The Somonyng of Everyman

Meaning and significance of death in the light of the Christian narrative is addressed including adequate detail.

God then commands Death to show Everyman who is outside of the law of God what must come to him without escape or delay, the day of reckoning for all. Death encounters Everyman and has questioned him about why he has neglected God, “Everyman, stand still! Whither art thou going thus gaily? Hast thou thy Maker forget?” (Anonymous). Death dispenses the bad news that his day of reckoning for his sins has come and he must give account to God. Upon hearing that his time has come to an end he begins to fear his journey to go before God and give an answer to how he lived his life on earth. Everyman bribes Death to give him another day. Everyman’s argument is that Death did not give him a warning and now he wants to find a companion to accompany him on this journey of reckoning. As time nears Everyman struggles with his ignorance and therefore begins to seek and call upon his earthly friends such as Fellowship, Kindred, Cousin, and Goods. Everyman discovers that one by one his acquaintances and possessions, whom he held dear to his heart and promised to be with him till the end, all abandon him in his time of need.

People fear to be the greatest evil, may not be the greatest good.” Throughout the history of mankind, man has been fascinated with the mystery surrounding death. For many it is a phenomenon which is feared and for others it is a salvation from the misery and suffering of everyday life. In Plato’s “Apology”, Socrates has been sentenced to death and he claims that what “has befallen me is a blessing.” After the conclusion of his trial, he explains that there are two possible outcomes to death. Either death is a final end to one’s existence, or one dies

“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

Everyman is a Christian morality play written during the 1400s. No one yet knows who wrote this play. It is said that Everyman is the English translation of similar Dutch morality play of the same period called Elckerlijc. Everyman is generally represented as the best and most original example of the English morality play. “Like other morality plays from the late medieval period, it is meant to communicate a simple moral lesson to both educated and illiterate audiences” (Gyamfi & Schmidt, 2011). “Everyman” is about a man who is content with his life when Death calls and tells him about his end. The author has used metaphorical names for characters to show up the moral of the play.

Although Death is set in his ways, as the book progresses, the people and the events that happen around him manage to change his view. This is shown when Death tries to distract himself with the colors of the sky but always finds himself looking at the human survivors. “It’s the leftover humans … the ones I can’t stand to look at, although on many occasions I still fail” (Zusak, 5). Something about them fascinates him. How, in spite of the fact that they have been “left behind, crumbling among the jigsaw puzzle of realization, despair, and surprise” (Zusak, 5), they still manage to live their lives and move forward. As a supersensual being so used to death,

The author of the play Everyman views death from the Catholic point of view. The moral message to live each day with the goal of eternal life in Heaven in mind sets the tone of the play. Everyman illustrates that every man’s soul needs to be saved before death or he will not have eternal life with God. The author views death as the foundation of man’s spiritual journey with God in Heaven or as the initiation of the soul’s damnation. The author portrays death as God’s messenger. The play underscores a message that the treatment of death is similar for every man, as he is held accountable for his actions and deeds in life upon facing death. Additionally, the only way to avoid death is to strive towards achieving ever-lasting life with God in

Abstract The author’s perception and treatment of Everyman are that each individual need to prepare for it by repenting, following God, and doing good works. The author’s perception is that at the end of the day one cannot take anything or anyone with them when they die. The only entity someone can take is their actions and how they use the resources that are given to them. Those who put God before everything and perform good works will enjoy eternity with Him, but those who enjoy only the pleasures of life and forget God, will not. The author’s main message throughout the play is to not fearful of death but know that one day everyone will die, so do as much good as one can, repent of one’s sins, and to put God first. Keywords: author, perception, treatment, death The Author’s Perception and Treatment of Death in Everyman In the late fifteenth century, an unknown author wrote a morality play called Everyman. According to Pearson, a morality play during the Medieval period would communicate a moral lesson and make it so simple that both illiterate and well-educated audiences could both understand the lesson (Adu-Gyamfi, 2016). One may believe that the author of Everyman want to communicate to the audience that everyone will receive judgment the actions they commit on Earth. The author’s perception of death is that God is the only one who has the power to control when each individual die, so if one has a relationship with Him one should not be fearful death. The author

Death is among the greatest mysteries of the human existence, one of the issues being that neither science, religion, or philosophy have definitive explanations on it. Although Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven and William Shakespeare’s Hamlet explore death and dying, the former advocates for people to be more optimistic in these circumstances than the latter. Station Eleven’s characters focus their thoughts on living and improving their situation to achieve their goals while Hamlet's characters concentrate on dying and how to end the misery of life, as they are hopeless to change their fate. The ability to make decisions result in opposite outcomes for the characters in each text as Station Eleven’s characters have free will and are rewarded for using it, whereas Hamlet’s characters are punished for seeking to control their future. The development of each character’s life is due to their respective text favouring or punishing free will. The consequences of exercising free will in Station Eleven yield positive results because humans can control their own destiny in a world of death, while in Hamlet, contrarily, humans are controlled by fate and have to endure the consequences of attempting to defeat it.

In the play “everyman” death is depicted as something that is terribly feared as no one seemed ready for it, death is perceived as something that takes one away from the pleasures of this world.

God has become angry with his people. He complains in the fifteenth century English play Everyman about humans and their obsession with material items, riches, and wealth. Men and women, he feels, have taken for granted their blessings. God wants to reprimand Everyman for his sinful life and sends Death to summon him. At the beginning of the allegorical work where figures and actions symbolize general truths, a messenger shares God’s concerns. The messenger tells the audience to watch and listen closely to the morality play so they can learn a lesson about life. Everyman fears Death, and he desires to know what one must do to earn salvation and enter heaven. The writer then implies that the way to achieve salvation is by doing good works.

Even though people have been dying since the start of life, we can never get use to the idea of leaving our loved ones behind. Therefore humans choose to disregard death and get pleasure from life, and consequently we tend to stray away from righteousness. Two works; Everyman by an unknown author, and The Pardoner’s Tale by Geoffrey Chaucer have been written to preach humans toward Christianity-the right way of living. These authors utilize plot to reveal the role of death in understanding life. This is achieve by drawing on the foolishness of mankind, their response to the inevitable death and the effect of death on protagonists which altogether helps the readers understand worldly treasures are temporary.

The play Everyman is a perfect representation of public literature from the Renaissance period. The anonymous author reveals through the morality play that 'everyman' should be prepared for judgment at any time because, "Suddenly, [Death] come[s]." (Scene 1, Line 81) This, as with all allegorical works of that period, was constructed under the direction of the Roman Catholic Church to strike fear in to the hearts of men and, in doing so, have power over them. The church succeeded by censoring all works and designing them to fit their purpose.

Like many other morality- allegorical plays, Everyman, fits in as the finest representative of this category. This morality play reflects on the reaction of mankind when faced with the dilemma of eternity. In the play, God sends Death to summon Everyman- a representation all mankind. It is

The author of the play “Everyman” has the main character Everyman to only symbolize the typical human being. Death, also known as the antagonist, is a messenger sent by God to summon Everyman. The author is trying to show readers that death is inescapable, and every human being will have to face it one day. In the beginning of the play, God speaks about his death on the cross to give life to His people, mentions the deadly sins, He tells that people live for their own enjoyments, and how some have neglected Him. God then commands Death to show Everyman who is outside of the law of God what must come to him without escape or delay, the day