MEDIEVAL THEATRE - EVERYMAN

 May 12,2022                            

MEDIEVAL THEATRE - WEEK 3                                    

MORALITY PLAY 

         

                                     Lets start our course with this short video !

 WHAT IS MORALITY PLAY ?

• Morality play, also called morality, 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
• They used allegorical stories to teach a moral message, underpinned by Christian teachings. The characters personified abstract qualities of goodness and evil, virtue and vice, which engaged in a battle to win the soul of the ‘mankind’ figure

EVERYMAN AS A MORALITY PLAY

• Everyman is a kind of morality play.
• The play is an allegorical drama.
• Main purpose of the story is about how Christians should live and what they must do to save their souls.
• Actually, in the play ‘Everyman’ represents every single human beings.

Personification and Morality:

DEATH: I set not by gold, silver, nor riches,
Ne by pope, emperor, king, duke, ne princess.
For and I would receive gifts great,
All the world I might get;
But my custom is clean contrary.
I give thee no respite: come hence, and not tarry.            (page 466)

 

• This dialog shows the theme of personification and morality. So death is personalized and emphasizes that he doesn’t deal with secular things such as wealth, richness. Because these things are temporary but to win God’s approval and do good deeds saves us in our pilgrimage (to death).

Salvation :

SALVATION GOOD DEEDS: Yea, sir, I may thank you of all;
If ye had perfectly cheered me,
Your book of account now full ready had be.
Look, the books of your works and deeds eke

• This dialog shows us that Good Deeds are the only way towards salvation. Because each goodness which we have done when we alive has a reward.

What is the mean of salvation ?

Salvation in Christianity: In religion, salvation is the saving of the soul from sin and its consequences

Transitoriness: 

• In the beginning of the play, messenger says that:

       ‘How transitory we be all day.’            (page 464)

• Key theme is how we can't take things with us beyond the grave. Life is transitory - always changing, always in transition, always moving towards death. Only heaven or hell is eternal

WHAT IS THE MESSAGE OF THE PLAY?

The main moral message of Everyman is not simply that the path to salvation is through the doing of good deeds, but that humanity does not have the power to save itself.

Rather, much like Everyman, humanity finds salvation through the grace of God. In fact, this is one of the central tenets of Christianity: that man cannot save himself—he needs a savior.

CONCLUSION:

• When it comes to a journey to death, almost every characters forsake him except for Knowledge and Good Deeds. No one can turn against god, and us ‘all creatures’ should never forget about the existence of heaven and hell. We have to always be respectful to God, and do the right things.
• We should give up earthly desires for they only bring sins an unhappiness. The play often shows us how our values and perspective change over the course of our lives.
• Not only do the good deeds follow you till your last breath but the knowledge that you have done so little good in your life can be devastating

Prepared by Şule Yüksel 

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