Mankind's Vices Analysis

The evident presence of satire in Mankind is not only a predominant feature of this allegorical play, it likewise assists in portraying the constant struggle between good and evil. As satire is one of the key characters of the three vices, as an audience, we are fooled into sinning, as we join into the humour created through the vices’ act of ridicule and mockery. A clear example of this use of parody is in the well-crafted word play containing doggerel Latin ‘spadibus’(line 398), ‘headibus’(line 399) maintaining persuasive phonetics of Latin yet maintaining the core of the word in English, keeping the audience in on the obvious joke. Additionally to this, this evident use of mockery helps disregard Mankind and his attempts of spreading good

This shift between the opposing forces is portrayed through the use of meter and rhyme scheme which in this specific section proves to be forever changing which reflects on the constantly changing speaker between Mankind and the vices. This lack of conformant comes hand in hand with the constant shift from good and evil in the form of vices and mankind as well as an equal sense of liberty present in the speeches suggesting the existence of free will. Nevertheless we can briefly see how Mankind’s representation of good is aided in his specific dialogue in which he obtains his specific rhyme scheme. Mankind contains perfect rhyme in his speech ‘line 384). This rhyme satisfies both the phonetics and aesthetics with identical vowels, equal syllables, stresses, and almost identical spelling. This perfect rhyme reflects on the equally perfect and satisfying feeling of being with the good which Mankind tries to stay true to. However in the second speech(line..) this full rhyme is destroyed showing the influence of the vices. The converse of the vices, contrastingly to Mankind’s perfect rhyme and sophisticated use of latin, use euphemisms, vulgarity, sarcasm, mockery which is accompanied with numerous types of rhyme schemes such as Nought’s use of near rhyme ‘warm’ and ‘harm’, reflecting their use of world play containing ridicule and mockery. These disspereate styles of dialogue help highlight what is meant to be good and bad and thus help us identify when Mankind is unknowingly tempted towards sin as his dialogue is altered. Mankind’s noticeably altered rhyme scheme in the second speech (line..) signalizes his altered moral state, affected by the influence of the vices. Although Mankind’s speech still contains rhyme, it is only assonant