Everyman

The play Everyman explores the concept of salvation and the role of good deeds in saving one's soul. The unknown author uses the character Everyman to represent all people on earth and their sinful lives. Through a journey, Everyman learns the importance of good deeds in treating death and sharing the love of God with others. Good deeds benefit not only Christians but also those they come in contact with.

Running head: EVERYMAN
Everyman
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author note:

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Student’s Thread
The unknown author that writes the play Everyman takes a very interesting view on
salvation and how people on earth can save their sole from death by sharing the love of God
with others through good deeds. The author uses the character Everyman to represent all the
people on earth and the sinful lives that they live. God is portrayed in the beginning of the
play by being upset with His children because they do not obey Him. Everyman goes on a
journey to find salvation and during this journey learns that good deeds is one of the ways to
treat death. Good deeds shares the great commission to those who do not know Jesus through
random acts of kindness and kind and encouraging words. Good deeds do not just benefit
Christians, but benefits those we come in contact with.
Reply
I do agree with your view point on the play Everyman. This play is indeed a morality
play that teaches human beings a lesson on how the Christians must live their life and the
things that they should do for saving their souls (Little). However, you have not mentioned
the fact that it was God who ordered Death to visit Everyman in order to get an account of his
whole life to tally the good and bad deeds of Everyman before the final judgement (Badir).
By means of this, Everyman get to know of the fact that good deeds have the potential to get
humans to heaven.
Thread:
John Bunyan in his book Pilgrim’s Progress has presented Christian as the central
character and the main hero of the story. It is more of an allegory than of a novel. The author
have used this character to represent the deep goal oriented nature of human beings
(Hofmeyr). He has presented the journey of Christian towards salvation by means of
encountering temptations like despair, labelled as “The Slough of Despond”. This journey is

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the most obvious theme in of this story. It is all about the knowledge that is gained through
travelling by the author by means of portraying Christian and his companies are learning
from their mistakes (Chelliah). As per the author, the pilgrim needs to have advanced
spirituality as his or her advancement on a geographic basis. Knowledge is the key factor that
increases when a pilgrim proceeds forward.

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References:
Badir, Patricia. "Everyman." The Encyclopedia of Medieval Literature in Britain (2017): 1-3.
Chelliah, S. "John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress and Krishna Pillai’s Iratchanya
Yathirikam." Language in India 18.8 (2018).
Hofmeyr, Isabel. The Portable Bunyan: a transnational history of the Pilgrim's Progress. Vol.
7. Princeton University Press, 2018.
Little, Katherine C. "What Is Everyman?." Renaissance Drama 46.1 (2018): 1-23.