Everyman

“Everyman” was written in the late fifteenth-century as a morality play. This play basically focuses on doing good works because that would be the only way to get to Heaven. Realistically you need to be doing good things to have a relationship with God. People cannot just keep doing things wrong and think that they are going to be automatically forgiven for the bad things they have done to other people or to themselves. The author of “Everyman” refers to that in this excerpt: “He that loveth riches I will strike with my dart, His sight to blind, and from heaven to depart, Except that alms be his good friend—In hell for to dwell, world without end.” (Lines 76-79) In these lines Death is showing that if you are selfish and just love your riches …show more content…
Everyman tries to bribe Death with material things when he says “O Death, thou comest when I had thee least in mind! In thy power it lieth me to save; yet of my good will I give thee, if thou will be kind--- yea, a thousand pound shalt thou have---and defer this matter till another day.” Everyman also has friends who he tries to get to take his journey with him. Fellowship says “Whether ye have loved me or no, by Saint John, I will not with thee go.” (Line 287) He also tries to get his cousin to go with him and she responds by saying “No, by our Lady! I have a cramp in my toe. Trust not to me, for, so God me speed. I will deceive you in your most need.” (Line 356) It is obvious that no one wants to deal with what Everyman is dealing with. In reality, no one is going to be in the grave when a person passes. All the money, all the material things and everything else a person owns will not be in the grave with them. That is why those types of things are really not important and people should not put them before God. “A crucial moment of the play occurs when the protagonist Everyman discovers that, in the presence of the personification of his own mortality, he has misunderstood the significance of most aspects of his daily existence. When Death informs him that he must bring before God an account of his good and bad deeds, Everyman, terrified, turns to his earthly …show more content…
Everyman’s sins are so bad that Good Deeds cannot even fix them and tries to get him to speak to Knowledge and that is stated in the excerpt: “That shall I do verily; though that on my feet I may not go, I have a sister that shall with you also, called knowledge, which shall with you abide, to help you to make that dreadful reckoning.” (Line 518) The author sees Death as a way for God to get to Everyman so Everyman can see the wrongs that he is doing. Everyman is always focused on just his fortune and all his other lusts. This is proven when Everyman tries to bribe Death in this excerpt: “Yet of my good will I give thee, if thou—be kind, yea, a thousand pound shalt thou have—and defer this matter till another day” (Line 120) Death does not take his offer because Death does not care about money or materialistic things. Death replies to his offer: “Everyman, it may not be, by no way. I set not gold, silver, nor riches, ne by pope, emperor, king, duke, ne princes; For, and I would receive gifts great. All the world I might get; but my custom is clean contrary. I give thee no respite. Come bence, and not tarry.” (Line 125) Death is perceived as a prosecutor, as egotistical, and as very supreme. He is supreme because he does not let anyone escape him. He is a prosecutor because he does not care who a person is, if they are rich or poor, black or white, everyone has to