Everyman was a great moral tale, and had a wonderful underlying theme. But the story itself was very repetitive and boring. I didn’t want to upset anyone in class by saying this, but I’m not a very religious person at all. I may be one of the least religious people in the class, so the story was hard for me to read because of the way it was being told. I was bothered by Everyman having to appease god for doing all his wrongs before he could move on, and how he was no followed by his friends because of the fact he betrayed god. Don’t get me wrong, it was a great story and I do believe you must take responsibility for your “sins” so that you can pass on happily, but the fact that it was based on God and Jesus made it hard for me to read.
I do love allegorical stories, and the allegory used to tell this story was one of the best I’ve read, but again, I didn’t agree with the basis of the story. Also, I didn’t agree necessarily with the order that everyone left Everyman. To me, it would probably be Fellowship, Cousins, Kindred, Goods, Five-wits, Strength, Beauty, Knowledge and Discretion. Of course, because I am not religious I’m sure that this changes the way I look at myself and the world, as well as death.
One thing I do not understand about the story was the point of the Doctor at the end. I understand that he was there to sort of give a summary of the stories events, but I believe that the Angel could have just as well given us a summary. Everyman could have also given us a summary of his feelings and realizations.
The other thing that bothered me about this was the language. I’ve read Dante’s Inferno, Paradise Lost, and almost all of Shakespeare’s plays, but this play really gave me trouble. I had to read all of the foot notes at least twice and then read the lines very slowly so that I could comprehend what was happened. But I still ended up pretty confused as to what was going one near the end. The language in The York Crucifixion was much more complicated but I liked that story better. It was light hearted and the tone helped me to follow what was going on.
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ReplyDeleteI personally have a different thought about what you said, that, "Everyman was not followed by his friends because of the fact that he betryaed God". I think the reason why they didnt follow him to death was because at the end (on the judgement day, as Everyman was beign judged), all these relationships or ones materialistic accomplisments wont hold any meaning and that is why no matter how much everyman would have forced them neither would have come because at the judgement your to answer for yourself as everyman did.
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