In medieval times, plays were the focal point of entertainment. Plays were to medieval times as television is to modern society. If a person wanted to get a point across to a gamut of people, expressing it in a play was the best way to do it. Peter van Diest did just that in “Everyman”. “Everyman”, a medieval drama by Peter van Diest, approaches the audience in a lighthearted manner but with further evaluation, confronts the audience with deeply rooted themes of Christianity pertaining to death.
In the beginning of the story God is upset with the people on Earth because they are living secularly and solely focusing on the materials of the World. Thomas van Laan states that the protagonist, Everyman, “is not only a willing victim of the Sins but he does not even go beyond them in his search for help” (Laan 470). This shows that Everyman is happily going about his life sinning and furthermore …show more content…
This caused people around him to completely change how they acted towards him. Julie Palson gave an accurate statement when she said “Everyman repeatedly demonstrates that our knowledge of social and moral concepts comes out of the familiar interactions of everyday life. Yet those interactions are tested by the appearance of Death, whose presence radically changes how Everyman and the other characters interact and how they understand their relationships to one another” (1). Palson is saying that people’s everyday interactions with other people around them may appear great; however, when dire circumstances present themselves one might see their relationships deteriorate. From this, as the story went on, Everyman slowly began to understand who was going to stick out the journey with him until the end. Once again the author presents his perception of death by showing that when death is imminent, people that are living of the world begin to distance themselves; furthermore, possessions are irrelevant in the eternal
In the beginning of the story God is upset with the people on Earth because they are living secularly and solely focusing on the materials of the World. Thomas van Laan states that the protagonist, Everyman, “is not only a willing victim of the Sins but he does not even go beyond them in his search for help” (Laan 470). This shows that Everyman is happily going about his life sinning and furthermore …show more content…
This caused people around him to completely change how they acted towards him. Julie Palson gave an accurate statement when she said “Everyman repeatedly demonstrates that our knowledge of social and moral concepts comes out of the familiar interactions of everyday life. Yet those interactions are tested by the appearance of Death, whose presence radically changes how Everyman and the other characters interact and how they understand their relationships to one another” (1). Palson is saying that people’s everyday interactions with other people around them may appear great; however, when dire circumstances present themselves one might see their relationships deteriorate. From this, as the story went on, Everyman slowly began to understand who was going to stick out the journey with him until the end. Once again the author presents his perception of death by showing that when death is imminent, people that are living of the world begin to distance themselves; furthermore, possessions are irrelevant in the eternal