Everyman Trope

The Last Judgement is the final part of the York Corpus Christi Play. This play deals with Christ’s return from heaven to judge people. Its characters are God, Jesus, three angels, three devils, two apostles, two good souls and two bad souls. The section of the play, on which this essay will focus, is a speech of Jesus addressing the audience as well as the good and the bad souls. While he threatens the bad souls with punishment, he promises the good souls rewards. The scene is set rather at the end of the play. The part before is used to direct the audience’s attention to this scene, while the part afterwards can be understood as a reinforcement of Jesus’ speech. Undoubtedly, this scene is the most central one in the play. As it will be shown by analyzing the way of staging as well as the speech’s structure and language, its purpose is to frighten the audience and to help them leading a faithful life.

Regardless of personal beliefs or opinions, it is nearly impossible to imagine the existence of modern English literature without the influence of religion. Since the dawn of recorded history, religion has played a vital, recurring role in works of fact and fiction, alike. In his book How to Read Literature Like a Professor, author Thomas Foster asserts several points about this relationship between religion and literature, especially in relation to the image of Christ, and states, “Culture is so influenced by its dominant religious systems that whether a writer adheres to the beliefs or not, the values and principles of those religions will inevitably inform the literary work” (125).

    William Shakespeare’s tragic drama Othello presents to the audience a picture of many different shades of morality and immorality. It is the purpose of this essay to elaborate in detail on this thesis.

The play illustrated by Adu-Gyamfi & Schmidt (2011), “Everyman” written by an anonymous writer late in the fifteenth-century (p. 265-287), interconnects religious allegories with worldly moral lessons on several main reasons that good deeds and works are required and needed, but they do not save humanity from spiritual death. The play conveys a story about Everyman’s (representing human individuals) natural life journey to death. The morality of the play helps the audience appreciate the history of Christianity. The focal point throughout the play is about humanities, life plan and a journey that requires every man to construct an unworldly firm foundation built up strong to help overcome any uprooting storm within a lifetime. Its personification comes in the form of the characters Everyman, Goods, and Goods Deeds, who embodied the concept of teaching lessons to humanity of the significance of living a Christ-centered life and learning to allow the heart restored and guided by God to help aid good judgement (Adu-Gyamfi & Schmidt, 2011). Thomas F. Van Laan (1963) describes Everyman’s play, “The human action and its allegorical significance together form a distinct structural pattern which not only imposes discipline but also contributes its own intrinsic meaning”. From the start of the first phase 5-6, the first point of view of the play engages, “…That of our lives and ending* shows / How transitory we be all day.*…” (Adu-Gyamfi & Schmidt, 2011). The play displays how

Religion and faith play numerous roles in people’s lives. From being a unifying factor to alienating people, and from comforting people to terrifying others, the roles of religion is vast and boundless. In The Crucible and “Upon the Burning of Our House”, it is evident that religion and faith play a subconscious role in the lives of people by acting as an inner conscience and by giving people a spiritual peace of mind.

Religion also plays an important function in allowing the authors to comment on society and faith’s role in it. For example, both authors seem to be suggesting that our religion is only compatible in society as we know it, that is to say that it is not compatible with other situations. In The Children of Men a major disruption to the working of society, mass infertility, has led to a total destruction of the Christian faith. In Brave New World, an unstoppable surge of machinery and technology has led to the disregard of religious moral and the introduction of a new set of hedonist attitudes, both scenarios being deplored by the reader. This could also be seen as the authors’ asserting that a civilized society desperately needs stable religion and morals, given that the utter breakdown in The Children of Men is arguably as shocking as the superficial worship of machinery and pleasure in Brave New World.

    Measure for Measure and Othello are closely related. There is a thesis-antithesis bond between these two plays. Much more than just sharing a trait or a source, the two constitute a paired study of the processes of redemption and damnation.

This paper presents a New Historicism theoretical framework for considering religion as a force that compels the actions of characters in a piece of literature, as influenced by the society of the time period. Rendering historical pieces from the Church of England, works by Christopher Baker, Harry Morris, Joseph Sterrett, and close reading of Shakespeare’s Othello, I show how religion in the form of symbolism and marital duties proves to be a compelling force in Othello’s unsuccessful conversion to Christianity. The role of conversion in Shakespeare’s Othello proves to be a point of interpretation of numerous scholars.

“Everyman” is regarded as a morality play that was written in late 15th century. According to Michael A. Babcock, author of the story of Western culture, “Morality plays can be explained in best ways because of allegories figure out efforts made between seven virtues and seven vices contained in heart of man”. The play is a picture of what Christians should do or how they should spend their lives to save their souls from being convicted by death (Yaw Adu-Gyamfi P.265). The understanding of death in “Everyman” play is influenced by how people live their lives. The play brings out an idea of how people struggle to choose between worldly things and the ultimate spiritual judgment. The conflict between riches, relationship and the spiritual enrichment, heaven and hell and God’s verdict seems to be on the rise in the play. Babcock also states, “Everyman is a struggle between good and evil, between seven virtues as well as seven vices”. (167). we see how life is a transitory, when the play documents Everyman’s journey from sinful life to sin free life and finally to a holy death.

The social-historical battle between the New World and the Old version of it leads to psychological struggles and inner dramas. The whole picture is complemented by philosophical dichotomies, such as: truth versus illusion, light versus dark, desire versus death. All these dimensions compose the complex image of the dramatic conflict. Despite its multiple layers of interpretation, the play offers a harmonious picture of a world in the process of changing. As Anca Vlasopolos intuitively pointed out, the force of this “problem” play is to disquiet us so that perhaps we might come to have a better look to those aspects whom history has silenced

Within the medieval morality play “Everyman”, the audience receives a glimpse into the moral struggle of sin that all citizens endure in their life time. In short, the play focuses on a journey towards redemption for a person who has talked to Death. However, the path for this journey isn’t as straight as one might assume. The main protagonist must come to terms with the fact that everyone and everything that they held dear in their life time will, in the end, depart from them. It is because of this that they find that only their good deeds will follow them into heaven, but only after they have successfully repented for their sins. In short it was a critical response to the overwhelmingly sinful life that many people of that era were living.

Albert Gerard proclaims that Othello’s “fundamental barbarousnous” is made clear by his “superficial acceptance of Christianity” which hides his “fundamental paganism”. He accuses Othello of his lack of intellectual power blaming him for his own “eternal damnation”, and undermines the decisions which he makes. In doing this, Gerard studies Othello as a character whose “innate savagery” is disguised by

Religion in the Middle Ages takes on a character all of its own as it is lived out differently in the lives of medieval men and women spanning from ordinary laity to vehement devotees. Though it is difficult to identify what the average faith consists of in the Middle Ages, the life told of a radical devotee in The Book of Margery Kempe provides insight to the highly intense version of medieval paths of approaching Christ. Another medieval religious text, The Cloud of Unknowing, provides a record of approaching the same Christ. I will explore the consistencies and inconsistencies of both ways to approach Christ and religious fulfillment during the Middle Ages combined with the motivations to do so on the basis of both texts.

Arthur Machen and H.G. Wells were one of the most influential writers in the history of the English language. Through their works, both Machen and Wells illustrated the themes of sexuality and horror by exploring the idea of the supernatural. However, Machen’s gothic novella The Great God Pan (1894) and H.G. Wells’ sci-fi novel The Island of Dr. Moreau (1896) further exemplified the theme of humankind’s relationship to God. In the late Victorian period, the influence of religious mythology fell upon writers in England, and stories of the “unseen” became popular and abundant. This era was a time when the public started to seriously question their religious lives. Nevertheless, The Great God Pan was denounced by the public upon its publication for its focus on God as a powerful symbol for horror and sexuality. On the other hand, Wells’ The Island of Dr. Moreau was written as a satire, mocking Christianity and other forms of religion. In this short essay, I will expand on religious symbolism and point out the influence of Christianity using Arthur Machen’s The Great God Pan and H.G. Wells’ The Island of Dr. Moreau.

Othello is one of the greatest plays due to its variety of character and themes. The immorality seen in Iago, the gullibility in Othello, and the desperation of Desdemona make the story. The theme of social status plays a huge role in the story. In addition, the theme of appearance versus reality also plays a huge role in how each tragedy happens. In the critical essay “Othello” it discusses the idea that the characters are cast as outsiders due to false interpretation of what is happening or what is being said. On the other hand, the piece “Othello Character Analysis” emphasizes how characterization reflects the greatness of the piece.