Death and Perception of Death



Death and Perception of Death

Outline

Introduction and thesis Statement: Introduces the play and the essay.

Discussion: Describes the author's perception about death.

Conclusion: Concludes the essay.

Introduction

Everyman is an anonymous mortality play written in the late 15th century (Skot, 1521), but was first played in 1901 (Kuehler, 2008). The main focus of the play is the Christian salvation of man and how it can be achieved, due to which it is widely considered as a church drama. The concept of life after death is presented in the play which emphasizes everyman (the humankind) to spend their worldly life in the righteous manner as all the deeds in this world would be tallied after death, and people would be rewarded accordingly. The author used the character of “Everyman” to symbolize the entire humankind. The moral of the play is that only good deeds can provide salvation to a person and everyone would have to be accountable of his worldly deeds after death

Discussion

The play focuses on the concepts of spirituality and life after death; it discusses that how the Christians could lead a successful and pious life. The author describes the purpose of death from the perspective of God and the people. Everyman is a character in the play which represents the entire humankind. Additionally, the play completely becomes allegorical drama as the characters of knowledge, god deeds, confession, angel and Gods appear (Allegory, 2010). The play begins when Everyman was called after death before the throne of God, in order to give an account of all his deeds which he had done during his life in the world (Allen, 2012). This is the time when Everyman called his fellowship, goods and strength to help but none of them did; none was ready to accompany everyman to face death. All his friends and relatives had already abandoned him when he entered his grave; only his good deeds accompanied him. Thus, on the time of final judgment and accountability, only good deeds and knowledge helped Everyman, while everyone else left him alone. The author perceived death as an order by God to his creations, as a result of which everyone would have to reckon his deeds (Adu-Gyamfi et al, 2011)

In Everyman, death is seen as the activity which would bring the people to the throne of judgment, before God. God made his creatures to die because He intends to do justice to all, and also because He wants his creatures to live without fear. If everyone on earth visualizes death as not the end of life, but yet another life in which all would have to be answerable for their previous deeds, the world would be entirely different; the one in which everyone fears of God and bad deeds but does not fear from any other man. Author perceives death as an activity which would punish the people for their bad deeds and would reward them for their good deeds. It is described through the scenes of the play that people are ...