my maid of honor speech for my sisters wedding!
14 years ago
Thursday, November 20, 2008
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"??
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Considering the fact that everyman, in the play "everyman" is an allegorical character, it would make sense that he/she represents society. If the play were to be given a more modern twist, the character of everyman would differentiate somewhat. I see many members of society today as "jay Gatsbys."; yes, I know, i'm strange. Gatsby was an ambitious man, that's something that we can all agree on, however, on the path to fulfilling his dreams, he became sidetracked. One could say he became distracted by money, which turned him into a greedy, cold-hearted person. Unfortunately for him, he met his death before he could turn his life around. This also shows how fast life seems to be flying by us lately, (we're juniors!, and how important it is to cherish these moments rather than become manifested in our busy, blackhole-type lives. Similarly today, materialism has became an inevitable part of our lives. Everything is a measure of materialism, and materialistic goods are what individuals are measured by.(I know I'm being incredibly stereotypical here, but bear with me).
In essence, we are all our own Gatsbys, with high hopes and glamorous aspirations, but as the life around us becomes more and more distracting (*cough*facebook*cough*), it makes it somewhat harder to stay on task. As the men and women of this rapidly changing world, we realize that society is becoming more smart and entertaining, and we are stuck between moral and materialism more than ever before. Whether or not this fact is beneficial or not is the real question.
I think that Everyman represented the common man back when it was written. In today's world, not so much. I agree with Himali's comparison to Gatsby and how people tend to get sidetracked in today's world much more than when this story originated. The people of today also fear death more than they embrace it, and tend to be less religious [think about how many people go to church today, and then think of how many people would be there if everyone was an intensely religious person] I know I'm getting a bit wordy with this, but the main focus of this is simple: people are just getting way too distracted. The Everyman that we see in the beginning [when he has all of the sins and stuff] is pretty much similar to the common man of today. But his actual religious journey...now that is a bit different from today. We don't go on these journey's like Everyman did [in the intensely religious sense] but we do follow these journeys by simply living.
If Everyman was made into a play that fit the morals of today, he probably wouldn't have the intense religious background [I like using that phrase btw :) ] that the original Everyman has. The New Everyman would be weighed down by materialistic items much moreso than the original, and would also just learn to accept death and simply live his life, instead of devoting his life to God [at least that's what happened from my view point]. It would have the same basic idea, only the New Everyman play wouldn't be as religious as the original was.
Similar to Himali’s ideas, I believe that Everyman represented the society of the time and what they believed to be important. Everyman represented the beliefs of religion and how society hoped to become perfect in the eyes of God by abandoning materialism, sin, and even relationships so as to have a relationship with God. Today, our society’s beliefs differ in what we consider important. This is why Everyman, although being familiar to some, may no longer be considered the representative of society today.
In many ways our society is at a crossroads; some believing that religion is extremely important while others believing that their life on earth is meant to have different goals. I believe the desire for people to form strong relationships is the new driving force for many people. Our society seems to know that materialism and sin is wrong and as a way to counter those beliefs, we look for relationships with those around us. We try to maintain strong friendships and bonds while searching for a soul mate. This soul mate seems to be the way in which people think they may rule out materialism and become better people. People hope that a strong important relationship can overcome all of the evil of society. Relationships in many ways have taken the place of God in our society. Instead of many people reading about how God will save us we read about immortal love (Edward and Bella) and the way friendship can overcome all (Harry Potter). We even have web-sites dedicated to finding those to love. Instead of Everyman going on a journey to overcome sin I believe that by today’s standards Everyman would have to search for love which would then overcome other problems. In my opinion although Everyman can apply to some people of society today I believe that today’s Everyman would have to believe in the importance of relationships rather than a relationship with God.
It's somewhat hard to tell whether or not Everyman can represent everyman. Back around the time when the play was written, religious views were prominent in society. It's obvious seeing that politics were centered around the church back then. Today, it is made sure that religion and state are two completely different topics and that they do not overlap. Maybe if in today's society religion and society were pretty much practiced together, Everyman would apply to our society. If you were to look at each and every person in society, the Everyman play would apply to many, but with society as a whole, it is assumed that this play is somewhat irrelevant to present day.
Everyman doesn't represent every facet of every single man or woman. Each person is diverse, special, and unique. However, he does represent common struggles, thoughts, and actions, that bridge difference between people. Even though, distinctions exist, we are all people that have both common, general needs, wants, goals, dreams, aspirations, what have you...as well as specific ones.
Beowulf is the archetype of an Anglo-Saxon hero, that may not fit with today's view of a hero, just as he may not have appeared to be a hero to some people from that time period, and may appear to be a hero to some people today (cough...angela...cough).
Everyman, however, is an everyman that bridges time periods. He is a good person who fears death and struggles with temptation. Some modern day examples could include Jay Gatsby, Harry Potter, the character of the Baker in "Into the Woods", and Batman/Bruce Wayne to an extent...
I agree with Himali's comment that everyman's respresentation of the common man depends on the society in which he or she may live. In the play, Everyman, Everyman's main goal was to find a trustworthy companion that could accompany him on his journey to death. In his society, it was custom for many people to gather in groups in order to carry out certain tasks/wishes; hence the pilgrimage in the Canterbury Tales. The characters in the Canterbury Tales all take a religious journey as a group in order to honor Becket at the shrine. Although they initially intend to make their journey for religious purposes, it turns into a contest to see who can tell the better tale. Similarly, in the play, Everyman, Everyman's initial search for somebody to make the religious journey to the grave with him, turns into a type of contest in which Everyman searches to discover which of his friends is the most faithful. I think this in turn, suggests that the typical Everyman of the time period was a rather competitive person, who based his own self worth on the people around him. He sought find a companion with which he could make the journey to the grave because he felt threatened by Death's request, rather than for the mere fact that it was the right thing to do.
In terms of today's society, I think that Everyman may be represented by a person struggling with many more internal problems of everyday life, as opposed to the external problems Everyman encountered in relation to his friends and family. Perhaps a Jack Dawson, searching for love and adventure, trying to deal with his poor status within society. In terms of death, I definitely think that people fear death much more today, than they did around the time that Everyman was written. This may be due to the fact that less people correlate death solely with a religious meaning. It may also be that death no longer means what it used to. In older times, death was generally the result of old age, sickness, or battle. Today, however, many people fear death because of it's negative relation to such incidents as shootings, stabbings, murders of innocent people, and even hereditary diseases that we now have more knowledge about.
Basically, today's Everyman is different from the Everyman of the story, because today's common societal struggles are different.
The "Everyman" has changed over the course of time, fitting the societal norms of the time. Today, and especially in the United States, it is hard to find an "everyman". Like the article we had to read for homework tonight suggested, it is hard to find the average person among us, because we as a people have become so diverse. In a way, being diverse makes us average. But not quite.
From the perspective of someone who is active in the Roman Catholic Church, the issues that Everyman addresses, such as materialism, greed, and death, are still prevalent in the lives of many Christians. I'm not speaking for everyone who attends Church, but the homily given by the priest(s) and deacon(s) usually all have to deal with these things. This is in part because we as a people have believed in the same text and the same moral guidelines for a couple thousand years. The hardships that Everyman grapples with haven't changed much in the eyes of the Church, and yet today, we have added issues to sort through on top of those, or more accurately, these new issues are extensions of the ones in Everyman.
Basically, what I'm trying to say through my long babble above is that if this was a modern-day morality play, it would be hard to define what Everyman would stand for. Over the centuries, we have branched out into so many different viewpoints and morals, that really, it would be hard to answer the question of "Who is 'everyman'?"
Sidenote: Woah, I did not answer that question at all. That was all one big tangent. Does that count?
Yes, Karolina, it counts! :) Good post!
Because Everyman is a summerization of the Medieval time period and basically only illustrates simplistic views of the period (deep breath), I don't think that we truly can compare him to any kind of man today. Secretly, knowledge and (i forget the other) remain his FRIENDS til his death. Whether the actual character left him or not, he didn't die alone. And that really shows that none of us die alone. We die with God. And other "characters" as well.
Because the world has become so twisted and people have different ideas of what's "important" I would have to say that my friends are what aid me into performing good deeds. I still focus my relationship with God even though I have friends. It's because friends are what are "important" to me in addition to God. That's where that phrase "I would take a bullet for my friend" comes into place.
With this "average" thing we have been discussing and trying to debate whether Everyman is everyman, i would have to agree to some extent. I really think an average thing is to do the most with life that we possibly can in our given situations, and although he procrastinated MAJORLY, he still made the most out of his situation in the end. Until we see where our actions lead us (as Everyman finally saw what he had done in life), some people just wont perform to their best unless it depends your fate (or a really good grade or something).
Himali, it aches me to read that you think Jay Gatsby was greedy and cold-hearted. He was afflicted by the dreadful curse of love! (Pfft, if it had been me instead of Daisy, I would have married him back when he was poor and in his military uniform. Rawr.)
However, I agree with you (except for the cold-hearted bit… My Jay would never be described in such a way!) It’s almost sickening to see how wound up society today is with material possessions. People of all ages seem ready to discriminate someone based on the clothing they wear or how much money they have in their pockets – factors that may be beyond their control.
I agree with Erik in that Everyman didn’t represent a universal image of his era. He was more of a meld of various characteristics that common people do share. People in a society, however, are individuals and cannot be described by a single entity. In the time period Everyman was written, there were probably many people that were devoutly religious and also morally flawed in that they didn’t share their wealth with others (Everyman didn’t share the goods. ;]), but there were certainly exceptions, and no one “average Joe” could look at Everyman and think, “Hey, that’s just like me!”
I don’t think a true “Everyman” exists (like I wrote in my OPE). To say that one does would be to stereotype society, and I thought we were above that. I would rather accept that everyone that surrounds me is completely and totally different from me, has different opinions, and feels differently about different things. Holistically different. Period.
Similar to Himali’s, and Angel’s ideas, I believe that everyman represented the society and what they believed in that was the most important at that time. Back then “everyman” represented the society’s belief of religion and their willingness to have a great relationship with God by avoiding sin and materialism. Our beliefs are different in what we assume is important, which is why everyman would no longer accurately represent our society today. There are many people who believe that religion is extremely important while others believe in many different things/ideas. Everything has become to be all about materialism. Even people are being measured by materialistic goods, but yet, our society knows that sin and materialism is wrong. Since our life has become busier and distracting (internet), it makes it harder to avoid all the unnecessary entertainment and focus more on our relationship with God. If “everyman” was a modern-day morality play, everyman would not have such a passionate religious background and he would be on a journey just trying to live his life without trying to commit entirely to God, while being burdened by materialistic needs.
Actually, when I read Everyman, a very different image appeared in my mind. In modern society, I felt that the perfect portrayal of "everyman" is someone dying of a terminal illness, whether it be cancer or anything incurable. Each and everyone of us contains this "everyman", and we don't realize this, because that's just another way of calling ourselves "average", and in today's capitalistic society, who wants to be "average"? Someone dying of a terminal illness correctly depicts "everyman", because only death or knowledge of death's approach allows a person to rid their lives of material, corruption, and greed. Knowledge of death is overwhelming and delusional, but I think it allows people to reminisce back on their life, rather than keep trying to move forward for all those other qualities that were left behind in Everyman like beauty, friendship, and kinship. The realization that death is, yes, inevitable impacts a person psychologically, and I think only the "everyman" of a person showcases at that stage in life. Society influences a human being to partake on getting the job, making the salary, "bringing home the bacon", but in all essence, time and death washes all of those materialistic necessities away, because we're all just "everyman". We're all human, and we all have committed some act of sin. However, Christianity and life itself teaches that we have to die someday, and it all comes down to the simplest of things. Everyman reminds me of Henry David Thoreau's didactic words of "Simplify, simplify, simplify." He is the representation of a human being that found his "everyman" earlier than others when he realized that society is overly complex, when simplicity is more meaningful since we'll all die anyway. However, to an extent, I feel that we are all aware of the fact that death will come someday and living up to great expectations and "moving forward" is probably unnecessary, but society doesn't give us an option to settle in the woods for two years, isolated from everyone else. Thus, I think that a greater understanding of the fact that life does end, material items do no matter, is the essential to living life to the fullest and being "everyman".
There is no everyman! I think of everyman as a mean average instead of a median, if you were to relate this to mathematics =) The mean is not necessarily a number in the group of numbers you are finding the average of. If you take the median, it will be one of those numbers. I think people can relate in small ways to the average person but that there is no average person who truly exists. If they did, it would mean that they had some connection to every single person in the world which is ridiculous. Even when taking the mean, you need to have numbers to begin with so the average guy must hold similarities to a mass amount of people. This is absolutely ridiculous to even consider. No one is even close to be average because there are sooooo many differences among people. Sooooo, I don't think everyman is even a real character but just a symbol of the world's connections.
There are obviously differences between the medieval time period and now. Everyman was supposed to represent everyman of that time. Some character traits that people naturally have seem to transcend the the times however. People are still obsessed with material goods, people still forget about their morality. Everyman possesses many flaws which makes him a good example of the average person because everyone does possess some flaw. In this day and age everyman seems to stay representative of people. The motives of everyman have changes however. No longer is the purpose of man to solely get closer to God. Many other things such as relationships with people and acquiring money are looked upon as good things. Even with the changes the overall idea of everyman seems to still be accurate.
Himali and I actually had a conversation about how time management really shapes the way we handle our way of living. How our hopes and aspirations influence the way we would look forward to in life and what path we should take next. We all know that school, grades, sports, and our service to better the community really cuts down the time in our hands to have the ability to try something new or have leisure. The average American living in hurried, busy societies like America is probably multitasking everyday to work for good pay and get a decent debt-free life. At the same time, they are creating time in their hands to serve their communities and spend time with their families. It is very rare to see anyone in America living a life with no aspirations to become successful because basically the typical man living in America seeks opportunity through dedicated, hard work. Nowadays, it seems like the world has become a place of bustling urban existence. The modern being has a hard time letting go of the active business life that they forget how to carry themselves when it comes to being exposed to reality. That truth is: How do you want to live your life? What would you do when it comes to being exposed to the truth that you actually don’t like your life as much as you had wished for? Would you give up certain obstacles to make it better? So back to my conversation with Himali about how society and time shapes the way we live our life, we realized that the things we want the most are the things that would lead us to the path of success. We butcher free-time to continue walking through that road to success. The “everyman” portrayed in modern society is the “common man” who has high ambitions to live an ideal life of privilege and wealth. Through this process, we tend to develop materialistic needs to satisfy ourselves. At the same time, we don’t want to be considered as corrupt, materialistic souls who only care about wealth and success, we also want to have good deeds. Therefore, we contribute to the community, become part of charity events, and ensure the general welfare of others. We also want to hold onto our human needs by rescheduling our busy life to be with our family and friends. Everyman teaches us a lesson that we are all transitory beings who would someday come to a difficult situation where we have to continue on with our souls leaving behind these needs that were once essential and significant in our lifetime of existence. It is difficult to face the obstacles that life is only one moment in time and the next is death. It is scary to consider that everything we worked hard for and everything we did throughout those years would lose its significance after we die. It might be remembered but it is more likely to be forgotten, since existence is never everlasing. In my opinion, existence parallels with humanity and society because our survival depends on those two essential surroundings in life. Going back to the conversation I had with Himali, we define everyman as a clock ticking its way through the day until you know it, the day has come to an end, and it is time to move on to the next day and start over again.
Although I do realize that Everyman is meant to be an allegorical character, in a society where there is so much diversity, I find it hard to believe that one character could be everything to represent the world as a whole. The rich and the poor, the innocent and the guilty, the believers and the atheists are all totally opposites. Thus, in order for one character to be all, he must be severly bipolar.
First off, I would like to say that if Everyman was a modern-day morality play, it would not get good reviews. It is a fact that people are not as religious as they once were. Religion, it seems, has become a taboo subject in the media. Something that is very surprising. Everyman, I guess, would represent the perfect man, the perfect society. While it is something only to be imagined, Everyman in today's world would represent an utopian society. Everyman is the cryptic everyone and yet no one at the same time. We can be all the same in some aspects, yet different human characteristics in various ways are present in each of us.
Everyman might have been something to learn by in the Middle Ages,and perhaps it still is. But the fact remains that many today would only see it as a joke.
Actually, I think the medieval Everyman represents society today pretty well. Isn't the materialism that our society today exactly the same? We care too much about our friends, family, and money, which can easily translate to fellowship, kindred, and goods. Granted, I don't think a morality play created today would be about man's relationship with God, but there are multiple things that could replace God in that respect. "Being the bigger person," "staying true to yourself," and all those other lofty ideas are things people aspire to. In the mideaval play Everyman is sent to improve his relationship with God, whereas people today strive to improve themselves and their lives in a meaningful way. Just because the focus has changed, doesn't mean the idea hasn't. Everyman represents society today just as much as he did in 1485.
Everyman does represent certain aspects of our society, but he represents the typical person in our society, he does not represent the extremes. Everyman does want to be remembered, he wants to prove himself to God, and at the same time he fears death. This is still true for most people in our society today. Many people still fear death, and often wonder what will happen to them after they are gone. Even if people are religious and beleive in God, there are still questions about faith and one's afterlife.
However, Everyman does not represent everyone in his society or our's today. We are all different today, just like everyone was different in medieval society. Since we all lead different lives, we expreience different pleasure and pain, there can never be one person that represents every life in our society right now. Sure, someone can act out what they believe the typical person is in a play, but then again that's not reality. The reality is that every person has their own life, their own play to be in, no one can represent everyone.
I completely agree with Jen and Denise. Everyman doesn't represent the whole world. Like that article with the average man, I don't think anyone can be average as a whole. America is so diverse that there's really no way to determine an "average". I mean you can be average in softball or hot-dog eating, but I don't think anyone can be the ultimate average American. So Everyman doesn't represent every man. But I will say that Everyman in the play could represent humans in general (not individually) He based his life on goods, fellowship, beauty and whatever else there is. Not to bring last year into this, but it's human nature (today) to want goods and friends and looks. So yeah...he could represent humans in general, but he sure does not represent me.
Perhaps at the time, Everyman did represent the typical common man. It was a religious time and most people were very devout. I don't know if I would say at people of the time were willing to give up friends and family to better their relationship with God, but I suppose it is plausible that many would. I doubt that they would do so earlier on in life, but as the threat of death becomes more eminent, they would do so. The general idea of living a life of good deeds is certainly realistic. Today, however, people are different. Many people are not as religious and their views of death are very different. People have become much more materialistic and less willing to give any of it up.
I think a modern Everyman would be more focused on success. Today, to be successful is viewed by most as the most important thing: to go to college, to get a good job, to makes lots of money. At the same time, people are also interested in meaningful relationships and that often conflicts with the desire for success. A modern-day morality play would focus on perhaps a bussiness man or lawyer who's main goal is to open their own firm or become CEO. This charcter however, would be very lonely. It is like so many of the movies we see today, such as "In Good Company" where a man decides whether to go off with his boss's daughter and ruin his chances at a suceessful career at the company or ignore her. Many of our typical stories are like Everyman's story, just focusing around a slightly different issue.
I believe that everyman is accurately portrayed to the common man of the era in which it was written. Today, I believe that everyman would be an entirely different character. In the book, everyman is a character that is weighted down by material values and has to let go of all forms of companionship/friendship. In today’s society, friendship is a large part of living a life that is “worthy” of going to heaven. By having good friendships and being a giving person, for example, giving more to those you care about than what you receive, it in turn turns into the “good deeds” represented in the play. I do believe that everyman was a symbol of the society at the time, but today’s society has changed. I also agree with the others who have mentioned Gatsby as the everyman of today. Gatsby is much more materialistic and determined, and filled with less religion, fitting the standards of today. Everyman is not the everyman of today.
For some reason my original blog name of fluffy bunnies and rainbows and my profile pic got messed up and now its not working so i guess im posting under my regular name from now on.
nervermind, but for some reason the post two above says alex, i think i have two accounts right now, im so confused.
I think that a modern "everyman" would have a much greater emphasis on materialism than the original. Though Everyman's materialism was definitely well represented (with the character of Goods), the 21st century version of Everyman would probably have Goods be just as big a character as Everyman! I think that the portrayal of Goods would be different, as well. He (i think it's a he?) would be a much more malevolent character, as materialism is essentially the biggest problem in western society (people getting trampled in a wal-mart?!). Despite these differences, I think it says a lot about human nature that, even after so many centuries, Everyman still could apply to the modern person (more or less). Everyman's struggle to find some kind of meaning is something that matters to all of us, though I think a more modern Everyman would have less of a religious focus, and more of a "what-do-I-do-with-myself" vibe.
I believe that Everyman tends to represent more of the "every man" of back when the book was written. In today's world people are so absorbed with materialistic ideas and imporance of objects that aren't really that important. While Everyman, in the end, trys to embrace death and accept it, most of us would do everything in our power to prevent it. Most of us would even let a tube keep ourselves or a loved one alive because we don't want to let go. Plus most of us forget about the religious aspect of death. I mean look at how many people really are into their religion today. It's one thing to own a Bible, but a completely different thing to read and understand it.
Simply put the Everyman we see in the beginning is most of the "every men" of today's socitey because they have sins are are unresolved and are deathly affraid of death. The Everyman of today would probably be working most of the hours he's awake so that he could get a good salary and make good buisness. Family and Religion would come second in his world and a nice gift would be something bought at an expensive store instead of being homemade. Unfortunetly we are just all too absorbed by this materialistic idea that we need to have everything that money can buy.
I would have to say that I agree greatly with Aaron on the way that he thought the modern Everyman would be portrayed. Today's Everyman would definetly be more materialistic than the medieval one. Who ever heard of sleeping at a store overnight, just so that you can buy people a gift. The modern Everyman is more preoccupied with materialism unlike the the modern man of the past who had religion more on his mind than anything else. If Everyman was a modern morality play then it would represent people's focus on "sales" and materialism. I would say that Everyman is pretty much most of the people in today's society. People that care about what gift they get or give rather than about the greater good of everything.
Everyman can be applied to modern day society. He does a rather good job of representing the "average" person. He doesn't seem too overly materialistic, and yet is the average person overly materialistic? He represents the happy median of the spectrum. He doesn't seem to sinful either, and neither is an average, everyday person. Not everyone perfect, but that doesn't mean that they're the spawn of the devil either.
I do not believe the moral of the story, however, is accurate. It is not natural to make a man totally devout to god and not take into account anyone else. Don't get me wrong, that is a great thing to strive to be. If everyone tried there best to achieve that state of mind, this world would be a better place. But I believe that this goes a bit against human nature because as was said before, we are not perfect, nor were we designed to be. Everyman is pretty accurate in that sense, which can be applied to almost any situation despite the time period you put him in. My explaining of it can sound confusing, but everyman is really every man.
Okay, I see where you're all coming from (more like the few I actually read because they weren't thousands of lines long…MARVI), but I think an “Everyman” figure doesn’t exist. We’re all too different to be categorized together under one label, unless we look at the bare essentials of our beings. We are all humans and can acquire the same characteristics, yet on a deeper level we are so incredibly diverse. There is no average.
Essentially, by agreeing that Everyman is like all people on Earth, you are classifying everyone to have the same intentions. How can you group together Mother Teresa and Hitler? Yes, they both held strong views and beliefs and stayed true to them...but there is no way the two can be heading for the same afterlife—Mother Teresa HELPED millions of people, Hitler KILLED millions of people.
What I’m saying is that there is so much diversity. Basically, we’re all products of society and our cultures. Look at Europeans and Americans—CLEAR DISTINCTION! Now, I’m in no way against America at all. I love our country and all the wonderful opportunities it give us…but look at the boys! No offense to our lovely boys in AP English, but those Europeans are incredibly classy, holding true to that idea of chivalry. Not once have I seen an American boy act like a European and hold the door, pull out the chair, or stand when I leave the table. How can you group those two together? Can’t. Being strongly tied to my own Ukrainian culture, I fell that most Americans tend to be slightly ignorant to how other people live. I don’t feel I deserve to be grouped with such people.
Everyman is far too general and I don’t see him representing humankind. I do believe he symbolizes his society, but as time goes by, the significance loses its value.
It may be true that Everyman from the play was the perfect image of an average person in medieval times. It is not really accurate for us to say, clearly because we did not live during these times. It is fair to say though that back then that society was much less diverse, and much less educated than we are now. Back then, people did believe that doing good deeds was the only way to make it to heaven, but today, not all people believe this is true. Although during all time periods death IS inevitable, people nowadays have many different views and opinions on death and what happens afterwards. I think that today there is no way to choose an everyman. Today, unlike in the medieval period, we are aware of and accept other religions, races, beliefs and traditions. In Medieval times it was easy to identify and "everyman", but in the twenty-first century, I think that this task is impossible.
I don’t think that the Everyman character accurately represents every person. There are some people in the world who are not entirely blinded by their own material desires and possessions. While many people, when exposed to the inescapable materialism of the secular world, start to value their material possessions more than
“good deeds” and altruism, there are a few who genuinely live to help others without any payment, such as Mother Teresa.
Today, the “everyman” character in a modern moral play would probably represent the average middle- class citizen of an industrialized nation, such as an American. We are accustomed to having relatively easy lives and always expecting compensation for everything that we do. Furthermore, much like the medieval “everyman” who the eponymous play represents, we are often blinded by selfish desires that replace our appreciation for altruistic deeds.
Everyman is not how I envision him. He is a bit foolish, a bit evil, and a bit good in "everyman". However, if everyman is to encompass the extremes of every emotion and idea (i.e. including everyone), then good and evil, along with every other trait cancel out. What remains is within each of us: a blank slate. Something we can mold and shape to make ourselves. We are each everyman at our core. We are each that empty mold without opinions, desires, aspirations, thoughts and feelings. It is our responsibility to fill that mold with what makes us...us.
I can understand “everyman” as an allegorical character for the books sake. The author of this story was simply trying to convey a message to the audience and have one person represent all humanity. The point is that this everyman is supposed to be everyman and that each and every person should imagine themselves in that role as it should apply to everyone. The problem however comes in with stereotyping which is a thing most humans hate. No one wants to think that they do not qualify as everyman or are a misfit. This is just like the article about the average American. The point of everyman however has nothing to do with clumping all humans into one person, it is simply to convey a message and I personally feel people get too worked up over that stuff.
Everyman is a refection of his society. The everyman of the play and the everyman of twenty years ago differ quite a lot. Everyman is represented by the common man or the "average" man. If society dictates that Everyman needs to focus on God, such as in the play, then its a reflection of the time period and the values its society instilled in it people. Today, our Everyman may be more focused on the American Dream or a more individualistic outlook rather than a deity or religion.
Regardless of this, there are some timeless themes that are present in Everyman, such as the struggle of materialism over morals and what we know to be right. Everyman learns that in the end it is not how much money you have but how "good" you acted. This still applies today. People feel an increasing need to mollify themselves and fit in with material items, such as clothes and cars. Yet, when it comes time to judge a person, whether at death or some other court, it matters not how much money they had. What matters is how they used it and who they used it on, right? When preparing for the "onset" of death, many people find that they need to have done good deeds to "earn" themselves a spot in heaven, which brings up the question of morality and whether it is justifiable to do something good for the wrong reasons.
KIM NECO
I believe Everyman was wonderfully portrayed in the play because it showed the immorality of people's actions and thoughts even in today's society. Everyone is immoral or wrong at some point in their lives, we are human so there is no way of escaping that. I would say that Everyman is representative of everyman, even clergy. We are designed to be flawed and therefore, it shows through our actions. We do need to be more focused on our salvation or souls but need to face the reality of our race to prove that we are prone to mistakes. Everyman is everyman but to a less ectent to most.
It is known the Everyman has some kind of acknowledgement to religion so that gives hope for his soul's sake. This minor detail repesents the very good in everyone and shows our eligibility to proper morals. The end of the play gives those that have committed the worse sins hope in being saved ... from themselves. This play doesn't only concern one's salvation but also protection to oneself. We harm ourselves in more ways than we know and in order to harness the hurt we must accept it.
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