Everyman: A Medieval Morality Play Term Paper

Fellowship, for example, seems cruel in his dismissal of Everyman, and he gives immoral advice: "But and thou wilt murder, or any man kill, / in that I will help thee with a good will!" Everyman's cousin says: "I will deceive you in your most need."

However, there is a contradiction in this total denial of the world, because Everyman's actions in the world will save him, namely his Good Deeds. Although other worldly ties and attributes will not help him, his obedience to God's commandments will follow him after death. Of course, one might ask, for whom does he do 'Good Deeds,' very likely his family, friends, and other peoples? But the play is designed not to engage in philosophical speculation, but to graphically and simply represent received religious truths. Even Knowledge, or the positive value of intelligence, is dismissed in the play. Knowledge, just like Beauty and Worldly Goods (which might be expected to be unhelpful in a journey into the afterlife, even to a modern viewer) is seen as an example of vanity, not effort.Moral effort alone will gain Everyman favor.

Thus, the play's message as well as its style is unfamiliar to modern readers and viewers. It is not simply the allegorical style that is jarring, but also the fact that the play is much more accepting of the inevitability of death than modern artistic works, where death is seen as something that the hero wishes to avoid at all costs, or is at least treated as a terrible calamity. What matters more in this medieval play is the afterlife. Also, art is not used to speculate about religious truths, rather religious truths are confirmed. Even the lack of value of one's friends, family, and intellectual efforts, values we take for granted, are prized less than the importance of fulfilling the teachings of the Church and doing good works......