The manuscript of the medieval morality play The Castle of Perseverance contains an illustration commonly understood as the earliest example of a medieval stage plan. Yet The Castle is an allegory, an extended metaphor, the meaning of which comes from the exegetical tradition. Medieval drama is didactic, and education, like exegesis and metaphor, operates on many levels. The Castle plays on the meaning of play: to read it solely as a play is to read merely the first level of meaning. This thesis considers The Castle not in its usual dramatic context but in that of devotional literature: specifically, exegesis, mysticism, and the monastic practice of lectio divina, divine reading. It focuses on the text and diagram as the verbal and visual illustration of classical and biblical metaphors: among these, the pilgrimage of life, the castle of the mind, the treasure chest of the heart, and the river of the soul. Gregory the Greats Moralia in Job is discussed as the likeliest source of the metaphors found in The Castle; the Moralia serves as an exemplar of allegory as a systematic metaphor and a metaphoric system. The Castle allegorizes and actualizes an abstraction, the process of temptation; depicting the mind as a stage on which players become prayers. Morality plays concern the ethics of salvation: one is the sum of ones choices. Thus, the manuscripts goal is to foster contemplation or Christian Socratism, the examination of conscience, as a prerequisite to salvation and the mystical union with God.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:SSU.etd-10012007-133730 |
| Date | 02 October 2007 |
| Creators | Wilkinson, Maryse (Micky) |
| Contributors | Parkinson, David J., Liptay, John |
| Publisher | University of Saskatchewan |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://library.usask.ca/theses/available/etd-10012007-133730/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University of Saskatchewan or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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