Death is perceived and treated by many in our society as the taker of life. Death is hated and always treated with fear because it is unforgiving and cruel. The interpretation of death varies from one culture to another. The interpretation of death depends on the cultural viewpoint. The Christian and biblical depiction of death is treated as either good or bad depending on the life which a person has lived. People that have lived a good life find death as good while people that have lived as wicked find death as bad. Everyman depicts a similar portrayal of death. It is a morality play written in the 15th century which shows what Christians should do about death to prevent their souls from being convicted by death. The play brings the idea of conflict between spiritual enrichment, relationship, riches, heaven and hell, and an ultimate spiritual judgment. This paper focuses on the author’s perception and treatment of death in the play Everyman.
Morality and Death
Morality plays a huge role in the perception because it centers on how Everyman should live a righteous life and die in dignity. The moral person is brought to the spotlight and has to face death after life. Everyman is expected to behave according to the ways of the will of God. The Lord instructs Everyman that he has a lot to work on so as to meet the expectations of God. He must take a long journey and should thus bring the book of count with him. The book which God refers to is in the form of a ledger which tells a person how he can carry out moral acts of faith. The idea of the path of morality has its ultimate relationship with death. A moral person will leave his body at one point in time and become fully immersed in God.
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Everyman is encouraged to continually evaluate the immoral acts that he has committed in his life. Doing this will enable him to stay on the right path where he can attain the joy and glory of Heaven. While doing moral acts will not slow death or make it go away, aligning himself to morality will enable him to face death with confidence and peace about the love of God. Morality is also seen as having a close connection with God. Morality is seen to evade the negative impacts of death and bring in a positive aspect of death where one gets connected to God.
Death bringing loneliness and alienation
Another perception of death is that it brings loneliness and alienation. This is partly because no one wants to associate himself or herself with death. Everyman tries to convince his family and friends to accompany him throughout his journey, but no of them is willing. Even though Everyman wants to enjoy his life on earth, the idea of Death is deeply rooted in his mind and cannot escape it. He thus has to go on the journey illustrating the fact that everyone will face judgment alone. Neither family, friends, nor even material possessions will be able to rescue him.
Everyone declines Everyman’s request, and he is left alone. An example is when Everyman goes to Fellowship. Fellowship represents his companions and friends. He requests Fellowship to accompany him on his journey. Even though Fellowship had previously stated that he would accompany him on his journey, he abandons him on this specific journey. Fellowship states that he cannot undertake the journey because he fears the judgment of God. According to Ramsey, this shows just how gripping the fear of death is. Death is extremely feared by many, and no one is ready to undertake the journey with Everyman (Ramsey, 2007).
Everyman is left brokenhearted and goes to look for help in other places. Earthly possessions, the physical body, friends, and family are all left with the world upon one’s death. Everyman ultimately decides to rely on himself showing the lonely path of death. Even though everyone gives him some good advice, he realizes that the advice this is not going to help him on his journey on being accountable to God.
Life is Eternal, and Death is Inevitable for Everyone
One theme that appears in about death is that death is going to come to everyone and that there is no one going to escape it. The title of the play shows that the theme applies to everyone, the message contained within applies to every single person and there is no single person on earth that is going to escape it (Rush, 2005). Death serves as an inevitable and ever-present force that will always be present in the lives of man. Everyman uses several symbols to portray this aspect of death. He uses the cycle of life such as a flow which withers and dies in the autumn and winter. People should thus focus on the afterlife because life is eternal.
Death is portrayed as being inevitable as everyone has to face their destiny. Death comes to everyone regardless of the deeds they have done in this life. They have no other choice about the time when they will die. Death is portrayed as one of the things that people have no control or choice about. People have many choices in life, and they can make good or bad choices. However, no one has a choice about whether they will die or not. People should thus remain always mindful that death is inevitable. This thought should make people wise enough so that they can make life choices with death in mind.
The personification of death
The treatment of death is that it is personified where it is seen as a messenger sent by God. Other literatures have personified death this way; this is because it creates a better understanding of the subject of death (Crisp, 2001). Death comes to Everyman as a person, and he first declines the request. He states that he is not ready and has to put his account books in order. Death in the story is portrayed as gracious because it allows Everyman to put things in order and find friends that could be able to go with him on his journey. Death is a messenger that does the appointed task that has been determined by God. This is different from the portrayal of death in other literary works where he sneaks up on victims by his own volition and attempts to get his victims when they are unprepared.
Catholicism and death
The portrayal of death in Everyman has a close relationship with the way it is portrayed by the Catholic Church. The play makes references to sins, saints, sacraments, and angels. This makes a portrayal of the Catholic perception of morality and how it relates to death. The perception is that people are able to exit the world either in a heavenly or hellish state. This makes death as something that is to be feared or something to be conquered depending on how well one lived their life (Coleman, 2007).
The text makes attention to God and the references to the seven deadly similar to that in the Catholic Church. God speaks about how people have forsaken him and declares that they use the seven deadly sins which are damnable (Cawley, 1970). God calls to attention the way people reject the wise messages of the angels and admonishes them on ignoring his will. The Catholic ideology present in Everyman is that people serve a guiding force and a deity. God speaks directly to the people and rejects the tendency to reject truth and religion.
Good Deeds as the only one to take the journey
Good Deeds is the only one that accompanies Everyman on his journey to eternity and death. Good Deeds convinces his sister to accompany where they go and meet Confession. Confession gives Everyman the penance, and he seeks forgiveness from God in the presence of Confession. After this, Confession states that Everyman has been forgiven of his sins. Good Deeds then becomes completely comfortable and strong to accompany Everyman on his journey. In the end, Everyman gets to the grave, and Good Deeds appears as the only person that accompanies him on his journey to eternity. According to Van Laan, this is a portrayal that all other qualities of a person fade out with death, except for their good deeds (1963).
In Conclusion, Everyman has a diverse of portrayal and treatment of death. Death is first portrayed to have a close relationship with morality. The treatment of death also follows the Catholic Church beliefs of morality. The title of the play shows that death will come to every man, life is eternal, and death is inevitable. Death is treated as a person and follows a similar approach to various literature. People fear the journey of death and no one is willing to go with Everyman. The journey of death is thus portrayed as lonely and alienated. The only one that undertakes the journey with Everyman is Good Deeds.
References
Cawley, A. C. (Ed.). (1970). Everyman . Manchester University Press.
Coleman, D. (2007). Drama and the Sacraments in Sixteenth-Century England . London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Crisp, P. (2001). Allegory: Conceptual metaphor in history. Language and Literature , 10 (1), 5-19.
Ramsey, J. (2007). Learning from Everyman: Thoughts on Spirituality, Love, and Death in the Lives of Older Couples. Generations , 31 (3), 57-59.
Rush, D. (2005). A student guide to play analysis . SIU Press.
Van Laan, T. F. (1963). Everyman: A structural analysis. Publications of the Modern Language Association of America , 465-475.
