to an eternal land of either reward or punishment. The treatment of death, as well as the author's perception of it, is merely that of a turning point, the specific point wherein a person may no longer go back or atone for one's misdeeds. To the author, virtue in life for the sake of one's afterlife was no doubt important.

In Everyman, Death is a messenger sent by God to hold Everyman to account.  This is not an uncommon portrayal of death when he is personified in literature.  Death comes to call on Everyman, and--as most of us would be wont to do--Everyman asks for more time because he is not ready (his account book is not in order).  In that day, of course, the belief of the Church was that one must do acts of service as well as pay tithes faithfully to the Church in order to make it to Heaven.  Death in this story is gracious and allows Everyman a limited time to get his account book in order and find friends who will make this journey with him.  Death is a messenger doing his appointed task as determined by God; he is not, as he is portrayed in other literary works, one who sneaks up on his victims of his own volition and attempts to play some kind of cosmic "gotcha" game with unsuspecting (and woefully unprepared) humans. 

The overall concept in Everyman is judicial. God is presented as a judge (and a somewhat cranky one at the beginning) who is summoning Everyman to a court hearing. Death is like his sheriff who delivers the summons.

This concept adds a bit of humor to the play, as it brings Death and Judgment into a common setting, with allegorical manifestations of one's attributes (Fellowship, Good Deeds, Knowledge, etc.) into a story about what one can take with one on one's journey to Death and eternity.

As in much medieval literature, Death is neither terrifying in itself nor insignificant. We see in many works (Dante's Commedia, several of Chaucer's tales, other cycle plays) that Death is very much a part of the aesthetic in the era's art.

Written relatively shortly after the War of the Roses and and the perpetual fear of plague recurrences, Everyman seems informed by the perception that Death is common and familiar to every person. While the play does not employ the macabre humor we see in some contemporary texts (see study from the University of Rochester linked below), the play is lighter than one might expect, though instructive of the memento mori (remember death) aesthetic we see throughout the era.

To personify Death in order for the viewer (this is, after all, a play to be performed before a naive audience) to fear Death is wrong-headed, in my opinion.  Morality plays served the social function of making abstract ideas real for an audience not comfortable with abstractions.  The desertion of Everyman by his friends, relatives, etc. was made physically real for the audience -- Death was real enough already.  It is the separation from earthly connections by death that is being dramatized here, not the figure itself.  Readers in modern times often dismiss the physical presence of actors in these early pieces, because they come to us as "literature."  But if you think of them as "recipes" for performance, you get closer to their function as moral message.  No-one, with the exception of the amateur actors, read these pieces as literature.  

First, I think that this question should be moved to the Discussion Board for Everyman. You will most likely get many different and relevant answers to your question.

The author of Everyman has a very specific understanding of death. The importance of the text is that it is as relevant today as it was when it was written. The fact that the author realizes, and supports, that only good deeds will help one get into heaven is of the utmost importance (for those with the same ideologies).

Today, some people ignore the fact that good deeds outweigh all other things. Therefore, the author gives a very important lesson in morality about death. One could justify that the author sees death as something that needs to be respected and honored. Death, for the author, is something which has very specific rules one must adhere to. In the "search" for death, one must come to find out specific truths about them self and those whom they surround themselves with. As for the treatment of death, it should be treated with both respect and fear.

The first step in completing this assignment is to understand clearly the treatment and role of Death in Everyman. Notice that, like the rest of the characters in the play, Death is personified. The play is an allegory in which abstract ideas are made into characters that exhibit the traits of those ideas.

Death is, above all, portrayed as an instrument of God. God calls on Death to fulfill His will as His own “mighty messenger,” and Death responds promptly to God and carries out His command. Death is merely a servant of God. He is not a force in his own right. This is important, for while Death comes to everyone, prepared or not, he only does so according to God's will.

The characters who are most afraid of Death in Everyman are those who are not prepared for Death to carry them to God (for that is what Death does). They have lived their lives with the wrong priorities and have sinned and fallen away from God. Death reminds them of this, and that's why he frightens them. Everyman, for instance, is mostly focused on Goods. He wants worldly wealth and comfort, but this is not the final purpose of a human being. Deep down, Everyman knows this. He realizes that he is not ready for Death to carry him to God.

The play also explores how a person can and must prepare to meet Death. Knowledge and Good-Deeds help Everyman get ready, prompting him to repent and confess his sins and carry out acts of love. Knowledge accompanies Everyman all the way to his meeting with Death, and Good-Deeds goes along with him as he meets God. Those who truly prepare themselves to come face to face with God, then, have no reason to fear Death. He is only the messenger that carries them to God.

An essay about Death in Everyman might develop each of this points, filling them out by further discussion and quotations from the play. The essay might also compare the view of Death in Everyman with the presentation of Death in the Bible. The two are actually quite compatible, for the Bible also focuses on Death as an instrument of God, especially after Death has been conquered and subdued by Christ. For Christians, Death is no longer an enemy but a door or a messenger to carry them to God.