ABSTRACT
Various paradigms were often employed to provide the moral foundation and commentary in morality drama. Many of these are likely to be unfamiliar to a modern reader, so that some of the nuances of these works are easily overlooked and lost. The use of classical and biblical thought is typical of Renaissance humanism, as is the practice of layering multiple paradigms atop one another so that they reinforce and support one another and create an unassailable argument that identifies youth as a time of moral frailty. Paradigms considered include the psychomachia, the conflict between the body and soul, the pilgrimage of life, the ages of man, the ages of the world, the Parable of the Prodigal Son, and Aristotelian ethics.
