EVERYMAN Excerpted from textbook
COMPONENTS Morality Play – medieval drama; Christian struggle between good and evil (going to heaven or hell); teaches a moral lesson (morals = beliefs, values, ethics [what’s right and wrong]) Naïve Allegory – characters, objects, places and actions, etc. are personifications of abstractions. Caricature – exaggerations of a quality
PERSONIFICATION Everyman = every person Death = end of life THEY ARE THE CHARACTERS, BUT IDEAS SIMULTANEOUSLY = PERSONIFICATION
MESSENGER Breaks down 4 th wall and addresses the audience directly Avoid Seven Deadly Sins in order to go to heaven Everyman has been called to a reckoning “Look well, and take good heed to the ending,/Be you never so gay.” (10-11) – meaning?
GOD Angered by the sins of man Why? Lines Meaning? – God’s angry due to? How did God originally plan for man’s end? (lines 53-54)
DEATH V. EVERYMAN Outline the exception to the rule (or the “saving grace”) that Death seeks in Everyman (lines 74-79): Death finds Everyman in order to review his life; to weigh the balance of good deeds (Almsdeeds) v. sin Everyman doesn’t recognize Death and doesn’t know why he has come; Upon realization, Everyman tries to make a deal…
DEATH V. EVERYMAN Everyman – come back again later (I’ll give you $, all I have) Everyman: Can I come back at the end of the journey? Death: NO! Everyman: “I would to God I had never be geet!/To my soul a full great profit it had be./ For now I fear pains huge and great.” ( )
… Everyman goes on his journey and returns to Death at a grave (his grave) with all of the qualities of his life with him.
BEAUTY Everyman: “In this world live no more we shall,/ But in heaven before the highest Lord of all.” ( ) Beauty – NO!
STRENGTH Everyman: “Stenght, you to displease I am to blame,/ Yet promise is debt, this ye well wot.” ( ) Strength– NO!
DISCRETION “Everyman, I will after Strength be gone:/ As for me, I will leave you alone.” ( ) Discretion– NO!
FIVE - WITS Everyman: “Alas, then may I wail and weep, / For I took you for my best friend.” ( ) Five – Wits – NO!
GOOD DEEDS AND KNOWLEDGE Why does Knowledge stay so long? ( ) Why does Good Deeds stay? ( )
PURPOSE Angel? Doctor? Theme = “And he that hath his account whole and sound,/