EVERYMAN
- Allegorical
-Moral
-Religious
-Written in the late 1400's
-The language of the play is Middle
English
Setting
• Heaven
• Hell
Main Action
• Pilgrimage/ a long journey
• Who takes this journey and for what?
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CHARACTERS
God
Death
Everyman
Fellowship, Kindred, Cousin, Material Goods
Good Deeds
Knowledge
Confession
Discretion, Strength, Everyman's Five Wits,
Beauty
• Angel
• Doctor
Prologue
“Here begynneth a treatyse how þe hye Fader of
Heven sendeth Dethe to somon every creature to
come and gyve acounte of theyr lyves in this
worlde, and is in maner of a morall playe.”
.......Here beginneth a treatise how the high Father
of Heaven sendeth Death to summon every
creature to come and give account of their lives in
this world, and is in manner of a moral play.
Messanger:
• Who is the messenger? What warning does he give?
• That of our lives and ending shows
how transitory we be all day
• Ye think sin in the beginning full sweet which in the
end causeth the soul to weep when the body lieth in
clay.
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• Who is speaking?
• I perceive here in my majesty,
How that all the creatures be to me unkind,
Living without dread in worldly prosperity:
Of ghostly sight the people be so blind,
Drowned in sin, they know me not for their God;
In worldly riches is all their mind,
They fear not my rightwiseness, the sharp rod;
My law that I shewed, when I for them died,
They forget clean, and shedding of my blood red;
I hanged between two, it cannot be denied;
To get them life I suffered to be dead….
• I proferred the people great multitude of mercy,
And few there be that asketh it heartily.
They be so encumbered with worldly riches.
• Every man liveth so after his own pleasure,
And yet of their life they be nothing sure.
What does God ask Death to do for
him?
Go thou to Everyman
And show him in my name
A pilgrimage he must on him take
Which he in no wise may escape
And that he bring with him a sure reckoning
Without delay or any tarrying.
Death:
Lord, I will in the world go run over all,
And cruelly outsearch both great and small;
Every man will I beset that liveth beastly
Out of God’s laws, and dreadeth not folly;
He that loveth riches I will strike with my dart,
His sight to blind, and from heaven to depart,
Except that alms be his good friend,
In hell for to dwell, world without end.
What warning does Death give?
Man, in the beginning,
Look well, and take good heed to the ending.
Ye think sin in the beginning full sweet,
Which in the end causeth thy soul to weep,
When the body lieth in clay.
But this flower fades and dies in the autumn
and winter of life.
Everyman
• When Everyman is visited by Death, what does he
do? How does he react? What has passed
between them?
Death: Maker, a long journey, book of count
Everyman: O Death thou comest when I had thee
least in mind.
Yet of my good will I give thee, if thou will be kind
Yea, a thousand pound shalt thou have,
And defer this matter till another day.
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Everyman is left alone on the stage.
What might he say to himself?
Weep with sighs deep
My book of reckoning is “full unready”
Unready for what???
Everyman: How shall I do now for to excuse me?
I would to God I had never be get!
I fear pain huge and great.
Fellowship
Everyman: We have been good friends in sport and play together for many a day.
Ease my sorrow.
I am in great jeopardy
Fellowship: For, in faith, and thou go to hell,
I will not forsake thee by the way to my life’s end in... good company.
Everyman: bear me company / as ye have promised”.
Fellowship: When will we come back?
Everyman: Never again, till the day of doom
Fellowship: In faith then will not I come there
Now, by God that all hath brought,
If Death were the messenger,
For no man that is living to-day
I will not go that loath journey—
Not for the father that begat me!
We two may go and undertake some feasting and drinking and enjoy the company of women
and thou will murder, or any man kill In that I will help thee with a good will.
Kindred and Cousin
Kindred and Cousin: We will live and die together and stay with you in
wealth and woe
Kindred: What sort of reckoning areyou going to make?
Everyman: I must show how I have lived, how I have spent my days, all
the ill deeds that I have done, and all the opportunities to be
virtuous which I have not taken up.
Cousin: I’d rather fast for five years on bread and water than
accompany you. I have the cramp in my toe. I have my own
reckoning to make.
Kindred: Cheer up and stop moaning
Take good heart to you, and make no moan
Everyman: Fair words maketh fools fain.
They promise and nothing will do.
Goods
Everyman: Money maketh all right that is wrong.
Goods: I lie here in corners, trussed and piled so high,
Also in chests I am locked so fast,
Also sacked in bags...
I follows no man in such voyages
I cannot cleanse your book of reckoning but
Your obsession with me has blotted it.
My love is contrary to the love everlasting.
But if thou had me loved moderately during,
As to the poor give part of me,
Then shouldest thou not in this dolour be.
Good Deeds
Everyman : O, to whom shall I make me moan
For to go with me in that heavy journey?
I am worthy to be blamed
I can ask Good Deeds for help but she is so weak that she can neither go nor
speak.
Everyman : WhenI pray you, help me in this need
Or else I am forever damned indeed;
Therefore, help me to make reckoning
Before the Redeemer of all things.
Good Deeds: Your book of account would be in great shape if only you had
focused your attention on me. As you have not spent any time with me, I
fall weak and cannot go with you. I have, though, a sister who can
accompany you .
Who is her sister?
Knowledge
I will go with thee and be thy guide.
To whom does Knowledge take Everyman?
Confession
• Confession is seen at a distance within the House
of Salvation. Everyman kneels to him and asks for
mercy.
• Confession: I will give you the comfort of a
precious jewel, that is penance. Jesus suffered on
the cross for mankind, so man in turn must
remember Jesus in suffering himself by
undergoing the “scourge of penance”. You should
fulfill this penance, and Knowledge will tell you
how you can clear your account book with God.
• Everyman: WASH fro ME the SPOTS of VICE
unCLEAN that ON me NO sin MAY be SEEN.
O glorious fountain, that all uncleanness doth
clarify
In the name of the Holy Trinity
My body sore punished shall be.
Take this, body, for the sin of the flesh!
He scourges himself
Discretion, Strength, Beauty and Five
Wits
• We will be your adviser, help and comfort
Five Wits
There is no emperor, king, duke, ne baron,
That of God hath commission
As hath at least priest in the world being.
For of the blessed sacraments pure and benign
He beareth the keys...
Knowledge speaks about Priesthood
• priests are a means to become close to God
via the seven sacraments and their teaching of
holy scripture
Sinful priests giveth the sinners example bad;
Their children sitteth by other men's fires, I have
heard,
And some haunteth women's company
With unclean life, as lusts of lechery.
• Everyman re-enters with a crucifix, having
received the sacrament and extreme unction.
He asks each of his companions to set their
hands on the cross, and go before. One by
one, Strength, Discretion, and Knowledge
promise never to part from Everyman’s side.
Together, they all journey to Everyman’s grave.
• Everyman feels dizzy and wants to sleep into
the earth and then abandoned by his friends.
Everyman:
Both Strength and Beauty forsaketh me
when Death bloweth his blast
They all run fro me full fast.
O Jesu, help!
All hath forsaken me”.
To the Grave
Everyman: O, Jesus, help! All hath forsaken me.
Good Deeds: Nay, Everyman, I will bide with
thee.
Knowledge: I will not from hence depart
Till I see where ye shall be.
Everyman: Into thy hands, I commend my spirit
What lesson does Everyman give at
the end of the play?
Take example, all ye that this do hear or see
How they that I loved best do forsake me,
Except my Good Deeds that bideth truly.
Seven Deadly Sins
• Fellowship wants to feast, drink and consort with
women (gluttony and lechery) and the odd
mention of murder as a form of entertainment
(wrath). Everyman’s fine clothes and his lofty
offer to bribe Death with a thousand pounds
might be seen as representing pride and
covetousness. All of Everyman’s friends, as G.A.
Lester has noted, “by their unwillingness to go on
the journey could be said to exemplify sloth”, and
Goods shows a “recognized form of envy” in
showing such delight in Everyman’s bad fortunes.
Themes
Come up with the themes. Use the following
wordsn your thesis statement
• Transitory nature of life
• Sin
• Death
• Pilgrimage/journey
• Worldly goods/pleasure/riches
• Spiritual/Spirituality
• Judgement