Everyman Group

Question:

hello123
hello123
Student
Community / Jr. College

How does Everyman illustrate in symbolic and hierarchic terms, the visible world as a mere reflection of invisible truths?

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Posted by hello123 on Friday October 12, 2007 at 6:42 PM and tagged with everyman.

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  1. blacksheepunite Teacher
    High School - 12th Grade

    eNotes Editor

    This question is too big to answer in this forum, but I can give you some hints for approaching it.

    The fundamental truths this morality play reveals are that nothing that we accrue in life (apart from good deeds) can help us when we die. Everyman uses concrete events and people (archetypes) to represent ideas; each of the characters corresponds to a different aspect of the overall point--that man will have nothing more than his good deeds to speak for him at his final judgement.

    Each of the characters everyman are archetypes that represent some aspect of everyman's misplaced faith. These characters function as symbols. Fellowship, for instance, represents worldly friendships. This friend will party with him, but will not accompany him when he dies. He represents the ultimate insignificance of our worldly connections, and their inability to help us with spiritual matters.

    I'd suggest you check out enotes' study notes for more in-depth analysis: http://www.enotes.com/everyman/characters

     

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    Posted by blacksheepunite on Saturday October 13, 2007 at 1:56 PM