Origin
    Morality plays beginning in the religious lays of the fourteenth century, derived from the Pater Nesters plays performed in England by guilds. They thrived as Europe’s dominant form of secular drama between about 1400 and 1550, mostly in England and France.

Morality Play      
  Morality plays were, in fact, the aftereffect of the suppression of openly religious dramas, the small size of the troupes, and the desire for spectacle.  
 Philip Tilling claims that “the morality play as a kind of medieval religious play arose alongside the mystery play and was to continue, in modified from, throughout the Elizabethan period, culminating in Marlowe’s Faustus.”
So, Tilling considers Dr. Faustus to be “a morality play in a modified form”.
According to Morner “morality play is a type of allegory in dramatic form, popular in the later middle ages and early Renaissance.
The hero, who represents all humankind, is surrounded by personifications of virtues, vices, demons, angels and death, all the forces of good and evil, who battle for possession for the hero’s soul.



The main hero of the morality play is not an individual character. He usually has a name which just distinguishes him from the other characters in the play, like Everyman or Mankind. The reader usually knows nothing about his origin or social background, about his habits or character. The only thing is obvious the hero represents all Christians.  
Style
    Morality playwrights continued the medieval method of dramatic construction. Simultaneous scenes gave works a panoramic effect.
Christian morality play
     The traditional Christian morality play deals with the antagonism between the contrasting powers of vice and virtue and dramatizes the eternal war between heaven and hell, light and darkness, faith and heresy, etc. Every man in the play of that name, moves from a state of indifference to fear of death, recognition of sin, penance, absolution, and salvation. The hero of another famous morality play, The Castle of Perseverance, is won first by the Seven Deadly Sins then by Covetousness and, finally, by Mercy. The  Morality play, to the contrary, or even religious drama in general, is an example of ritualistic, non-realistic theater.
Modern drama
     Modern drama does not face in any theological or allegorical way the traditional conflict between vice and virtue, and both its subject matter and formal traits seem to be quite remote from those of the morality play, "many plays," to quote Francis Edwards, "have been directed to the social and philosophical rather than the spiritual conscience of their audience."