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Running head: RESEARCH PAPER
Research Paper
Liberty University Online
Kasey Coleman
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RESEARCH PAPER
Research Paper
“Everyman” is an English morality play with an unknown author. This play made its first
appearance during the 16th century in England. A morality play can be defined as: a kind of
drama with personified abstract qualities as the main characters, and presenting a lesson about
good conduct and character. In this specific morality play, “Everyman,” we see the main
character Everyman is his living his normal life, when God sends Death to Everyman to prepare
him for the eternal judgment. When Death gets to Everyman, Everyman isn’t ready to go and
asks for another day to prepare himself and then tries to find other people to come on this
journey with him. In the end, Everyman has no one or nothing left to help him on his journey,
and comes to realize the only thing that matters is his relationship with the Lord and the things he
can do for his people. The character of Death plays a vital role throughout the play, as God’s
agent between himself and Everyman. He also is the motivator for Everyman to change the life
that he is living, because Death is the “great equalizer.”
We are first introduced to the character of Death in the beginning of the play when God
summons him, “Almighty God, I am here at your will, your commandment to fulfill” (Adu-
Gyamfi, Schmidt, 2011). God has an assignment for Death to do and sends him out to bring
Everyman back to Him for his final judgment. He has now become an agent for the Lord and is
doing the work that his master is asking him to do. The reason that he is sent by God to
Everyman was because Everyman was living for the world and all of its pleasures, “Full little he
thinketh on my coming; His mind is on fleshly lust and his treasure” (Adu-Gyamfi et all, 2011).
So Death is sent out and meets Everyman for the first time. He then explains that he has been
sent as an agent of God and that it was time for them to take a journey back to God for the final
judgment, “In great haste I am sent to thee, From God out of his great majesty” (Adu-Gyamfi et
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all, 2011). It was time for Everyman to answer for all the decisions that he had made in his life
and it was time for eternal judgment of Everyman. “Death was a version of earthly officials
whose duty was to bring an accused party to court” (Harper & Mize, 2006). Everyman wasn’t
ready for this time to come and then tries to plead with Death to allow for some time to prepare
himself and be ready. He even offers Death a bribe to allow for more time to prepare himself for
the journey, “Yea, a thousand pound shalt thou have, And defer this matter to another day” (Adu-
Gyamfi et all, 2011). But Death is not someone who accepts bribes, as he reminds Everyman
again that everyone will have their day when it is time to take the journey to the Lord and where
he will decide your final judgment.
I think there then becomes a role switch in the story for death where he goes from Agent
of God to motivator of Everyman. See Death already knows what is to come should Everyman
not turn from his ways and repent. He knows that eternal separation with God will happen should
things that turn around. So he then becomes a motivator for the Everyman as he wants him to
turn from the ways of the world and come back to the ways of Christ. When it comes to the idea
of the type of character that Death is, it would be a flat character or a foil character. Everyman is
the Protagonist and there isn’t really an Antagonist, as Death isn’t working against Everyman,
but as a motivator and helper in the journey that he is on. Once Everyman is done trying to bribe
Death for more time before taking this journey, he convinces Death to allow him to take some
friends along on this journey that could entertain him and keep him company. And so Everyman
begins to dive back into all the earthly things that he has built up in his life and sees if any of
them wish to take this journey with him. “Everyman doesn’t recognize the purpose of Death’s
journey” (Paulson, 2005). And as he goes about his journey with Death back to God, one-by-one
the things that he had counted on in the past will show up in the journey but then very soon after
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begin to fall away. It starts with the idea of fellowship and ends with Five Wits. But all of these
things end up failing Everyman and he is unable to lean up them during this journey when
ultimately he needs them the most. “The author emphasizes Death as a learning experience”
(Goldhamer, 1973). And the biggest thing that Everyman learns is that all of these earthly things
that he has built up really don’t mean anything. He needs to worry about the treasures that he is
storing up in heaven and not the treasures that he is storing up on earth.
Let’s take a look at the idea of Death as the “great equalizer.” Now the idea of a great-
equalizer is really the idea of something that puts us all on the same level. Whether we are rich or
poor, young or old, male or female, there are some things in this world that put us all on the same
level and make us equal. In this situation, death is the “great-equalizer” as no matter who we are
or where were from, we are all going to die at one point or another. “I am Death, that no man
dreateth. For Everyman I rest and no man I spareth” (Adu-Gyamfi et all, 2011). And how this
particularly relates in this story of Everyman is that he thinks he has it all together and that
nothing could stand in his way. He thinks that all of his toys and nice things will help him live
forever and that he will never have to worry about anything else. But he has a giant wake-up call
when Death comes knocking on the door. “Death cannot be escaped, the time is now”
(Goldhamer, 1973). And he learns throughout his journey that none of the things that he had
stored up for himself on earth mattered at all. And even though Death is the great-equalizer for us
all, Death was also a good motivator for Everyman to get his life and act together.
But Death has another interesting role given to him by the original author and that is the
idea of a personified character. And a personified character is to attribute human nature or
character to an inanimate object. We obviously know that the idea of Death is not one that is
tangible or can actually be seen, but in this story that author makes it as if Death is a person who
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works as an agent for the Lord and then as a motivator for Everyman. He is given qualities of a
normal person and having attribute of a normal person, without actually being a normal person.
We see such actions as him “running over, striking with a dart and seeing Everyman walking”
(Adu-Gyamfi et all, 2011). It’s like as you read the play, you see Death and Everyman having a
face-to-face conversation like any two other people could. But then you realize that the
conversation is with the concept of Death.
In the end Everyman did end up realizing that everything that he had stored up for
himself had left him and that all that mattered was his relationship with God and the good things
that he had done for others, though initially not much. Death was a very vital part to this story,
but he wasn’t just a character in a story, he was used for bigger meaning as an allegory in the
story. An allegory is something that usually has a hidden meaning, usually a moral one. And as
previously stated, these morality plays were usually performed in churches and so the idea was to
assign characters different traits that would allow them to not just have a surface meaning, but to
have an underlying meaning. In this case, Death stood as the judgment that each and every
person in this world will one day face. And most of the time, as in the story, we wont be ready
for it when it comes and we wont be able to take a mulligan and obtain more time to prepare. We
need to be ready at all times and not allow it to sneak up on us. We need to live our lives in a way
that no matter when that day comes, we are ready for it and ready to take that journey to God to
receive our final judgment. Always be prepared, because you never know when it is Death’s turn
to visit you.
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Resources
Adu-Gyamfi, Y., & Schmidt, M. R. (2011). Literature and Spirituality. Boston: Longman.
Goldhamer, A. D. (1973). EVERYMAN: A DRAMATIZATION OF DEATH. Quarterly Journal
Of Speech, 59(1), 87.
Harper, E., & Mize, B. (2006). Material economy, spiritual economy, and social critique in
everyman. Comparative Drama, 40(3), 263-311. Retrieved from
http://ezproxy.liberty.edu:2048/login?
url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/211714227?accountid=12085
Paulson, J. (2007). Death's arrival and everyman's separation. Theatre Survey, 48(1), 121-141.
Retrieved from http://ezproxy.liberty.edu:2048/login?
url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/211162380?accountid=12085
Research Paper Outline
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Thesis Statement: In the play Everyman, Death plays many different roles including: the driver
of the plot as a “foil,” as an allegory/personified character and as an agent/motivator.
1. Main Point 1: Driver of the Plot as a “Foil” (Type of Character)
a. How did death drive the plot of the story?
b. Why would I say he is a foil in relation to the protagonist?
c. What did he influence Everyman to do?
2. Main Point 2: Allegory/Personified Character (Literary Points)
a. What was the allegory that was trying to be portrayed?
b. How and where was it originally portrayed? (Morality Play)
c. What characteristics did death take to attribute human nature/character?
3. Main Point 3: Gods Agent and Everyman’s Motivation
a. How Death was used as Gods Agent
b. How Death was used as Everyman’s motivation
