Fun with Everyman the Play Essay

Introduction of the play â€Å"Everyman† is an English play, likely written before the end of the Fifteenth century. â€Å"Everyman† is considered one of the morality plays, with its Catholic and Christian morals ever present and mixing them within its entertainment value. The play is an example of an allegory, defined as, â€Å"The characters in an allegory often have no individual personality, but are embodiments of moral qualities and other abstractions. † (Allegory, 2010). The author, unknown, and lost to time, used powerfully named characters to represent characters any human may meet along their own personal journeys towards our own death. Everyman 2. Summary of the Characters The main character of the play is adeptly named Everyman, a representative of literally every human: Emotional, with needs and wants in life, he is broke. Not just broke, but busted. The messenger, an angel, a real good looking one, announces the treaty with God and tells the real title of the play, â€Å"The Summoning of Everyman† (Anonymous, 1:1:4) God, a real macho dude, with an almighty presence throughout the heavens says, â€Å"I perceive, here in my majesty, How that all creatures be to me unkind. † (Anonymous, 1:1:22-23). God has concerns that people have developed an unnatural desire for worldly goods like dope and sex and stuff. God talks about the 7 deadly sins, including shoplifting and capping each other, and people living only to serve themselves, not being waitresses and waiters to others. Tired of human crap, God calls Death, a real bad ass dude, to the scene to go find the character Everyman, to kick his ass, collect his shit, and bring him to the day of reckoning. Death leaves and finds Everyman going about his daily activities and his routines. Death tells Everyman, â€Å"YO yo†¦ That shall I show thee: a recognizing [God] he needs to have. † (Anonymous, 1:1:98-99). Death tells Everyman that the Day of Judgment is upon him. Everyman just doesn’t get it, he just wants to keep shopping at the mall for the newest Nike shoes. This judgment day can also be found mentioned in the Bible some where in Revelation 20:12-14, â€Å"†¦and the dead[they have a real bad stink] were judged according to the things written in the books[they used to be called encyclopedias, according to what they had done†¦They were all judged according to their good or dirty deeds. † (New International Version, my Edition). When Everyman looks at his imitation Rolex, he realizes that his time on earth is quickly coming to a halt,he hides his bong then he negotiates with Death to give him one more day to get his shit in order. Everyman’s case for needing more time is that Death surprised him with a shower reach for the soap moment, and should give him Just a little more time. Everyman needs the extra time to gather up his friends, his peeps and his gang to go with him on this journey to judgment day. Thru this journey, Everyman sees his friends and companions on earth flake out and fade away. His friends, the one’s Everyman thought were so good and important to him†¦they leave him abandoned, alone, at the side of life’s road in the end. He must have looked like a hooker on sunday morning. As Everyman faces each friend and companion leaving him, he calls, using his Verizon phone, on one of his last resorts as a friend, Good Deeds. Good Deeds is very physically weak, like a tweeker, because Everyman has not done many good deeds in his life time. She is the equivilant to a crack whore. Good Deeds asks her sister, Knowledge, to go with Everyman as he travels. Knowledge, as the name suggests, is smart and wise in the ways of the world, For snizzle. Knowledge takes Everyman to Confession, in a Catholic like ritual, not that I am a fan of Catholic rituals after watching Stigmata on DVD or anything.. After regaining some strength, maybe they used human growth hormones. Good Deeds joins Everyman on his journey, they share a doobie and walk on. Everyman arrives at his death, the grave. he shit his pants after he Lost his friends, Wits, Beauty and Strength, he only can take Good Deeds with him to heaven. He realizes all that money he spent on getting high on life was a total waste of money. At the end of the play, the character of the Doctor (may be a proctologist) comes into the frey, he gives advice to the audience, a final closing comment to be taken to heart, â€Å"†¦Take it of worth, young and old, and forsake pride for it deceiveth you in the end, and remember Beauty, Five Wits, Strength and Discression†¦ snizzle my nizzle. They all at the last do everyman forsake, save for his good deeds there doth he take. † (Anonymous, 902-906). Everyman 4. The author’s perception of an inevitable death. The author, anonymous, as he or she may be, has been lost in time. So they don’t get any credit for all the time they spent writing this crappy play. He, or she, uses great and wise insight in using his characters names to show the reader, or viewer of the play, that Everyman is subject to death just like anyone else. As Snoop Dog says, â€Å"Wez all gotta die, suckers. † The author makes the audience understand that any human is not able to escape death no matter how hard they try, or how much money they have in the bank. The author does a fine job using words to portraying Death as being an  understanding, patient character, although Death should have been a creature from Aliens, that would have made the play more interesting. The author makes his point clear that death does not spare the rich or the poor, the officer nor the gentleman, nor the wise or the foolish. The journey to death is one we will all have to make on our own, and most likely one we will make alone, cause we cant take all this shit with us. The author puts emphasis on Everyman’s refusal to go to his death willingly. Everyman was not properly prepared to go on this journey, he had yet to hire an attorney. This reflects the idea that no human is given the exact time of his or her death, so we all must be ready to die at any time. We are warned to have our shit and stuff in order. All of the assorted characters in Everyman’s life, his so-called friends are the authors representations of characters we humans have in our lives. The author makes a pinnacle point that the character, Death, answers to God’s beckoning or his will. It is God, not Death that decides ultimately who dies when and where†¦ its not if you get hurt, its when and how bad. Death is just the messenger, so don’t go shooting the messenger. The author puts value on what happens when anyone, or Everyman, dies. The author also points out the things that everyone will leave behind, for the relatives to fight over. Courage and wisdom is used To persuade Everyman to continue to move towards his ultimate goal of death. The author made a simple understanding of making sure that everyone does good deeds while they have time on earth. Practicing random acts of kindness, keeping the toilet seat down, and doing good deeds will help ones case when standing before God in judgment. All throughout the play uses the now famous stages of death and denial found in the book, Psychology, By D. G. Myers. Myers defines denial as, â€Å"A defense mechanism by which people refuse to believe or even to perceive painful realities. † (Myers pp. 558). Everyman has to come to terms with his own impending death. The author gives Everyman Knowledge as a companion for his death tour. This helped Everyman look a death a little differently, and helped him face up to his death, and to the truth about his fading group of friends, his gang sucked for sure. The author puts importance on Everyman’s act of confession and penance, and gives him credit for not wearing Ax deodorant spray cause that crap stinks. The character, Good Deeds, once sick and weak, apparantly addicted to meth or crack, becomes stronger in time after a stint in rehab. The author made his point that one cannot get into heaven by doing good deeds alone, but by accepting Jesus Christ as savior, or whatever god is hip at the time, with saving grace paying for one’s way into heaven. On critic and author stated about the plays end, â€Å"†¦Good Deeds weakness demonstrates that Everyman’s [the character] good works cannot merit salvation when he is guilty of unforgiving mortal sin. Only†¦penance will restore him to a state of grace, revive Good Deeds [the character], and make Everyman ready to render an account of his life before God. † (Paulson, 2007). Conclusion, and try not to copy my work word for word, dumbass. Everyman the morality play, once called, â€Å"The Summoning of Everyman† (Anonymous, 1:1:4) is a simple story about making amends in their life before it’s too late. Our treasures, our bling, real or imagined, here on Earth are not worth dying for. The promise is found in the Bible in Matthew 5:3, â€Å"God blesses those who realize their need for him, for the kingdom of Heaven is given to them. † (New International Version, Student Edition). One should try their best to live a good, holy life, have faith, worship God, don’t knife your friends, and practice good deeds to be ultimately rewarded with an afterlife with God in the Heavens. And then you can party like it’s 1999. If you can remember that far back. Bibliography Allegory. (2010). Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th Edition, Retrieved June 21, 2012 from Academic Search Complete Database Dent, J. M. Everyman and Medieval Miracle Plays, (2007). C. E. Tuttle Co. Inc. Orion Publishing Group, Rutland, VT. USA. ISBN# 046087280x. Gyamfi, Y. A. and Schmidt, M. R. Literature and Spirituality, Everyman, (2011). By Persons Education, Glenview, IL. Myers, D. G. (2010). Psychology (9th Edition) New York, NY: Worth Publishers Paulson, J. (2007). Death’s Arrival and â€Å"Everyman’s† Separation. Theater Survey, 48, 121-141. Doi: 10. 1017/S00407000397.