Essay Sample on Everyman: Repentance For The Non-Religious

Everyone is afraid of death, loss, and doing wrong.  The religious play, Everyman, involves characters from religious text and worldly examples to convince its audience to turn to God for a better life. These concepts were implemented in Medieval theatre throughout history, leaving scholars to question what non-secular audiences can learn from Everyman, religion being its main focus. God sends Everyman, a character used to represent the audience themselves, on a journey to confront his sin before meeting face to face with death. His fear propels him to call upon his friends, who ultimately leave him behind, questioning his friendships, the sin he had committed, and what he could have done to be a better person. As the play is written for a religious audience, obviously so with the talk of sin, God, and yearning to go to heaven, there are ways it connects with audience members of lesser to no faith. Everyman revolves around repentance and sin, but can be reborn through looking at it through a contemporary lens, an analysis on friendship, and the concept of turning over a new leaf.

In Carol Ann Duffy’s 2015 adaptation of Everyman, produced by the National Theatre Company, a modern, surrealistic look at the medieval play is taken through its technical aspects and actor performances. God and Death, played by Kate Duchene and Dermot Crowley, respectfully, are not seen as the light and dark figures we might expect them to be. They transform into the roles of a cleaning lady and a businessman, who changes into a Biohazard suit of white and black gloves for Everyman’s reckoning. At the start of the play, God sends Everyman on his journey of repentance without the audience seeing the things he had done before being confronted. In Duffy’s reimagining, Everyman is seen celebrating his birthday with his friends. Stylized drinking, partying, and a rap battle ensue. Being wrapped up in his birthday shenanigans, he ignores his family’s phone calls before getting covered in police tape on the table he had partied on. Duchene, playing God, was not wrong when she stated she “cleans the room before the party, mops up afterwards (3:01)”, as she stands before Everyman and judges the sin he committed before (17:36).

Everyman, afraid of facing death alone, calls on his friends to help him navigate his repentance. The ensemble in Duffy’s adaptation work together as a unified cast of Everyman’s friends. Their larger than life costumes such as neon-masked party goers, piles of assorted trash, and an ensemble of suits similar to Everyman’s blue ensemble, help create a concoction of different worlds. Though they work together as an ensemble, they are not good friends to Everyman, deserting him to navigate his journey alone when the talk of never returning to their partying lifestyle is mentioned.

Everyman ultimately finds Good Deeds, a character made weak by his sin. Seeing that she is willing to follow him on his journey and sacrifices herself to do so, Everyman showcases the concept of true friendship by finding ways to regain her strength again, through that, learning selflessness. The concept of being alone on a task, though not as big as Everyman’s journey, is relatable for a non-religious audience. If the task is not beneficial for another person’s gain, a person can quickly see who their true friends are. Showcasing the kindness that Good Deeds had provided, even in her weakest moments, made Everyman realize that the bond between friends should not be materialistic, but rather a patience and willingness to go through life together, no matter the obstacle.

Everyman learns that he has lived a life of sin throughout the play, at first unwilling and unknowing of how to redeem himself. Being afraid of repentance of sin can be seen by a non-secular audience as an analysis of change. The concept of change can be analyzed through Everyman as he addresses his loss of friends, family, and materialistic things, and realizes this is not just God punishing him for nothing. His realization is reminiscent of what people do to often tackle change. Figuring out why a friend, family member, or the world crashing down, though not by Everyman’s standards, are ways we, as people try to grasp change. Questioning, reflecting, and going through our own battles as human beings helps us, like Everyman, grow stronger in the end. 

Through the story of Everyman, audience members can see a hint of them throughout the story. Often read by unsecular audiences, one could ask how the play pertains to their lives, and what they can gain from it. A suggestion to make could be to not see the aspect of religion as the big picture, and rather, analyze it without the time period attached to it, focusing on the concepts of friendship, and creating a new self for the better good. In this way, audience members, like Everyman can take away the unknown and make it a discovery, an exploration of their own.