Everyman Research Paper

English 102 Research Paper, Everyman

Justin C. Blanton

Liberty University

Abstract

Everyman is a play and story that is strong in a lesson about how life is lived and how death is approached. In a way similar to A Christmas Carol, Scrooge would be likened to Everyman. A man who lives his life as a penny pincher and did not care to help others, now begs death for more time so he would not be judged poorly in his end. Death is a figure, a character and we see their embodiment in literature.

Introduction

Everyman is a play from England about morality. The author takes human values and represents them by characterizing them and creates conflict in the story in the life of the humans. The story uses allegory in the characters to represent people. Everyman is a play that is described as “an allegorical drama popular in Europe especially

When the author does this, the author can put the focus on such important factors in life as family, friendships, love, life itself and death. In the play Everyman, the author does exactly that naming the characters appropriately. Everyman, the main character, is a symbol of the average person who realizes too late that they had put focus in life on the things that did not matter. The play “achieves a beautiful, simple solemnity in treating allegorically the theme of death and the fate of the human soul—of Everyman’s soul as he tries to justify his time on earth.” (Everyman, Britannica 2013) The supporting characters are, Knowledge, Kindred, Beauty, Discretion, Strength, Five Wits, Fellowship, and Good Deeds, each representing real aspects of humanity that each man deals with over a lifetime. The beginning of the play starts with God expressing that he is upset after all he has done for mankind, that he has protected him and saved his soul, that man continues to turn away from him and forsake