic structure might be manipulated in certain verses in ‘The Last Judgement’ so that …show more content…
The structure and rhyme-scheme in ‘The Last Judgement’ is changed according to which character is speaking, suggesting that the plays intends to make the audience identify and side with Jesus, God and the Good Souls against the Devils or Bad Souls, therefore ensuring that the audience are led to salvation. If we also visually analyse the two aforementioned verses, the Devil’s verse is far more visually unstable compared to Jesus’s structurally stable verse, which might influence how the actors portraying these characters performed these lines, perhaps with an agitated or calm tone
The York Corpus Christi play is structured so that within one day the audience are told the story of Christianity from the creation of the world to judgement day, which, if viewed from an Aristotelian perspective, could be seen as having a tragic plot structure (a fall from good to bad). This tragic plot is seen in the fall from the joyful beginning of the world in ‘The Creation’ to the warning about inevitable judgement in the final play ‘The Last Judgement’. As Greg Walker summarises, the York Corpus Christi plays aim to ‘create […] contemplation within everyday life’, which applies to the tragic structure leading up to and ending with the ‘The Last Judgement’, as the reminder that everyone will be judged according to their sins might aim to encourage the audience to contemplate their own lives and repent for any sinful things they might have done.
The rhythmic structure might be manipulated in certain verses in ‘The Last Judgement’ so that …show more content…
The structure and rhyme-scheme in ‘The Last Judgement’ is changed according to which character is speaking, suggesting that the plays intends to make the audience identify and side with Jesus, God and the Good Souls against the Devils or Bad Souls, therefore ensuring that the audience are led to salvation. If we also visually analyse the two aforementioned verses, the Devil’s verse is far more visually unstable compared to Jesus’s structurally stable verse, which might influence how the actors portraying these characters performed these lines, perhaps with an agitated or calm tone