Like most morality plays, The Digby Mary Magdalene, uses allegorical exemplum form to relate moral material to the audience. The usual plot of morality plays is an allegorical challenge for the spiritual good of the mankind figure. Susan Haskins, in her book Mary Magdalene, Myth and Metaphor, states that the medieval period saw Mary Magdalene as a "metaphorical Everywoman" (Pg. 134). The play dramatizes the life of Mary Magdalene as it is told in The Golden Legend by Jacobus de Voraigne. With such a long cast list and such numerous scene changes which include a desert, a sea, a tavern and a burning temple, Coldewey says "It is no exaggeration to say that the Digby Mary Magdalene is the most extravagant play in the whole of Early English Drama" (Coldewey, Pg. 186). The Digby Mary Magdalene was written specifically with a Catholic audience in mind although it has been proven that most religions studied in western cultures have their own versions of the Magdalene persona.
             There can be no doubt that Mary Magdalene is an important figure in cultural, and more specifically religious, histories. More notably, she is an important female in this realm of history. Different cultural histories have provided themselves with their own mythologies and legends according to their particular religious frameworks. Among Christian documents, Mary Magdalene is introduced in the New Testament, as Thompson confirms in her book Mary of Magdala, Apostle and Leader, "It is impossible to trace a straight line of decent from the gospel portrait of Mary, through the extravagant portrayals of her in the middle ages...It is impossible to trace it in a straight because there are so many element involved in the history of each age, in the making and transmitting of myths through different historical epochs..."(Pg.3).
             Christians religions agree that she had a family, specifically a brother and sister. Stories different from the...