How Does Everyman A Morality Play

Morality play, as defined in Merriam Webster, is a kind of drama with personified abstract qualities as the main characters and presenting a lesson about good conduct and character, popular in the 15th and early 16th centuries. “Everyman” written in the late 1400’s by an unknown author, is one of the most famous examples of a medieval morality play. Although the author of The Summoning of Everyman was never credited, a Flemish work entitled Elckerlijc, with the same story and theme, was written about 1495 by Peter van Diest. This is the main reason modern day scholars seem to believe Everyman was either wrote based on Elckerlijc or the other way around. Everyman attempts to deliver Christian beliefs throughout the text by his different encounters

Death, a messenger from God, was sent to Everyman as a spokesperson on God’s behalf. He makes a grand entrance explaining to Everyman that “a long journay” is soon to come for there was a need to make his “reckoning...before God” (lines 103-107). Scholar Julie Paulson suggests that Everyman’s incomprehension is humorous even as it reveals he is unready for Death’s summons. Death is asked, “Sholde I not come agayne shortly?” Everyman's failure to perceive the changelessness of Death's "excursion" brings up the issue for the crowd of what may constitute such an acknowledgment. A connection is made with the audience in which Death’s sudden appearance is contemplated; would I be ready if Death stood on my doorstep

According to scholar Helen Thomas, Knowledge’s purpose was to show to the “sinner summoned by death the path to salvation through the sacraments of the Church” (Thomas, 3). From an understanding at this time an age there was seven main sacraments of the Middle Ages church, enumerated by Peter Lombard, and those being Baptism, Confirmation, Eucharist, Penance, Extreme Unction, Ordination and Matrimony. So Knowledge was to show Everyman how he can be forgiven and offered salvation through those seven sacraments. This has led many people to question if this character Knowledge represents the denotative meaning of the word knowledge, that being, awareness or familiarity gained by experience of a fact or situation. Many literature reviewers have viewed this in two main ways, the character does represent because maybe he has gotten that “familiarity gained by experience” because he has been through the same thing multiple times and he now knows what needs to be done to acquire salvation. Also, that the character offers a different meaning and is not suppose to be in relation with the