EVERYMAN

Everyman

Everyman

Outline

This paper is formed over the following outline:

Introduction

Purpose of the study

Thesis Statement

Discussion

Author's perception of Death and Treatment of Death

Relationship to Two Medieval Themes

Conclusion

Introduction

Everyman an English morality plays of the late 15th century, the finest representative of the genre, and the one best known outside the circle of historical scholars. Of undetermined authorship, it is now conceded to be a close translation of a Dutch play, Elckerlijc, although a number of attempts have been made to prove the priority of the English text. The success of the play with modern audiences is a tribute to the universality of its thematic elements and to the artistry of its dramatic structure. While it is the culmination of a long series of experiments with a nonrepresentational, allegorical drama on the problem of salvation, it transcends the limits of its era to become one of the great plays of all time (Dunn, 2003).

Purpose of the study

The purpose of this study is to find out the author's perception in writing about death and different treatment of death in the play (Everyman).

Thesis Statement

The perception of the author in everyman was that the people who have died in the past, their life in hereafter will be presented in front of God in accordance with their deeds and personality they had in the world and their treatments will be determined accordingly.

Discussion

The first dramatic incident in Everyman is an encounter of its hero with Death, who has come suddenly upon the stage to summon him for the final reckoning with God. This event is a restrained but stark confrontation between the soul and the heavenly messenger, and the journey upon which Everyman sets out so reluctantly is an adaptation of the processional Dance of Death. Relentlessly fulfilling his task, Death refuses delay, but concedes that Everyman may have as a companion on the journey anyone bold enough to undertake it.

There follows a series of encounters with allegorical representations of Everyman's associates and possessions (Fellowship, Kindred, Worldly Goods, etc.), all of whom decline the dubious honor of the invitation. Deserted by all but Good Deeds, Everyman belatedly attempts preparation for death, aided by Knowledge (i.e., self-knowledge) and Confession. In this part of the play, the dramatist has used abstract characters as a means of adapting to the theater the homiletic material of the “ars moriendi” tradition and of structuring into a dramatic conflict the spiritual experiences of the final hours.

Accompanied to the edge of the grave by such physical powers as Strength, Five Wits, and Discretion, Everyman enacts a powerful denouement in which he commends his soul into the hands of God. Structurally, the play is a series of recognitions (in the Aristotelian sense of anagnorisis), each followed by a reversal (peripeteia). Without postulating that the author had knowledge of Greek drama, one can nonetheless find in the play these essentials of dramatic design that are universal elements of famous theater. Recognition to every individual is an illumination that Everyman has been evading, and each one serves to increase the ...