Everyman’s ego demonstrates his ego most notably in these lines. His id demands him to keep his money and continue his frivolity, while his superego desires him to earn salvation as idealized by the church influence. His ego emerges to offer Death this bribe of money to allow both parties to achieve a semblance of their aims. In their 2006 article "Material Economy, Spiritual Economy, and Social Critique in Everyman," scholars Elizabeth Harper and Britt Mize further urge the significance of this bribe. They assert, “Everyman’s attempt to escape his summons with a bribe is an important backdrop to his interaction with Goods. At a moment a moment of some tension…the moment at which he will learn directly and finally that he has valued most will …show more content…
The measures Everyman takes in his pursuit for spiritual salvation speak to the pervasiveness of the church institution as an authority and the hold it seeks to have on those it ensnares. Everyman’s superego is comprised of the social values as constructed by church prohibitions. The institution proves so pervasive and authoritative that he seeks desperately to uphold it when his soul is at risk of damnation. His superego fears the consequences if he does not meet the approval or guidelines of this construct.
EVERYMAN’S ID Everyman’s id is best brought to light through his relationship with Goods. Goods almost embodies or gives voice to the id as its sole motive is to lure Everyman to evil and sin. He speaks to the role of Everyman’s “fleshly lusts” as source of pleasure. Goods remarks: I follow no man in such voyages; For, and I went with …show more content…
The desire to seek penance is a compromise of the id and the superego—not an indicator of Everyman’s reformation. Just minutes after scourging himself, he immediately inquires about his reckoning. He divagates, “Now blessed be Jesu, Mary’s Son…And let us go now without tarrying; Good Deeds, have we clear our reckoning?” (649-652). He seeks to get right back to business, so to speak, spending little time relishing in the redemption his penance has supposedly garnered him. Thus, Everyman has clearly not internalized or genuinely embraced this spiritual salvation. He is fabricating the illusion of integrity superficially to spare his soul. This shallowness is marked by the vitality of his ego during this final fight for his soul. Intrinsically, he is led by his id. His act of penance does not stem from internal desire or genuine satisfaction in spiritual devotion. His ego is thus prominent as the negotiator of his true desires and the required portrayal to save