Preview

Everyman Analysis

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1883 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Everyman Analysis
Analysis of Death in “Everyman”

Name

Outline 1. Give brief overview of Death a. Discuss when he appears and for what reason b. Discuss his objectives and what his reason for being there is c. Discuss who he is talking to d. Give thesis statement 2. Quote the excerpt of Death’s conversation with God 3. Quote the excerpt of Trussler and his summary of the conversation 4. Discuss the atypical depiction of Death e. Follow up with Ron Tanner’s quotation about the humor in the scene 5. Quote Davenport f. Kafkaesque 6. Discuss the influence Christianity and the Catholic Church had on drama during the 15th century g. Quote Moses’ and his synopsis of the matter 7. Follow up with quote from Cunningham and Reich to reinforce the mentality of that time period 8. Conclusion, restate thesis

Thesis Statement
Deaths primary role throughout the course of this play is to serve as God’s messenger and to summon Everyman to account for his sins.

xxxx xxxx Crs
Date
Analysis of Death in “Everyman”
The morality play Everyman is probably one of the most known drama’s of the Middle Ages even though the author of the play is unknown. The basic summary of the play entails the Lord God looking down upon Everyman and observing the greed that has overcame him. The character Everyman, in this play, is symbolic of mankind as a whole; male, female, young, and old. God sees Everyman’s desire for riches and worldly pleasures and observes the fact that Everyman has forgotten Him. This prompts God to call for His messenger, Death. God proceeds to bid Death to take a message to Everyman informing him that he must take a long journey; he must prepare to account for his actions before the Lord God. This direct instruction to Death by God gives the reader insight on the author’s perception of Death and the role that Death will play in this drama. Death doesn’t play a prominent role throughout the



Bibliography: Cunningham, Lawrence S, and John J Reich. Culture and Values: a survey of the humanities. Belmont: Wadsworth Publishing, 2005. Davenport, William A. Fifteenth-century English drama: the early moral plays and their literary. Totowa: Rowman and Littlefield, 1982. Moses, Montrose Jonas. Everyman: a morality play. Boston: L. Sackse, 1903. Tanner, Ron. "Humor in “Everyman and the Middle English Morality Play." Philological Quarterly 70, no. 2 1991. Trussler, Simon. Everyman. Woodchurch: Nick Hern Books Limited, 1996. Unknown. "Everyman." 1400.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    This nine page, one-act play explores the afterlife as a group of eight deceased family members ponders their status and the purpose of their existence. Together in their common plot, these characters speak to one another about life beyond the grave. They describe their existence in a way that is sometimes shocking, other times funny, but is always vivid. More than anything else it is this imagery that creates that world and coveys the meaning of the play.…

    • 830 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Brian Blessed production of King Lear most closely resembles a Christian tragedy approach to the text in that it shows suffering as meaningful and links it with redemption. This view of the play accepts the disproportion between fault and punishment and sees death as a release from the world’s cares.…

    • 835 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    References: Cunningham, L. S., & Reich, J. J. (2010, 2006). Culture and Values: A Survey of the Humanities. Boston, MA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.…

    • 352 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    In this medieval drama, a man who is known as Everyman, unexpectedly has to face with God. Many characters are classified in the play, one of them is Death whom is sent by God to summon Everyman to his “court” for his pilgrimage, which is his final expedition. Death asks Everyman if he had forgotten his creator, because he is very much implicated with worldly things. When they are about to start his pilgrimage, Death wants him to take his full book of accounts, yet he states it is not even ready; “and also my writing is full unready”1. As Everyman is engrossed with worldly concerns only, and now understands that this pilgrimage will arbitrate whether he is going to hell or heaven, he wails in defeat and asks Death if…

    • 1178 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Fun with Everyman the Play

    • 1887 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Everyman, the play, presents the reader with a variety of assorted characters, as representatives of things human’s, more often than not, value. Values that the main character, named Everyman, has involved in his life. The character Everyman is called upon by the calm character Death, but Everyman is not ready to die just yet. Everyman sets out on a journey to find some companions and friends to go on his journey towards death, and the grave, with him. Everyman realizes how stupid, foolish and a waste of time this is in the end and he finally comes to the conclusion that he alone has to give witness to his life before God at the time of judgment.…

    • 1887 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Pardoner's Tale

    • 421 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Death. It has many shapes and sizes in books and stories. In Chaucer’s book “The Pardoners Tale,” it takes the shape of an old man. He is very old and weary and seems like a completely innocent character. But, in this tale, he is the cause of three deaths. He is the very embodiment of death itself.…

    • 421 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Essay on 'Everyman'

    • 311 Words
    • 1 Page

    This play suggests a means to salvation as Everyman enters the kingdom of heaven by performing good-deeds; and that death comes to everybody. Everyman has to clear his book of reckoning before he can progress to heaven, and one of the things the play considers is how humans will be judged after they have died. God is furious that humans are living a superficial life on earth, focusing on wealth and riches, without worrying about the greater judgment that is to come - and, notably, Everyman's own judgment - his ability to understand his life - becomes gradually more and more enlightened on his…

    • 311 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Everyman Research

    • 1241 Words
    • 5 Pages

    During the opening of the play, God called upon the Messenger and Death to alert Everyman that the time of reckoning had come. The author wants readers to pay close attention. God complains about how every man have become immersed in material things in life than follow him. He feels taken advantage of; because he receives no gratitude for all that he has given them. God chose to use death to call upon the character Death to do anything associated with the kingdom. The author seems to portray that God is good and Death is bad. God and Death are teamed up to show the struggle between the two. God uses Everyman to express what he wants and when he wants it. Like any good coach God summons Death up and lay out the game plan for his upcoming mission. The author showed the importance of God explaining his actions to Death so death would not claim victory over no man’s life. God expressed to Death that He alone was the only giver and taker of life. In other words, God was tired of Everyman’s disobedience. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3.16). Everyman did not show God enough respect. Everyman demonstrated lust after things of the world, placed stuff before the love of his fellow man, let his pride take him down, held on to grudges, not willing to forgive, envious of his brother, and just plain mean for no reason at all. God is feed up with the way…

    • 1241 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Cited: Cunningham, Lawrence, and Reich, John. Culture & Values: A Survey of the Humanities Belmont:…

    • 833 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    A 4 page paper that provides an overview of the major themes in one of Shakespeare's most famous plays. This paper contends that the play is effective because it demonstrates support for the themes of prophecy, heresy, guilt and temptation as significant elements in tragedy. No additional sources cited.…

    • 1774 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Cited: awrence Cunningham and John Reich, Culture and Values A Survey of the Humanities, Thomson Wadsworth, 2002.…

    • 518 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Everyman Essay

    • 306 Words
    • 1 Page

    The Moral of Everyman, an English morality play, is an symbol of death and the fate of the soul. Beckoned by Death, Everyman calls on Fellowship, Good-Deeds, and Strength for help, but they desert him. Only Good-Deeds and Knowledge remain faithful and lead him toward salvation. Everyman symbolizes, in a worldly sense, every man. The play unfolds as he wrestles with his own qualities, whether they are good or evil. The way Everyman reacts to these qualities is notable as they morally obligate him to do good or tempt him to do evil. Everyman can be pulled towards Heaven or Hell and it is not until Death knocks at his door that he begins to follow the path towards Heaven. Every character represents a different characteristic of the main character, Everyman. The characters are symbolic. For example, Beauty, Strength, and Discretion are some different characteristics that were expressed in Everyman. It is true that these characteristics make up a person, but they are not the most important. The most important characteristic in a person is doing good deeds. Knowledge also makes up whom a person can be. Everyman had many important characteristics in his life, but, when Everyman went to the afterlife, the only thing that went with him was his knowledge, and good deeds. Death was an important character in Everyman. Death symbolized a messenger of God. He was the figure that went down to earth to retrieve Everyman and take him to the afterlife. Death was a significant part of Everyman because he motivated Everyman to find something to accompany him on his eternal journey to heaven or to hell. All of the characters that Everyman pleads with to be his companion forsake him. Only one character, Good Deeds, holds true to his word.…

    • 306 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    everyman

    • 663 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Firsly we are introduced to the Messenger who asks the audience to give their attention and announces the purpose of the play, which will show us our lives as well as our deaths.…

    • 663 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Best Essays

    Ophelia's Suicide

    • 2496 Words
    • 10 Pages

    Romanticized by modern females, downplayed by literary critics and somewhat overlooked by the general public, the character of Ophelia in “Hamlet, Prince of Denmark” offers the reader a tantalizing mystery - did Ophelia truly commit suicide? Bear in mind that in the deeply religious culture that was the basis for the inception of Hamlet, suicide was a mortal sin, bearing with it the consequence of eternal punishment and damnation, burial in unconsecrated ground and shame to be forever associated with the deceased. Or, perhaps, was Ophelia’s death an accident, or a murder?…

    • 2496 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Doctor faustus

    • 355 Words
    • 1 Page

    As the end of Faustus’s life draws near, the mood of the play inevitably lurches from the farcical to the terrifying and demonic. A pious Old Man, warns Faustus of the eternal agonies of hell and entreats him, to repent. Shaken, Faustus nonetheless gives way to the sin of despair and begs Mephistopheles crying out pitifully for more time; the unholy trinity of Lucifer,…

    • 355 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays

Related Topics