Engl 102 Final Research Essay

Death and mortality: Everyman

Emily N. Warfield

Liberty University

English 102-B34

Research Paper: Final Essay

Thesis: In the allegory and mortality play, Everyman, the unknown author uses character scheme and events between these characters in order to make known his perception of death and the treatment of death.

Outline:

1. Introduce the story of Everyman

1. The characters

1. Knowledge, Beauty, Confession, Strength, Fellowship, Kindred, Cousin, Good-Deeds, Death and Everyman

1. God’s role in the play

1. He calls on Death to take Everyman to his fate
2. God is upset over the sins of His children

1. The role of death

1. Use Romans 6:23 (NLT)
2. God is the determiner of fate—heaven or hell?

1. Fellowship, Kindred, and Cousin

1. Each fail Everyman
2. Represent family and friends
3. These fade with time

1. Concept of Goods

1. Everyman calls on Knowledge for counsel and repentance
2. Strength, Beauty, Discretion, and Five-Wits

1. Everyman comes to the realization that earthly concepts fade with time
2. Conclusion

The play, Everyman, written by an unknown author, is an allegory and mortality play. It is meant to challenge educated and uneducated audiences, while using symbolic characters to represent obstacles people face in life. For example, some of the characters are, Knowledge, Beauty, Confession, Strength, Fellowship, Kindred, Cousin, Good-Deeds, Death and Everyman. In the scholarly journal, “Time and the Timeless in Everyman and Dr. Faustus, the author, David Kaula, writes, “Despite its several severe warnings, Everyman is essentially reassuring in its estimation of man’s chances for salvation,” (Kaula 1960). The character Everyman is an archetype for, literally, every man on this earth. He is a symbol of how people are supposed to be and how they are supposed to act. Furthermore, the author uses these personifications of concepts (knowledge, strength, etc.) to reveal that a person’s actions in life correlate to how they will be judged by God in heaven. Through the use of these characters, the author is able to create his perception of death and the role of good deeds in a person’s journey from life to death.

The story begins with God speaking of His children and how they are drowning in sin (26). God rants about people focusing on the riches of the world instead of the satisfaction of having Him as their personal savior. Kaula states, “God at the beginning speaks ruefully of His love for mankind…It is only because mankind is ‘Drowned in synne’ that God is obliged to command Death to summon Everyman to his final reckoning,” (Kaula, 1960). Death then approaches Everyman and says that God is ready to hear his good and bad deeds and to take his “book of count” with him. As soon as Everyman understands who Death is, he becomes scared and asks if he is able to bring anyone along with him on the journey from life into death. Everyman then tries to call on his “friends” in order to have a companion. This begins the story of Everyman and the symbolic characters of worldly concepts that every man should encounter.

The role of death in the play is meant to reveal that no one can escape death and God is in control over when everyone will leave this world. They will then be standing at God’s throne, telling Him their good deeds and their failures. One key point of the play is how sins influence a person’s death. God said, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus out Lord” (Romans 6:23, New Living Translation). Jesus died for everyone’s sins, but in the end, it is up to the person to decide whether or not they want to receive that salvation. The play focuses on how Everyman relies on earthly objects instead of pointing his satisfaction towards the only One who could give it to him—God. The author makes it clear to the reader that God is the determiner of a person’s fate, whether or not a person will go to heaven or hell.

Hints of Everyman’s trust in earthly riches reveal itself when he dialogues with Fellowship, Kindred, and Cousin. In the journal, “Material Economy, Spiritual Economy and Social Critique in Everyman,” the authors, Elizabeth Harper and Britt Mize, write, “The distress Everyman feels as the desertion of Fellowship, Kindred, and Cousin itself confirms the imputation of him of worldliness,” (Harper and Mize, 2006). Fellowship, Kindred, and Cousin represent family and friends. Earthly relationships that fail to give a person the satisfaction God’s relationship can. When Fellowship learns what Everyman has planned for the two of them, he instantly becomes weary. Fellowship explains that he would be there for Everyman through anything, including murder; however, he cannot go along with Everyman to death. He explains, “Nay, and thou would give me a new gown, I will not a foot with thee go; But, and thou had tarried, I would not have left thee so. And as now God speed thee in thy journey, for from thee I will depart as fast as I may” (292-296). Moreover, Fellowship leaves and Kindred and Cousin begin talking with Everyman. These two characters represent family. Harper and Mize say in their writing, “More generally, all the English analogues to Everyman’s abandonment by Fellowship, Kindred, and Cousin are moralized to exemplify the futility of trust in earthly riches as well as in human companions” (Harper and Mize, 2006). In the end, these concepts fail Everyman. Everyman soon comes to the realization that all of these concepts fade with time. Kindred, Fellowship, and Cousin are all meant to represent unwise counsels, who, in the end, will let Everyman down.

After failing to get counsel from Fellowship, Kindred, and Cousin, Everyman seeks help from Goods. These characters represent material possessions and wealth. Goods explains that Everyman should not have given him so much credit. He says, “That is to thy damnation, without leasing, for my love is contrary to the love everlasting; but if thou had me loved moderately during, as to the poor to give part of me, then shouldst thou not in his dolour be, nor in this great sorrow and care” (429-434). Not wanting to face God and be sent to Hell, Goods abandons Everyman. Moreover, after seeking assistance from lifelong companions and being rejected, Everyman turns to his old friend, Good-Deeds. However, after being neglected for so long, Good-Deeds is too weak to accompany Everyman. He suggests that Everyman obtain help from Knowledge. “The character Knowledge in Everyman is the Sapience or Wisdom figure who counsels the hero on the right way to salvation. She teaches him how to make his account sure and his reckoning clear” (Thomas, 2003). Knowledge guides Everyman to Confession, who gives him penance to perform for his sins. After penance is done, Good-Deeds would then be well again and able to accompany him on his journey. Knowledge tells Everyman to call upon the characters of Strength, Beauty, Discretion, and Five-Wits. Combined, they represent the core of his physical/human experience. While approaching his death, these characters start to become weary. Beauty is the first one to leave, disgusted by the idea of lying in a grave. In the end, Everyman is once again left with Good-Deeds and Knowledge.