english essay

EVERYMAN

16th Century English Play

Everyman

› Original Title: “The Summoning of Everyman”

› A Morality Play

› Author: Anonymous

› Published: 1508

› Written in Middle English

› “Here begynneth a treatyse”

› Renaissance Edition of Everyman

Introduction

› First published in England around the 16th Century – Now thought to be based on an earlier Dutch play, published in 1495.

– Frequent reprintings indicate the text was bought and read a great deal, but not necessarily performed.

Author Biography

› Author is unknown – But speculated by scholars that the play was written by a cleric under the direction of the church.

› Although the author is unknown, the play’s content, themes, and ideology reflect those of Catholic Europe. – The play’s emphasis on good deeds as a mechanism for salvation reflects medieval Catholic ideology.

Opposition to Theater

› Traditionally, the Catholic Church opposed the theatre because it frequently included nudity, fights with wild beasts, and because Roman sacrifice of Christians was often included as a part of pagan spectacle.

› An additional reason for church opposition was the use of falsehood. – In drama, an actor pretends to be someone else. (lying) – The promotion of transsexuality (men dressing up as women)

› There were suggestions to overthrow the government

› Although modern audiences accept this as "acting," it was interpreted by the early church to be lying. By the tenth century, drama would again become acceptable to clergy when it was reborn as liturgical drama.

Church and Theater

› The earliest liturgical dramas were included as a part of the church service and frequently took the form of a simple dialogue, often sung, between two clerics.

› Eventually this exchange began to include additional participants and by the thirteenth century, these dramas became a means to educate an illiterate congregation.

Church and Theater Continued

› More elaborate staging of plays began to be included in feast day celebrations, and they eventually moved from the church to the town square, which accommodated a larger audience.

› Eventually plays were sponsored by various guilds or trades, and they became known as miracle or mystery plays, derived from the Latin word, minister.

› By the end of the fifteenth century, these early mystery plays evolved into morality plays, of which Everyman is the best known.

Theater Grows in Popularity

› These plays were being performed in the vernacular (everyday language) instead of Latin by the year 1350

› As popularity grew, the church began to lose control. – Parts played by religious clerics and alter boys were now being performed by community members.

– Trained performers now began to emerge into these dramatic performances.

Morality Plays

› Morality Plays did not deal with biblical stories but with personal views and morals

› These plays utilized a moral lesson to members of the audience

› These plays were dramatized allegories of the life of man – Man trying to get to Heaven

› The general theme of a Morality Play is the conflict between good and evil for the soul – These plays always ended with the saving of the soul

› Everyman was, and still is, one of the most well-known Morality Plays

Plot Summary › Everyman is a one-act play written in the late 15th century.

› The play begins with a messenger calling on the audience to watch the play.

› The messenger relates to the audience that this play is a moral play about when Everyman is called in front of God.

› He explains that in the beginning of the Bible, God created man, and everything was perfect.

› However man created sin and for that, Everyman is going to have a reckoning with God.

› The messenger warns that even though now the spectators think that sin is a good thing, when it comes to the end, it will make people sad.

› Those things which now make you happy will fade and it is then that Everyman will have to answer for his actions.

Background of Everyman

› Everyman is very different from of Morality Plays in that it does not contain any humor – It is also short: only 900 lines long

› All characters in the play are abstractions (not individualized but represent all people)

› Usually the main character of a Morality Play would be “Everyman” or “Mankind”

Everyman and the Cycle of Grief

› In Scene 1, Everyman is told by Death that he has to die and make a pilgrimage to the afterlife.

› Everyman starts to go through a grief cycle, exactly following a theory proposed by Kubler-Ross in her book, On Death and Dying

Grief Cycle

› Denial: Everyman says he feels fine and is not ready to go to the afterlife

› Anger: Everyman becomes enraged asks why this is happening to him

› Bargaining: Everyman starts to bargain with Death and ask him if he can have more time

› Depression: Everyman begins to understand the inevitability and starts to “fear pains huge and great”

› Acceptance: Everyman accepts the fact that he has to make a pilgrimage and begins to prepare

Grief Cycle Continued

Scenes 2 & 3

Scene 2: Everyman asks his friends to go with him – Fellowship: he says no

– He says he will gladly go drink with Everyman and have fun, but not to die

› Scene 3: – Everyman asks his family to go with him

– Kindred and Cousin: they say no

– Cousin has a cramp in his toe

Scenes 4 & 5

› Scene 4: – Everyman goes to his money and wealth

– Goods: says no

– Goods has to stay; he is a temporary aspect of the world

› Scene 5: – Everyman goes to his good deeds

– Good-Deeds: says no › Sick because Everyman has never done any good deeds

Scenes 6 & 7

› Scene 6: – Everyman learns about the doctrine of the church to try and revitalize his good deeds

› Scene 7: – Everyman’s soul is saved and he ascends into Heaven

Purpose

› It was obviously written to be preformed for the common people.

› At the time, most people did not know how to read or write.

› Most of that knowledge was reserved for high positions and the Church.

› At the time, most of Europe followed the Roman Catholic Church.

› This play had a purpose to educate the people about salvation.

Purpose Continued

› Everyman refers to everyone.

› Everyone will someday have to go before the Lord in the reckoning. – It is the time when the Lord will judge whether or not the person before him is worthy enough to get into heaven.

› There are a couple of warnings throughout the play. – No one can ever escape death, and no one knows when they will die, so one should not put off salvation because it may be too late.

– There is also a point made that priests are human. Therefore, since all humans are sinners, priests are not above sinning.

Setting & Tone

› Setting: The action begins in heaven when God sends Death to summon the main character, Everyman.

› Thereafter, the action takes place on Earth. – Since the author intended the main character to represent every human being, the action on Earth could take place anywhere.

› Tone: Solemn & Dignified

Characters

› Everyman: Typical human being who has neglected his spiritual life but repents his sins in time to be saved

› God: Just but merciful Supreme Being

› Death: Messenger commanded by God to summon Everyman

› Fellowship, Kindred, Cousin, Material Goods: Earthly acquaintances of Everyman who abandon him in his time of need

Allegorical Figures Representing Abstract Characters

› Angel

› Beauty

› Cousin

› Death

› Discretion

› Doctor

› Everyman

› Fellowship

› Five Wits

› God

› Good Deeds

› Goods

› Kindred

› Knowledge

› Messenger

› Strength

Themes

› Alienation and Loneliness

› Atonement and Forgiveness

› Betrayal

› Death

› Material vs. Spiritual Gain

› Pilgrimage

› Reckoning & Judgment

› God and Religion

› Good Deeds

› Knowledge

› Sin

› Live for Tomorrow

› Deceptive Appearance of Sin

Theme: Alienation and Loneliness

› As Everyman is abandoned by Fellowship, Kindred, and Goods, he begins to feels increasingly isolated and alone.

› When his overtures to Fellowship are rejected, Everyman thinks that surely his family will stand by him as he faces his final judgment.

› Instead, what he discovers is that every man must face God's judgment alone.

› Earthly friendships and family are left behind in such a situation, and man is never more isolated than in facing death.

Theme: Atonement and Forgiveness

› When Everyman is feeling most afraid and alone, he is given the opportunity to atone for his sins.

› The recognition of his sin, provided by Knowledge, leads to his meeting with Confession and to penance.

› The medieval Christian tradition is that man must seek atonement for earthly sins, but that God's forgiveness is always available to those who truly repent.

› At the end of Everyman, forgiveness is given freely, and Everyman is prepared to meet God.

Theme: Betrayal

› Everyman has placed his faith in friends and family.

› They have been his companions throughout life and each initially indicates their willingness to accompany him on a journey.

› Fellowship even vows to accompany his friend to Hell.

› But Fellowship and Kindred are both afraid of the real hell; both decline

› Everyman's invitation when they learn he is going to meet God's final judgement. – This indicates that man will always be betrayed by earthly companions, since each man is ultimately selfish and must confront God alone.

– Their betrayal of Everyman serves a purpose, however, as their rejection forces him to search for greater truths.

Theme: Death › Death is the means by which man finally meets God.

› It is impending death that forces Everyman to consider his life and his accomplishments.

› Like most men, Everyman is unprepared for death and seeks extra time.

› In this respect he is like all men, who would plead for time to make final plans and, most importantly, to make peace with God.

› Generally, most Christian religions suggest that death is not to be feared, but that a better, eternal existence will be known as a result of death.

› Still, the approach of death is often the most frightening experience that man will face.

› Everyman is no exception to this idea.

Theme: God and Religion

› Plays such as Everyman are intended to help reinforce the importance of God and religion in people's lives.

› In this play, God represents salvation, but it is religion that provides the means to achieve that salvation.

› Like most drama of the medieval period, the focus of this play is how religion and a belief in God will help man overcome any travail, including death.

› Although God appears as a character only at the beginning of the play, his presence is felt throughout as Everyman begins to recognize his need for help beyond the earthly realm.

Theme: Good Deeds

› According to Catholic belief, it is man's accounting of himself and his good deeds that will provide admittance to heaven.

› Thus it is only Good Deeds who can accompany Everyman on his final journey.

› When faced with God's judgment, man's riches, the notoriety of his friends, and the importance of his family will not speak for his worth.

› Only the good deeds that a man does here on earth can speak for him before God.

› Accordingly, good deeds is more important than faith in achieving salvation.

Theme: Knowledge

› When abandoned by his friends, it is Knowledge that leads Everyman to the help he needs.

› It is knowledge that helps man to recognize and understand how he has sinned.

› It is knowledge that permits him to recognize deception and falsehoods.

› And finally, it is knowledge that allows Everyman to find the way to Confession and penance.

› If it is only his good deeds that can save man, it is knowledge that allows man to recognize the importance of good deeds in finding salvation.

Theme: Sin

› Sin is the reason for this play. It is sin that angers God in the opening lines.

› As a theme, sin is central, since it is Everyman's sins that force his final judgment.

› He has sinned much in his life, and the audience is told that his sins are so great that Good Deeds is immobile.

› Only when he can recognize and renounce his sins can Everyman be saved.

Style

› Archetype

› Audience

› Character

› Drama

› Genre

› Morality Play

› Parable

› Plot

Style: Archetype

› The word archetype is generally used to describe a character who represents a pattern from which all characters or "types" are derived.

› The term derives from the work of Carl Jung, who expressed the theory that behind every unconscious lies the collective memories of the past.

› In literature, the term is often applied to a character type or plot pattern that occurs frequently and is easily recognized.

› In Everyman, Death is such a character, and the audience would immediately recognize this character and his purpose in the plot.

Style: Audience

› Authors usually write with an audience in mind.

› Certainly the unknown author of Everyman intended this drama to instruct the audience.

› Since few people were literate, a medieval writer could use drama to tell a story or teach a moral.

› The lesson in this play is how to lead a proper religious life and prepare for death and God's judgement.

Style: Character

› The actions of each character are what constitute the story.

› Characters can also include the idea of a particular individual's morality.

› Characters can range from simple stereotypical figures to more complex multi-faceted ones.

› Characters may also be defined by personality traits, such as the rogue or the damsel in distress.

Style: Character Continued

› The actions of each character are what constitute the story.

› Characterization is the process of creating a life-like person from an author's imagination.

› To accomplish this the author provides the character with personality traits that help define who he will be and how he will behave in a given situation.

Style: Character in Everyman

› Everyman differs slightly from this definition, since each character is little more than a "type."

› The audience does not really know or understand the character as an individual.

› For instance, Fellowship represents little more than a quality, not an individual.

› The audience understands that Fellowship signifies the friendships than men have while here on earth.

Style: Drama

› A drama is often defined as any work designed to be presented on the stage.

› It consists of a story, of actors portraying characters, and of action.

› But historically, drama can also consist of tragedy, comedy, religious pageant, and spectacle.

› In modern usage, drama explores serious topics and themes but does not achieve the same level as tragedy.

› In Everyman, drama is aligned with spectacle and is intended as a mechanism to instruct the audience on how to prepare for death.

Style: Genre

› Genres are a way of categorizing literature. Genre is a French term that means "kind" or "type."

› Genre can refer to both the category of literature such as tragedy, comedy, epic, poetry, or pastoral.

› It can also include modern forms of literature such as drama, novels, or short stories.

› This term can also refer to types of literature such as mystery, science fiction, comedy, or romance.

› Everyman is a morality play.

Style: Morality Play

› Following the revival of theatre in the eleventh century, the Catholic Church began to introduce brief dramatized episodes into the mass on the occasion of major festivals.

› These gradually developed into complete plays, performed in public places by the trade guilds, and were known as mystery plays

Style: Morality Play Continued

› In some towns, there was a cycle of dramatized stories from the Creation to the Last Judgement.

› These were succeeded in the fifteenth century by morality plays, allegorical presentations of human vices and virtues in conflict.

› Among these, Everyman is perhaps the best known.

Style: Parable

› A parable is a story intended to teach a moral lesson.

› The story in Everyman is designed to teach people to lead a good, religious life so that they may properly prepare for death and the afterlife.

› The Bible is one of the most obvious sources of parables, since religion traditionally relies upon stories to teach lessons.

› This tradition stems from a period in which most men and women could not read, and the clergy found that stories were the most effective way to instruct moral lessons.

Style: Plot vs Theme

› Students are often confused between the two terms; but themes explore ideas, and plots simply relate what happens in a very obvious manner.

› Thus the plot of Everyman is how a man searches for a friend to accompany him to his final judgment.

› But the theme is how man can find salvation in God and Good Deeds.

Historical Context Cultural Changes in England

Cultural Changes in England › The end of the fifteenth century marked the end of the medieval period in England.

› The ascension of commerce changed the face of England.

› Once a predominantly agrarian culture, the cities of England, especially London, became more densely populated and urban.

› Farmlands were enclosed, and displaced rural families fled to the larger cities, where crowding, unemployment, and plague were a greater problem.

› The feudal order was ending, as well as the era of knights on horseback, who became obsolete after Henry V proved that there was a more efficient way to win a battle.

› Literacy increased too, as moveable typesetting made books and other printed material more available.

Conclusion

› There is no record of Everyman being produced on stage during the medieval period.

› The title page refers to the work as a treatise, and occasionally such works were fashioned as dialogues between characters.

› This was especially true when the author intended the work to provide a moral lesson.

› Whether Everyman was ever performed or not, it proved popular among readers, achieving four reprintings in the first years following its publication.

› But with the move to a Protestant religion in England and the development of the more sophisticated Elizabethan theater, the morality plays of the medieval period were forgotten.

Conclusion Continued

› Everyman was not reprinted again until 1773 and was then regarded as an artifact of the ancient past.

› However, by the nineteenth century, medieval drama became an important topic of study, and eventually interest in Everyman surged enough to warrant a production in 1901.

› In the latter half of the twentieth century, Everyman has achieved a level of popularity as a subject for study, particularly as interest in England' s medieval period has increased.

› Often cited as the best representation of morality plays and of medieval drama in general, Everyman appears in many anthologies of drama.

› The play continues to be taught in college English courses and occasional productions can be found at universities.

What’s Next?

› After viewing the video lecture for Everyman, it’s now time for you to review the requirements for the literary analysis assignment; choose your topic idea as you read the literature.