Everyman Script - Our Interpretation

In the York Corpus Christi Plays, many of the characters are so over-top, so remarkably buffoonish that those characters are ultimately quite comedic in effect. To a modern audience, a comedic biblical character may seem blasphemous—it may seem morally wrong to laugh at Jesus’s executioners as they struggle to crucify Christianity’s most important figure. However, when examining exactly how those characters function in the play, the comedic nature of those characters may not be wholly blasphemous in effect. For example, do those comedic executioners only make the audience laugh at Jesus’s crucifixion, or do they emphasize Jesus’s calm and solemn nature? Similarly, plays about Noah’s ark and the great flood include comedic characters, yet those plays do not feel totally blasphemous. Instead, the inclusion of a variety of characters in these plays seems more nuanced. In the York Corpus Christi Play The Building of the Ark, Noah’s piety is established through his undying trust in God and his general

Religion has played a significant role in the shaping and molding of human civilization. In the Middle Ages, religion was a core pinnacle that served as a source of guidance and meaning for individuals and the state. The medieval play, Everyman, explores the journey of Everyman to Heaven and the phases he must go through in order to stand before God to give an account of his life. Everyman was written during a time when the Catholic Church’s practice of penance was paramount as a means for attaining salvation. The personification of the everyday person and spiritual qualities in this play gives an impressive insight into the trials and victories that are part of the Christian walk on the journey to eternal life. This work embodies the

“Everyman" certainly fits the mold of a typical medieval mystery play. Ominously, the play begins with God perceiving how "all creatures be to [Him] unkind." Men, it seems, commit the Seven Deadly Sins far too regularly, and their only concern seems to

The Second Shepherds’ Play is renowned medieval mystery play, which is contained in the unique manuscript of the Wakefield Cycle. The plays within the manuscript coarsely follow the chronology of the Bible, and so were thought to be a cycle. This play gained its name, because it instantly shadows another nativity play involving shepherds. Some would even say that the second play is a modification of the first. However, in both plays it becomes vibrant that Christ is coming to Earth to convert the world from its sins. Even though the Second Shepherds’ Play has a more somber tone, many tricks that occur are tremendously absurd in nature.

The Everyman Play is a morality play that became popular after the Corpus Christi Plays were banned in the 15th century. The play was written by an unknown author, but many Historians believe that the author was probably a priest or monk as they were the people who usually wrote religious and moral dramas. It is also likely that the play is a conglomeration of numerous authors due to several rewrites throughout history. The play was originally written in Middle English. The play uses allegory to look at “Everyman” who is the representation of mankind. The play looks at the idea of salvation and what must be done to obtain it. The idea in the play is that there is a ledger where a tally of one’s good and bad deeds are written.

Except during the last Supper, “Jesus” used a script to translate to Hebrew John 5:26” Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them.” (NIV) There was 8 disciples and Jesus. The disciples were always with “Jesus” and acted like his friends. The gestures of each action served as nonverbal communication, for example when Judas was running around with a sad face it demonstrated that he was frustrated and with a sense of regret. Also symbolism using colors were prevalent. For example in many occasions the background changed colors like “red” warned about danger, smoke and gray meat death and colorfully confetti dispersed in the room brought an amicable atmosphere. Moreover Entertaining media was used for songs played during simultaneously acting seen a lot on group choreography. In all the play was not only a play instead it was a sermon presented in a different method. The Godspell play is appealing as the number of the original performances revivals/tours increases in the U.S and internationally. Additionally the play is repeated by many other groups with the same theme that has not been recorder the amount of Lives that had surrender their life to

9 After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. 10 Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. 11 Give us this day our daily bread. 12 And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. 13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.

O Lord, I come to you with praise and thanksgiving, but with a yearning for a deeper conscious appreciation of your goodness. Bless me this day with an enlarged capacity and power to praise.

Interestingly enough, the last few lines indicate a shift in tone from being despairingly foreboding, to a regretfully resigned tone. The speaker states that he “was in the house alone” and that he had “no one left but God.” We can see that such a description makes the speaker seem as if he understood and accepted his punishment from God. The repetition of “word” at the beginning of 3 of the 4 lines in the end signify God’s word, or God’s proclamation. The speaker can not escape his fate.

Good morning brother and sister, I pray all is well with each of you as we almost come to an end to this series…Jesus preaching on the mount announce that not everyone that call out His name will enter into Heaven… in other words brother and sister, not everyone that goes to church every Sunday, read their Bible, goes to Bible Study and Sunday School and even pay their tenths will enter into Heaven… that’s brother and sister should scare a lot of us…

The author uses Death as a character to express truth that everyone will, inevitably, come in contact with death. In the play Everyman, death is embodied as a representative of God that visits the plays central character, Everyman. "Death" takes hold of the readers’ interests because it is such a profound word. It is a burdened, aggressive, penetrating word that replicates an actuality that every human will have to come to accept. Death is an adversary in the play that signifies physical death. The author recognizes the consequences of death and uses that knowledge to bring in the reader. In Everyman, the author portrays the character Death as a symbolic exemplification of human death and the reader sees that “Death” does not surpass

Three unfortunate characters, Joseph, Inez, and Estelle, are brought to their doom together in what is considered hell; they are stuck in a room with no windows, no mirrors, and one single locked door. All do not initially own up to their offenses and identify as innocent. After much confrontation, they all fess up to their crimes to each other. The remainder of the play is how they manage to tolerate each other. The story ends when Estelle tries to kill Inez with a paper knife, but all have forgotten that they are already dead. Joseph cries out in the end, “Hell is- other people.” This play symbolizes human nature: the desire for affection, the idealistic goal to please the opinions and judgements of others, and the emotions of rage and jealousy.

Holy Sonnet 14 presents the struggle between following one’s faith and the alluring baseness of the human experience. This work fixates on the ties the speaker has to Satan, and the inability to break those ties without God’s intervention. A vein of nearly mad desperation courses through the poem from submissive start to subjugated end, culminating in a pained, almost violent plea for God to ravish him. One can see how the speaker’s desolation builds; he longs for God to break him down and repair him, raise him up and “make [him] new” in the first quatrain, but by the final couplet he embraces imprisonment, razing and ravishing. He believes himself unworthy of deliverance in such a far fallen state, requiring trial and punishment before he can again live in the lord’s light.

The continuous use of references to Jesus, and Christ, such as “I wol ful fain at Cristes Reerence”, and “jesu for his grace with me sende..” add to idea that the Parson is really a God-fearing man. At some points, the parson goes as far as to call fables wretchedness, and asks why he should hurt himself, when rather he could give a sermon to spread the word of god. It is clear that the Parson's only goal is to instruct his companions on the topic of God.

Ever learning, never accomplishing men will exist during the dangerous times of the last days. In the last days, these men will be self-seeking. Also, these men will be self-enthroned and neglect God’s calling and charity. “We are facing a crisis in biblical interpretation. Manipulative use of the Bible for self-interest runs like a river through the history of the church.”3 This evil enterprising explains everything in the longest and blackest list of evils. These self-seeking men, despisers of biblical ethics, lovers of evil desires more than lovers of God, yet persistent of the form of that godliness of which they have completely set the power, by exercising an eccentric empire over the people’s lives. While men profess to be spiritually religious and call themselves teachers of truth, they will captivate people’s hearts by their offers of an accepting and accommodate Christianity. They will lead captivated people in the path of miscellaneous lust. It is these captivated people who have become victims of a debased and degenerate teaching. There are those who think they are ever learning, are never accomplishing the knowledge of the truth which is the Word of God.