The Artistic Unity of the Chester Mystery Cycle
Graduation Date
Summer 1982
Document Type
Master's Thesis
Document Form
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Program Name
Humanities
Abstract
Prophecy and fulfillment are essential to the unity of the cycle, but prophecy with its fulfillment is only one of the elements which contribute to an organic whole. The most obvious unifying device is Chester's reliance on a uniform stanza. This single metric form is absent in the other cycles. Chester is consistently didactic; it never loses sight of the fact that the plays were meant to teach as well as to entertain. And finally, Chester is consistent in its tone, characterized by a sweetnes [sic] and gentleness of manners, which if not “imaginatively exciting” resulted in plays of great warmth and charm.
-Thesis excerpt-
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