Summary
Visit from Death
In the introduction a Messenger asks for the audience's attention. The action begins with God complaining
that men have become thoroughly wicked and have taken for granted everything He has given them. He
summons Death and commands him to bring Everyman to accounting.
Death obeys and comes upon Everyman walking alone. He asks Everyman if he has forgotten God, and
tells him he must make a pilgrimage to the afterlife to be judged. This will be a journey from which he can
never return. Everyman stalls, begging for more time. He complains he was not expecting Death. An
exasperated Death tells him he should have known better and gives him a brief time to prepare himself.
Earthly Friends
Everyman laments his fate. He asks Fellowship, who represents his earthly friends, for help. Fellowship
declares he would walk through hell with Everyman. However, he quickly changes his position when he
realizes the afterlife is actually where Everyman is going. He says he will be with Everyman if he wants to
enjoy life, but he will not go on this journey with him. Everyman turns to Kindred and Cousin, who make
similar promises, but also abandon him when they learn where he is going. Everyman calls out to Goods,
who represents his wealth and worldly possessions, saying he loved Goods best of all. Goods says he can
fix any earthly problem but will only hurt Everyman's case with God, as love of wealth is a trap that damns
souls.
Everyman calls out to Good-Deeds to come with him and speak to God. She says she would if she were not
so weak from the weight of his sin. She directs him to her sister Knowledge, who will guide him.
Knowledge brings Everyman to see Confession, who gives Everyman a penance to absolve his sins.
Everyman performs his penance and prays to God for forgiveness. Once this is done, Good-Deeds is healed
and able to come with him.
Knowledge and Good-Deeds advise Everyman to gather virtues to himself: Beauty, Strength, Discretion,
and Five-Wits. The virtues urge Everyman to receive communion and extreme unction before he dies.
Five-Wits and Knowledge discuss sacraments and how priests are God's actors on Earth, acknowledging
the soul cannot receive salvation without their vital work. Everyman returns from the sacraments ready to
go to his grave, but his earthly virtues—Beauty, Strength, Discretion, and Five-Wits—leave him as he dies.
Knowledge stays with him until the end, but she cannot follow him after death. However, she hears the
angels sing and knows Good-Deeds have gone with Everyman to heaven, where he has been saved.
Salvation
An angel affirms that Everyman has been saved, and a Doctor reiterates the lesson of the play:
Only Good-Deeds and no earthly possession, relation, or virtue may stand with a person's soul before God.
Good-Deeds must be robust enough to stand God's scrutiny.
There will be no chance to change after death. Those found wanting will be cast into eternal damnation and
those who are righteous will be crowned in heaven.
, Symbols
Allegorical Characters
Everyman is a famously allegorical work. With the exception of God, the Angel, the Messenger, and the
Doctor, every character in the play should be read as standing in for a group of people or an abstract
concept. Each of these characters is named for what they represent. Everyman himself, as his name states,
represents every man or every member of humanity, with appetites, fears, and flaws common to all people.
Some allegorical characters, such as Death, Good-Deeds, and Fellowship, are readily comprehensible to a
modern audience, but others, such as Five-Wits, require slightly more explanation.
Everyman represents all people.
Death represents the end of life, which often comes suddenly and cannot be avoided or reasoned with.
Fellowship represents Everyman's friends in life, who are quick to turn their back on him in hard times.
Kindred and Cousin represent Everyman's family.
Goods, who claims he can solve any worldly problem, represents Everyman's wealth and possessions.
Though Everyman has loved Goods best, love of Goods is a moral trap that has led him toward
damnation.
Good-Deeds represents the good Everyman has done in life. At first she cannot move to help him plead
his case before God because Everyman's sin weighs her down. She alone can go with him to the
afterlife and help him when facing God's judgment.
Knowledge represents moral understanding of the difference between good and evil. She directs
Everyman to a virtuous life and to the sacraments.
Confession is described as a holy man to whom Everyman should bow. He represents the sacrament of
confession, which allows for the absolution of sins.
Beauty represents earthly beauty. While she is a good companion to Everyman, she will abandon him
as he heads for the grave. Her choice represents the decline of aging.
Strength represents physical strength. Like Beauty, she will not go with Everyman to death, and her
absence represents frailty as death approaches.
Discretion represents Everyman's ability to make wise decisions. Discretion departs after Strength,
saying it is always so. His absence represents a lack of agency in one's twilight years.
Five-Wits represent Everyman's ability to perceive and understand. The five wits are traditionally
defined as common sense (or "wit"), imagination, fantasy, estimation, and memory. The term is related
to the phrase "to have one's wits about them". Though Everyman loves him best of his new
companions, Five-Wits also leaves, representing the difference between spiritual knowledge and
worldly intelligence as well as the onset of dementia.
Pilgrimage
Throughout the play, Everyman's impending death is referred to as a "pilgrimage." This term characterizes
Everyman's death as a holy journey he undertakes rather than something that happens to him. The
responsibility for the quality of Everyman's death and subsequent judgment is placed on Everyman himself.
It also casts the event not in terms of tragedy or injustice but in terms of a holy penance or quest to become
more virtuous before God. In the play Death is not an end but a journey to another world. Though
Everyman cannot return, he has emphatically not ceased to be. He has merely gone to be with God. The
conceit (literary figure) also reminds the audience of the journey of life on which we are all embarked,
encouraging us to consider our own journeys as pilgrimages.
Visit from Death
In the introduction a Messenger asks for the audience's attention. The action begins with God complaining
that men have become thoroughly wicked and have taken for granted everything He has given them. He
summons Death and commands him to bring Everyman to accounting.
Death obeys and comes upon Everyman walking alone. He asks Everyman if he has forgotten God, and
tells him he must make a pilgrimage to the afterlife to be judged. This will be a journey from which he can
never return. Everyman stalls, begging for more time. He complains he was not expecting Death. An
exasperated Death tells him he should have known better and gives him a brief time to prepare himself.
Earthly Friends
Everyman laments his fate. He asks Fellowship, who represents his earthly friends, for help. Fellowship
declares he would walk through hell with Everyman. However, he quickly changes his position when he
realizes the afterlife is actually where Everyman is going. He says he will be with Everyman if he wants to
enjoy life, but he will not go on this journey with him. Everyman turns to Kindred and Cousin, who make
similar promises, but also abandon him when they learn where he is going. Everyman calls out to Goods,
who represents his wealth and worldly possessions, saying he loved Goods best of all. Goods says he can
fix any earthly problem but will only hurt Everyman's case with God, as love of wealth is a trap that damns
souls.
Everyman calls out to Good-Deeds to come with him and speak to God. She says she would if she were not
so weak from the weight of his sin. She directs him to her sister Knowledge, who will guide him.
Knowledge brings Everyman to see Confession, who gives Everyman a penance to absolve his sins.
Everyman performs his penance and prays to God for forgiveness. Once this is done, Good-Deeds is healed
and able to come with him.
Knowledge and Good-Deeds advise Everyman to gather virtues to himself: Beauty, Strength, Discretion,
and Five-Wits. The virtues urge Everyman to receive communion and extreme unction before he dies.
Five-Wits and Knowledge discuss sacraments and how priests are God's actors on Earth, acknowledging
the soul cannot receive salvation without their vital work. Everyman returns from the sacraments ready to
go to his grave, but his earthly virtues—Beauty, Strength, Discretion, and Five-Wits—leave him as he dies.
Knowledge stays with him until the end, but she cannot follow him after death. However, she hears the
angels sing and knows Good-Deeds have gone with Everyman to heaven, where he has been saved.
Salvation
An angel affirms that Everyman has been saved, and a Doctor reiterates the lesson of the play:
Only Good-Deeds and no earthly possession, relation, or virtue may stand with a person's soul before God.
Good-Deeds must be robust enough to stand God's scrutiny.
There will be no chance to change after death. Those found wanting will be cast into eternal damnation and
those who are righteous will be crowned in heaven.
, Symbols
Allegorical Characters
Everyman is a famously allegorical work. With the exception of God, the Angel, the Messenger, and the
Doctor, every character in the play should be read as standing in for a group of people or an abstract
concept. Each of these characters is named for what they represent. Everyman himself, as his name states,
represents every man or every member of humanity, with appetites, fears, and flaws common to all people.
Some allegorical characters, such as Death, Good-Deeds, and Fellowship, are readily comprehensible to a
modern audience, but others, such as Five-Wits, require slightly more explanation.
Everyman represents all people.
Death represents the end of life, which often comes suddenly and cannot be avoided or reasoned with.
Fellowship represents Everyman's friends in life, who are quick to turn their back on him in hard times.
Kindred and Cousin represent Everyman's family.
Goods, who claims he can solve any worldly problem, represents Everyman's wealth and possessions.
Though Everyman has loved Goods best, love of Goods is a moral trap that has led him toward
damnation.
Good-Deeds represents the good Everyman has done in life. At first she cannot move to help him plead
his case before God because Everyman's sin weighs her down. She alone can go with him to the
afterlife and help him when facing God's judgment.
Knowledge represents moral understanding of the difference between good and evil. She directs
Everyman to a virtuous life and to the sacraments.
Confession is described as a holy man to whom Everyman should bow. He represents the sacrament of
confession, which allows for the absolution of sins.
Beauty represents earthly beauty. While she is a good companion to Everyman, she will abandon him
as he heads for the grave. Her choice represents the decline of aging.
Strength represents physical strength. Like Beauty, she will not go with Everyman to death, and her
absence represents frailty as death approaches.
Discretion represents Everyman's ability to make wise decisions. Discretion departs after Strength,
saying it is always so. His absence represents a lack of agency in one's twilight years.
Five-Wits represent Everyman's ability to perceive and understand. The five wits are traditionally
defined as common sense (or "wit"), imagination, fantasy, estimation, and memory. The term is related
to the phrase "to have one's wits about them". Though Everyman loves him best of his new
companions, Five-Wits also leaves, representing the difference between spiritual knowledge and
worldly intelligence as well as the onset of dementia.
Pilgrimage
Throughout the play, Everyman's impending death is referred to as a "pilgrimage." This term characterizes
Everyman's death as a holy journey he undertakes rather than something that happens to him. The
responsibility for the quality of Everyman's death and subsequent judgment is placed on Everyman himself.
It also casts the event not in terms of tragedy or injustice but in terms of a holy penance or quest to become
more virtuous before God. In the play Death is not an end but a journey to another world. Though
Everyman cannot return, he has emphatically not ceased to be. He has merely gone to be with God. The
conceit (literary figure) also reminds the audience of the journey of life on which we are all embarked,
encouraging us to consider our own journeys as pilgrimages.
