"Everyman"

Paper Summary:

This paper examines the concepts of morality, heaven, earth, god and death in this classic play. The paper shows how in the course of the play, all that Everyman has relied on in this world abandons him, for in the end, when faced with death and judgment, man is alone and can rely only on how well he has lived his life, an idea expressed allegorically in this story.

From the Paper:

"Clearly, this play was written in a Christian community whose members needed to be reminded from time to time of the nature of their relationship with God, the requirements God placed upon them, and the futility of believing in the things of this world over the requirements of the next. The Messenger who begins the play makes it clear that the moral applies to all when he notes that the play "That of our lives and ending shows/ How transitory we be all day" (Everyman 2121). The moral is for those who "think sin in the beginning full sweet,/ Which in the end causeth the soul to weep" (Everyman 2121). The speech by the Messenger, reinforced subsequently by God and Death, tells the audience for the play precisely what to expect, points out the meaning of the play to come, and relates that meaning to the lives of those in the audience. The play has a didactic purpose, intending to teach a lesson by having the ideas acted out by people representing abstract concepts, and it is more important that the allegorical story communicate with each member of the audience than it is that there by any surprise in the way the plot unfolds. After all, the essential ideas underlying this story are not new in any sense. They are central Christian ideas, known to all members of that religion, but they are also ideas that the Church wants to emphasize again and again in order to overcome the appeal of sin."

More papers on "Everyman":

• Analytical Essay # 53622 : "Everyman: Characteristics of Contrast"
• Analytical Essay # 126496 : "Everyman's Symbols and Characters"
• Analytical Essay # 28015 : "Everyman" and "The Song of Roland"
• Analytical Essay # 27857 : "Everyman" and "The Song of Roland"

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