ISFD41

Sergio Castro

Culture IV

“Everyman”

1) Define Morality Play.

2) Write five conceptions that people believed in those times.

3) Explain hidden agendas present in the text.

4) Make reference to text style.

1) A morality play is an allegory that tries to teach and send a message. In Everyman, the message is that all human beings have to live spiritual lives, not just lives surrounded by frivolous ideas and sin. Everyman was written in the late fifteen century, at a time when Catholic Church was a political and religious power. In the play there are instances of Christian propaganda and propagation of faith. In general, morality plays attempted to educate through entertainment.

2) In the Middle Ages, people had strong ideas connected with church and religion. Those ideas were stronger than the ones people have nowadays as regarding faith. On the one hand, people thought of life as a pilgrimage, a path towards God. The important thing is how you performed in life and as a consequence, you go to heaven or hell. On the other hand, in those times, the idea of sin was always present. Faith and good deeds are necessary to go to heaven in Catholic Church doctrine. Also, death and doomsday in the middle ages ware an obsession and a concern in most aspects of life.

3) In Everyman, there are many hidden agendas. For example, Knowledge: In order to go to heaven, you have to support faith with knowledge. Also, Propaganda: The hidden purpose of the morality is to aim at the propagation of faith, in this case related to the propagation of Catholic Church doctrine and messages. The sacraments and priests: They were the most powerful on earth as far as religious authority was concerned but in the play there is a critical message towards corruptive priesthood. This might probably show that even though Everyman aims at educating people as good Christians, Protestant reformation ideas are present.

4) Everyman is, at first glance, a simple story with clear direct style. It resembles a sermon but at the same time it is also a didactic work aimed at teaching Christian doctrine.

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Comparison between Everyman and William Herebert´s “My Folk, What Have I Done Thee”

Both poems are literary representations of thought and ideas present in the middle ages as regarding religion.The play Everyman is a dramatized allegory that aims to transmit Christian beliefs in society through dramatic form. The anonymous author developed a simple plot to tell the story in which human traits and ideals are personified. As regarding “My Folk, What Have I Done Thee”, William Herebert (c.1270-1333), a franciscan friar and lecturer in theology at Oxford, wrote it based on religious connotations and historical sources. It contains thirteen stanzas of varying length and it is perhaps a proto-carol. The poem tries to transmit a negative feeling towards Jews and the resentful atmosphere present in Britain in those times as regarding Jews betrayal of Christ.

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