Everyman

God appears briefly on stage at the beginning of Everyman. This is emphatically the Christian God (after all, Everyman is a Christian morality play), and his depiction reflects 15th-century religious ideas and preoccupations. In his speech, God is angry that “all creatures be to me unkind” (23), pursuing sin and material prosperity without fear of his justice. He therefore decides to call Everyman for a reckoning to answer for how he has lived his life.

The plot of Everyman recalls a number of episodes from Judeo-Christian scripture—episodes such as the Flood or God’s destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. The angry God of Everyman, like the angry God of the scriptures, musters Death to make human beings account for their sins. Also like the God of the scriptures, the God of Everyman is ultimately merciful, and after Everyman’s repentance, God allows him to enter heaven—though the Doctor’s epilogue speech reminds the audience that the eternal fires of hell await those who fail to repent.

Death is one of several allegorical characters or personifications who people Everyman. These personifications are not true individuals; They do not have identities or nuanced personalities and do not undergo any kind of development over the course of the story. These “characters” do, however, tell us something about the worldview(s) of 15th-century England.

Death, for instance, is represented as a dutiful servant of God, a “mighty messenger” who readily obeys his master’s commands. He has power over all living things and wields that power inexorably, though he notes that this is merely the natural consequence of “Adam’s sin”—i.e., humanity’s fallen state. As Death says to Everyman:

I am Death, that no man dreadeth,

For every man I rest and no man spareth;

For it is God’s commandment

That all to me should be obedient (115-18).

Juxtaposed with the grim nature of Death are Everyman’s rather comical attempts to put him off. Everyman asks Death for more time, trying to bribe him. However, Death cannot be bribed or delayed: As Death explains, he does not wait for human beings to be ready before visiting.

The Messenger delivers the short prologue speech that opens the play. The Messenger’s speech introduces Everyman as a “moral play” and summarizes the moral: that human life is transient and that only Good Deeds can accompany human beings beyond the grave, as Everyman will learn when God calls him for his reckoning. The Messenger has no other role in the play; his counterpart at the end of the play is the Doctor, who reiterates the moral of Everyman in his epilogue speech.

Fellowship is the first of the false friends Everyman calls as he seeks a companion for his fateful journey. Noting that he and Fellowship “have in the world so many a day / Be on good friends in sport and play” (200-01), Everyman is sure that Fellowship will accompany him to his reckoning. Fellowship, sure enough, promises at first to stand by Everyman even “and thou go to hell” (232).

However, Fellowship quickly abandons Everyman when he discovers the nature of his journey—i.e., that it could involve a literal trip to hell—thus showing his true colors. Fellowship, Everyman discovers, is a friend only in pleasure, not in pain. Fellowship even goes so far as to tell Everyman that he would stand by him “with a good will” if he wished to murder somebody (282)—a reflection on the violent tendencies of human beings as personified by Everyman—but he will not accompany Everyman in death. Fellowship thus becomes the first to forsake Everyman.

After Fellowship, Everyman summons Kindred, who is accompanied by Cousin. These personifications represent Everyman’s family relations (and in that sense are somewhat less abstract than the “purer” abstractions of Fellowship, Goods, and their ilk). Kindred and Cousin, like Fellowship, initially promise to stand by Everyman, even announcing that they “will live and die together” (324). Also like Fellowship, Kindred and Cousin immediately renege on their promise when they discover that Everyman is to die. Kindred and Cousin would be happy to remain with Everyman if doing so benefited them, but in the face of danger, they all too eagerly forsake him.

Goods, the personification of earthly, material prosperity, represents what Everyman has valued and cultivated above all else throughout his life; significantly, the dialogue between Everyman and Goods occurs near the play’s midpoint, highlighting its centrality. Everyman has devoted so much of his life to Goods that when Goods first enters the stage he is weighed down “in packs” and can hardly move. Everyman asks Goods to accompany him to his reckoning, reasoning that “it is said ever among, / That money maketh all right that is wrong” (413). Goods immediately explains to Everyman his mistake: He cannot make such a journey, belonging as he does firmly in the earthly realm.

Goods is remarkably straightforward in his interaction with Everyman. Unlike Fellowship, Kindred, and Cousin (and also unlike Strength, Discretion, Beauty, and Five Wits, who will appear later in the play), Goods never makes Everyman any promises he cannot keep. Even when Goods promises to help Everyman, he specifies that it is only difficulties “in the world” that he can remedy (401); Goods never claims that he can help Everyman in spiritual or eternal matters. Indeed, Goods explains very clearly that pursuit of him is “contrary to the love everlasting” (430), that “[his] condition is man’s soul to kill” (442), and that “to thy soul Good is a thief” (447). As Goods takes his leave, Everyman finally begins to understand that all earthly prosperity is as transient as life.

Goods Deeds, whom Everyman summons only after Fellowship, Kindred, Cousin, and Goods have forsaken him, is soon revealed as the only product of human life that is eternal. When she first comes on stage, however, Good Deeds is so “sore bound” by Everyman’s sins that she cannot move. Effectively crippled, Goods Deeds cannot at this stage accompany Everyman to his reckoning, though she asserts that she “would full fain” do so if she could (497).

When Everyman repents his sinful life, Good Deeds regains her ability to move. Unlike Everyman’s other companions, Good Deeds remains committed to her initial promise to follow him. At the end of the play, as Everyman enters his grave and faces God for his reckoning, it is Good Deeds alone who goes with him and even speaks for him—a testament to the importance of good works in the Catholic understanding of salvation. As the two are about to depart the earthly world forever, Good Deeds summarizes the moral of the play and her role within it:

All earthly things is but vanity:

Beauty, Strength, and Discretion, do man forsake,

Foolish friends and kinsmen, that fair spake,

All fleeth save Good-Deeds, and that am I (870-73).

Knowledge is yet another of the personifications who people Everyman. Knowledge, summoned as the “sister” of Good Deeds, readily guides Everyman on his journey to achieve repentance and salvation. It is Knowledge who directs Everyman to Confession, who in turn teaches Everyman how to achieve salvation. Knowledge, then, represents the knowledge of how to repent and thus save one’s eternal soul: People must know where to turn as they prepare to go before God for their “reckoning.”

Knowledge is one of the more direct and honest personifications of the play. She fulfills her promise to help Everyman in his journey, leading him to Confession and Priesthood. However, she never promises to follow him beyond the grave, and even tells him explicitly that though she will remain at his side until the moment of death, she must stay behind “when ye to death do go” (859).

Confession, who is said to live in the “house of salvation” (540), is another personification. He (or she—the text of the drama is inconsistent in its references to the gender of Confession) advises Everyman on repenting for his sins. Confession is described using language that suggests water, an important symbol of purification in Christianity: Knowledge thus introduces Confession as “that cleansing river” (536), while Everyman addresses her/him as “O glorious fountain that all uncleanness doth clarify” (545). Confession comforts Everyman to the best of her/his ability and gives him a scourge with which he must do penance for his sins.

Beauty is the first of the “persons of great might” who come on stage to accompany Everyman after his repentance (658). Along with Strength, Discretion, and Five Wits, Beauty helps Good Deeds and Knowledge bring Everyman to his grave for his reckoning. Beauty is also the first of Everyman’s second group of “friends” to forsake him as he begins to weaken and die, horrified at the unbeautiful sight of the sepulcher.

Strength is one of the second group of friends who join Everyman after his repentance. Like Beauty, Discretion, Five Wits, and Knowledge, Strength cannot accompany Everyman beyond the grave, though he symbolizes one of the qualities Everyman will need to get there: In this case, Strength represents the strength human beings need to face their death.

Discretion is another one of the second group of friends who join Everyman after his repentance. With the rest of the group, he accompanies Everyman to his grave, advising him to go “with a good advisement and deliberation” (691). He is the third of Everyman’s friends to forsake him at his grave, just after Strength, reasoning that “when Strength goeth before / I follow after evermore” (835-36).

Five Wits, representing the five senses (sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell), is summoned by Knowledge to accompany Everyman to his grave following his repentance. Five Wits personifies that which ties Everyman to the earthly realm. It is he who directs Everyman to the priest to receive the sacrament and extreme unction, even engaging Knowledge in a brief dialogue about corruption in the priesthood. He is the last of Everyman’s second group of friends to desert him as he dies, leaving Everyman with Knowledge and Good Deeds.

The Angel arrives on stage at the very end of the play. He represents the joyful bliss of Heaven, introduced by joyous singing first noted by Knowledge. As God’s messenger, he announces in a short speech that Everyman’s reckoning has come out “crystal clear” and that his eternal soul has left his mortal body and been admitted into Heaven.