Is Everyman Every man?

Everyman is a straight-forward Medieval morality play -- the allegorical character, Everyman, teaches the audience that we are all transitory beings. Death is inevitable. Because of this reality, it is essential that we abandon materialistic needs to live a life of "good deeds". But Everyman also asks us to abandon our other human needs, including friendship and kinship, to focus on our relationship with God. As an allegorical character, Everyman is representative of every man...but does the character accurately portray the part? If Everyman was a modern-day morality play, who....or what....would he represent? Who is "everyman"??

All Humanity Runs Through Its Pages...

Nevill Coghill argues that Chaucer's General Prologue "is the concise portrait of an entire nation, high and low, old and young, male and female, lay and clerical , learned and ignorant, rogue and righteous, land and sea, town and country, but without extremes." He continues that "apart from the stunning clarity...of the characters presented, the most noticeable thing about them is their normality." Of all of his characters presented -- from the Prioress to the Wife of Bath, from the Merchant to the Parson, from the Knight to the Miller -- which character do you most relate to? Explain why this character is the truest to your own humanity.

Breaking Stereotypes

The Medieval period introduced the concept of courtly love as we see expressed in the Knight and Squire in Chaucer's General Prologue. The Knight is the most highly regarded in the narrator's eyes: "Though so strong and brave, he was very wise and of temper as meekly as a maid. He never yet had any vileness said, in all his life to whatsoever wight. He was a truly perfect, noble knight." The Squire, the Knight's 20-year-old son, the "lover and lively bachelor", is described "as fresh as May" and is skilled in composing songs and poetry. These Medieval men embrace the codes of chivalry, a great departure from the ultra-masculine image of the warrior in Beowulf. React to this more sensitive male character -- is he an appreciated departure from the Anglo-Saxon warrior or simply a sissy who cannot hack it with the real men? And what does this say about our stereotypes today about men? Have we continued to progress as a society and embrace the "knights" and "squires" of today...or have we regressed, idolizing the new Beowulf?