Play Everyman example essay topic

Everyman is a medieval allegory and also classified as a morality play that is majorly devoted to the demonstration of how temporary everything in life is as death approaches, except good deeds. We witness the struggle of salvation that takes place throughout the play by the main character, Everyman. This character is literally the embodiment of everyman in the world. Everyman represents everything that mankind is and does. Everyman begins with God dissatisfied because all creatures on the earth choose riches over righteousness and generally live a life of sin.

The play seems to follow a pattern where Everyman pleads with a character, who is the physical embodiment of some worldly attribute, to go with him on a journey to his day of ending life, which is followed by promises of allegiance from the other characters ending in ultimate betrayal. Their is a noticeable halt from this pattern, led by two of the earthly characters, Knowledge and the Five-wits. On line 706, Knowledge begins a discussion on the usefulness and power of the Priesthood. Everyman, hearken what I say: Go to Priesthood, I you advice, And receive of him, in any wise... in which any wise means at all costs. Five-wits goes on to explain the importance of the sacraments as keys to salvation, and how only the priest holds those keys. The Five-wits burst into a final glorification of the priesthood that includes suggesting that through the priesthood has more power than the angels, and has power to hold God's flesh, and the power to damn people to hell or save them forever, and finally just explaining that all of God's blessings come through the priesthood and the priesthood only.

Everyman, that is the best that ye can do: God will you to salvation bring. For priesthood exceed eth all other thing To us Holy Scripture they do teach, And convert eth man from sin, heaven to reach; God hath to them more power given Then to any angel that is in heaven With five words he may consecrate God's body in flesh and blood to make, And handle th his Maker between his hands. The priest bind eth and unbind eth all bands, Both in earth and in heaven. Thou ministers all the sacraments seven; Though we kiss thy feet, thou were worthy; Thou art surgeon that curet h sin deadly; No remedy we find under God But all only Priesthood. Everyman, God gave priest that dignity And set teh them in his stead among us to be. Thus be they above angels in degree (730-749).

Throughout this play, the search of survival that Everyman is after is clearly evident. He realizes that Death is after his reckoning, and knows that he needs to find a way to feel security, not only with himself, but with the fact that he will be in front of God laying everything to him. Death makes known to Everyman that he cannot run away from death, he basically reinforces that death is part of life. You live, do your wrongs and rights (good deeds), and then you face God for your eternal salvation (death).

Death then refers to the way Everyman has lived his life and demands his reckoning or account book. Everyman must tell God how he has spent his life and if he has spent it wisely. As Dr. De smet says, In an important way, the play Everyman demonstrates the ways in which a person who does have talents (Good Deeds that are trapped in the ground) wastes them, like the servant who buries his one talent the ground and is cast into the dark, the place of wailing and grinding of teeth. Everyman was responsible for several good deeds during his lifetime. These good things that began to diminish with old age, as did each of his five senses, until they all just completely disappeared.

Everyman definitely had his flaws. His good deeds were practically canceled out by sin. For instance, Everyman has great love for material possessions. Throughout his life he believed that money made right whatever is wrong.

This obsession with goods and riches results in greed. With all of his wealth, everyman does not share with the poor, so his possessions have made him blind for his reckoning. Another one of Everyman's flaws is that Everyman doesn t put his trust in God and into himself or his attributes. Instead, he seeks comfort and help from Fellowship, Kindred and Cousin, and from his riches, but none want anything to do with hi journey. It is not until these painful moments of realization that Everyman recognizes some truths about life. He learns that he can find true friends only within himself and through God.

The conclusion that has been brought up with Everyman's situation, is that Everyman's main concern was for Goods, another character in the play, to go along his journey of death. Goods does not go because materials are not what make a person. The idea of heaven or hell is to see what kind of person you really were throughout your life. Goods decided that he would not go with Everyman on his journey because goods does not decide what sort of person your are or were.

Everyman then realizes he needs to go to Good Deeds. When Good Deeds hears Everyman's proposal, he refuses it. he takes note that Everyman has not done very many good deeds in his life. Good Deeds leads Everyman to Confession. As he meets with Confession, he confesses all of his bad deeds to the priest, which we know holds the key sacraments to salvation.

Everyman is forgiven. Everyman then descends with Good Deeds into a grave, where the angels welcome him and tell him hi reckoning is clear. Therefore, realizes that materialistic things only last in our lifetime, but your good deeds will always be with you, especially at your hour of death, this being the moral of the story.