Everyman

Use this activity to engage all types of learners, while requiring that they refer to and incorporate details from the text over the course of the activity.

“A Modern Everyman”

In this activity, students will create their own original morality plays to reflect on Everyman’s relevance today.

Everyman is one of the most important and widely read examples of the Medieval morality play, reflecting critical religious and social issues of the time. But what would “Everyman” look like if he were living today? In this activity, working either individually or in a group, you will write your own morality play in which you present an Everyman struggling with modern issues, which can be religious or secular. As you write your play, reflect on the following questions:

• What are the pressing social or ideological issues with which a modern Everyman must struggle?
• How can the negative and positive forces in a modern Everyman’s life be allegorized into abstract personifications?
• What is the modern Everyman seeking? Is it religious redemption or something different?
• What is the overarching message or moral the modern Everyman illustrates?

After you have written your play, present a brief synopsis to the class (while turning in the full assignment to the instructor). These presentations should prompt discussions on the ways in which Everyman remains relevant in the modern world but also on the ways in which its message may be antiquated or obsolete.

Teaching Suggestion: These morality plays do not need to be long (morality plays, after all, tended to be quite short). As students begin writing their plays, have them think about the literary devices that usually characterize morality plays, including allegory, personification, and metaphor. Students should try to incorporate these literary devices into their own plays.

Differentiation Suggestion: To encourage student agency and for students with artistic or musical interests and/or intelligences, consider allowing alternative approaches to the assignment such as creating a visual representation or a song about the modern Everyman. Students can give a brief description of their process and reasoning while presenting their work to the class.

Use these essay questions as writing and critical thinking exercises for all levels of writers, and to build their literary analysis skills by requiring textual references throughout the essay.

Differentiation Suggestion: For English learners or struggling writers, strategies that work well include graphic organizers, sentence frames or starters, group work, or oral responses.

Scaffolded Essay Questions

Student Prompt: Write a short (1-3 paragraph) response using one of the bulleted outlines below. Cite details from the text over the course of your response that serve as examples and support.

1. Everyman, the main character of the play, is an allegorical representation of the average person or “everyman,” complete with all the most common sins and vices.

• How is the character of Everyman represented in the play? (topic sentence)
• Reflect on whether Everyman is intended as a sympathetic character, citing specific examples of his actions from the text.
• In your concluding sentence or sentences, comment on why or why not you regard Everyman as a sympathetic character.

2. Though Everyman is presented as a play about a serious subject, it is not without moments of humor that lighten its message.

• How is humor used throughout Everyman? (topic sentence)
• Analyze 3 specific examples from the text that illustrate the use of humor.
• n your concluding sentence or sentences, evaluate why the author of the play might have decided to use humor when they did.

3. Everyman is deeply informed by the prevailing Christian and Catholic doctrines of the 15th century.

• How does the play reflect the Christian and Catholic doctrines of its time? (topic sentence)
• Provide an overview of the most pressing issues facing Christianity in the 15th century, and discuss how the play addresses these issues.
• In your concluding sentence or sentences, reflect on the play as a product of contemporary social and religious concerns.

Full Essay Assignments

Student Prompt: Write a structured and well-developed essay. Include a thesis statement, at least three main points supported by textual details, and a conclusion.

1. Virtually all the characters of Everyman are allegorical personifications (“Everyman,” “Goods,” “Good Deeds,” etc.). How does Everyman’s reliance on allegory reflect a central stylistic element of other Medieval morality plays? How do these allegories present the play’s message? Consider reading some other surviving morality plays from the period, such as The Castle of Perseverance, Mankind, or Wisdom, as you craft your essay.

2. Immediately following his repentance, Everyman is joined by Beauty, Discretion, Strength, and Five Wits. What is the significance of these allegorical figures? Why do they join Everyman when they do? What is their role in helping him achieve his salvation? Finally, why do they abandon Everyman before he dies?

3. At the end of the play, Everyman is granted entry to Heaven despite the sinful life he led. How does Everyman achieve his salvation? Who are the figures who help achieve his salvation? Who are the figures who stand in his way? What does Everyman’s salvation suggest about the nature of divine grace and repentance?

Multiple Choice and Long Answer Questions create ideal opportunities for whole-text review, exams, or summative assessments.

Multiple Choice

1. What does the Messenger mean when he describes humans as “transitory” (Line 6)?

A) Human life and worldly pursuits do not last forever.

B) Humans can bring their wealth and fame with them when they die.

C) Humans like to travel as often as possible.

D) Human life is only bounded by the imagination.

2. Death (and the other characters with whom Everyman interacts) is an example of which literary device?

A) Irony

B) Hyperbole

C) Simile

D) Personification

3. What is Everyman’s “book of reckoning”? (Line 135)

A) His record of his worldly possessions

B) A prayer book

C) A bible

D) The ledger of his good and evil deeds

4. What does Everyman mean when he says that “Fellowship herebefore with me would merry make, / And now little sorrow for me doth he take”? (Lines 307-8)

A) Fellowship has agreed to accompany him to his reckoning.

B) Fellowship is only willing to accompany him in pleasure, not in hardship.

C) Fellowship is very compassionate and feels sorry for him.

D) Fellowship is the only thing that makes his happy.

5. How has Everyman’s pursuit of Goods been harmful to him?

A) He has not been able to accumulate enough wealth.

B) It prevented Everyman from pursuing Good Deeds.

C) It prevented Everyman from making friends.

D) He has not been able to enjoy his life.

6. What enables Good Deeds to stand up and walk?

A) Knowledge teaches her how.

B) God commands her to.

C) Everyman’s confession compels her.

D) Everyman bribes her with money.

7. Why does Five Wits claim that priests are more powerful than worldly rulers such as kings and dukes?

A) Because priests can help people attain redemption

B) Because priests have more money

C) Because priests can compel worldly rulers to do their bidding

D) Because priests have more knowledge

8. Which of the following quotes best explains why Beauty, Strength, Discretion, and the rest of Everyman’s companions abandon him as he dies?

A) “In this world live no more we shall, / But in heaven before the highest Lord of all.”

B) “All earthly things is but vanity.”

C) “Therefore with Everyman I will go, and not spare; / His good works I will help him to declare.”

D) “Here I lie, cold in the ground; / Thy sins hath me sore bound, / That I cannot stir.”

9. According to the Doctor, what happens to those who do not repent before they die?

A) They must return to the earthly realm.

B) God forgives them anyway.

C) They are sent to Hell.

D) They are given another chance to repent after they die.

Long Answer

Compose a response of 2-3 sentences, incorporating textual details to support your response.

1. Why do Fellowship, Kindred, and Goods abandon Everyman? What lesson does Everyman learn from their abandonment?

2. Why is even Knowledge unable to accompany Everyman to his reckoning?