Thesis:
Everyman is an English morality play whose author is unknown, this is a play that makes use of allegorical characters in order to represent the values in which Everyman holds or adheres to during his lifetime. Everyman has disregarded his spiritual life, the neglect is evident, yet as the play unfolds Everyman asks for forgiveness of the sins he has committed, and for his oversight of spiritual matters for so long. The turning point in the play is when Everyman is summoned by Death, he realizes that he is not ready to die, nor does he want to do so alone.
Outline:
i. Introduction ii. Summary of Characters iii. Author’s Perception of Death iv. Conclusion

i. Introduction
Everyman is an English morality play that the playwright uses characterization and conflict to represent values humans adhere to during the course of their lifetimes. The play makes use of allegorical characters to represent the everyday person. Everyman is a morality play which is “an allegorical drama popular in Europe especially during the 15th and 16th centuries, in which the characters personify moral qualities (such as charity or vice) or abstractions (as death or youth) and in which moral lessons are taught.” (Morality Play, 2013)
In the play Everyman, the author uses metaphoric names for the characters, in order to emphasize morality. The main character Everyman believes himself to be content with where he is in life, until God sends Death to him, who lets him know his end draws near. At which point Everyman sees that his life has not been as meaningful as he had thought it to be, and realizes the error of his ways in neglecting his spiritual life. ii. Summary of Characters
In a morality play the characters tend to be allegorical characters that the author uses to personify moral qualities. In doing so, the author is able to put the focus on such important factors in life as love, friendships, life itself and even death. In the play Everyman, the anonymous author does just that, with characters named amply. The main character Everyman is symbolic of the average person as he realizes too late that he has put his focus in life on the wrong things. The play “achieves a beautiful, simple solemnity in treating allegorically the theme of death and the fate of the human soul—of Everyman’s soul as he tries to justify his time on earth.” (Everyman, Britannica 2013) The supporting characters the author includes in the play are, Knowledge, Kindred, Beauty, Discretion, Strength, Five Wits, Fellowship, and Good Deeds, all representing realistic aspects that man deals with throughout his lifetime. The play opens with God upset that after all he has done for man, to protect him and save his soul, man still continues to turn from him and forsake him. He sends Death to Everyman, to let him know that his life is at its end and now he must stand before God and be held accountable for the life that he has lived. At this point Everyman realizes that he is not ready to die and that he is not proud of the life he will soon have to account for. He attempts to bribe Death so that he can extend his time here on earth, but to no avail. The message here is that Death is unavoidable, no matter the age, gender or wealth of any man. When God calls his children home there is no way to get out of it, and it doesn’t matter whether their affairs are in order or not, or whether they are ready to go or not, death is final. “Everyman's inability to recognize the permanence of Death's “journey” raises the question for the audience of what might constitute such a recognition. Depicting death as a presence initially inscrutable to its central character,” (Paulson, 2007)
The one thing that Death does acquiescent is when Everyman asks to bring a companion with him during his journey, Death allows him to ask his life acquaintances if there was anyone who would be willing to accompany him. “When Everyman is summoned by Death, he can persuade none of his friends—Beauty, Kindred, Worldly Goods—to go with him, except Good Deeds.” (Everyman, Columbia 2013) Beginning with Fellowship, Everyman finds out fast that when it comes to Death all his Earthly friends will abandon him, Fellowship will not go, then Kindred and Cousin in turn refuse. Eventually Everyman turns to Goods who flat out tells him that he follows no one to the grave. At this point the allegoric context is vivid for the reader as it is true that nothing that man has amassed here on Earth can follow him to the grave, no treasure or riches can make the journey with him. An allegory being, “A narrative expressing abstract ideas as concrete symbols; a description of a topic or subject under the guise of another which is suggestive of it, an extended comparative metaphor.” (Allegory, 2013)
Next Everyman turns to Good Deeds to accompany him, but Good Deeds is weakened and tells Everyman that due to his sins and lack of good deeds in his lifetime, that Good Deeds feels he is not strong enough to make the journey. Good Deeds points Everyman to his sister Knowledge for help and Knowledge advises Everyman that he should call on the last of his friends Beauty, Discretion, Strength and Five Wits. These last four friends finish the journey with him as well as Knowledge and Good Deeds, but as they get closer to the end the four of them leave him to finish on his own with only Knowledge and Good Deeds. During the last leg of his journey to Death, before they too leave him Five wits advises Everyman to take the sacraments which will allow him to achieve the Grace he needs to get into Heaven. When Everyman finally completes his journey everyone has left him but Good Deeds and through the strides that Everyman has made alone his journey to turn to God, Good Deeds has grown stronger. At the end, Good Deeds follows him into the Grave and accompanies him into eternal salvation. Good Deeds being the only thing that can come with him at the end of his journey. iii. Author’s Perception of Death
The author makes it clear that they see death as the very final in all things. That death is inescapable for everyone. One day every living being will die, it is inevitable. The author also shows the audience that death is not scheduled when it is convenient to the person, it comes for man whether prepared for it or not.
The characters that the author used throughout the play put emphasis on the fact that in the end nothing else in this world matters but to put the spiritual life above earthly treasure and riches. That it is when Everyman turns from all his worldly things and focuses on Knowledge and Good Deeds, when he repents and ask God to forgive him is when he is given God’s grace and accepted into eternity with God.
The other factor that plays into the authors perception of death is made clear to the audience at the beginning of the play. As God calls Death forward and commands him to go get Everyman it is evident that the author knows God to be in charge of Death and that Death is there to do Gods bidding. iv. Conclusion . “Everyman asks what it means to make our own mortality present to us, to recognize our finitude, and to remember that we must die. The play presents a surprisingly circuitous answer to that question, first providing a sustained investigation into how one learns the meaning of a word, and then concluding that individual understandings of words, concepts, and mortality emerge through the interpersonal relations and communal rituals that reveal and guarantee their meanings.” (Paulson, 2007)
The author of Everyman did an amazing job of using allegorical characters to show the readers the finality of death. Emphasizing that death waits for no one and comes when God is ready for man, not when man is ready for God. The author also makes valid points that in death nothing can follow man to the grave and that the real importance is to have built up the spiritual aspect of life before it is too late, because unlike the play Everyman when death comes knocking no one is given the chance to make things right

Bibliography
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