Everyman Play

706 Words2 Pages

Everyman was a succinct play that valued moral revelations over entertaining prospects. It’s overall message was admirable, but, in my opinion, it failed to ever gain any momentum toward plot or character development, despite its sole lesson being the transformation of the title protagonist. Despite its lack of pace, excitement, or fluidity, Everyman proved to be a decent play, one that should be read for religious reasons as opposed to literary. One of the fatal flaws of the play was its inability to connect with the reader. This is incredibly ironic because, although the main character is Everyman, he really relates to no one. We see little emotion from the protagonist, which one would expect after the betrayal of his friends, family, and …show more content…

I actually enjoyed the message of the play, which stressed the importance of reverence and intellectualism. It suggests that only your good deeds will be carried with you when you enter the afterlife. I will neither support nor deny this assertion, but I will say I think good deeds will not hurt you, regardless of your view on an afterlife. For this reason, the play still somewhat has relevance in this secular contemporary society. It also has an important view on wealth and greed, also relevant today, because Everyman argues against materialism. Thus, this combination of good deeds and anti-materialism takes the morals of the play to everyday life, as opposed to its highly religious message. At the same time, it is nearly impossible to take the religious aspect out of Everyman, primarily because of the start and conclusion of the play. The entanglement of God and Death and Angel make it inevitable for a religious message to be spewed. This puts a damper on the entirety of the play; it also makes the audience question the requirements to enter heaven. The play seems to give the impression that one can repent at the end of his life, despite the lack of good deeds, and still make it into the afterlife. As a result, doesn’t this contradict the central message? We are told that his good deeds are very weak, as they cannot “stand” and

Open Document