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EVERYMAN
Might have been a translation of a Dutch play, or derived from an original work in English called Mankind. Written in the late 1400s. Didactic intention shows how to live and how to die; sin is followed by punishment. Documents a journal from a sinful life to salvation: o Temptation/vices warning fall recognition that you must pay consequences reckoning of account to Death or God.
Lessons: o Everything in the world is subject to change. o Beauty, power and innocence are lost. o I am sick, I must die cyclical, transitorial. Allegorical morality play. Personified human characteristics, such as Good Deeds and Knowledge. Intended to take place anywhere on Earth. Shows a Roman Catholic point of view; the idea of redemption. o Receives the last rites. o Everyman earns his place in Heaven through good deeds and church sacraments.
SUMMARY
God feels like he is being taken advantage of, and so sends his Messenger, Death, to Everyman for the final reckoning. Death approaches Everyman and tells him that it is time to face judgement at first, Everyman tries to bribe Death, offering him money for more time, but Death has no use for the money. Finally, Everyman asks that one person accompany him to the final reckoning, and Death agrees, so long as the person is willing to go. From here, Everyman meets three people: 1. Fellowship he is representative of friends, and has chased women and drank and enjoyed life with Everyman. At first, he says that he will join him, but once he realizes what journey Everyman refers to, Fellowship declares that he would not follow him there, but will follow him to chase the women and drink and enjoy love. 2. Kindred Everyman reasons that blood is thicker than water, and asks Kin to accompany him. Kindred exclaims that he would stand for Everyman, and asks him where he is going and once Everyman tells him about the journey, Kindred changes his mind and tells him that he will have to make the journey on his own. 3. Cousin Present when Everyman told Kindred, he claims that he has cramp in his toe and offers to send him his maid for one last night of merriment, but he will not accompany him. Before he does, he would have to make sure that his own account is worthy of reckoning. Everyman realizes that nobody will follow after him and goes to check on Goods, representative of the riches he has collected over the years, and asks him for advice he asks Goods to accompany him, but Goods resists, saying that he follows no man. Everyman laments the days he had with his riches; Goods points out that had he spent some of him on the poor, rather than kept him locked in boxes and bags, he would have had more to show for himself. Goods will not follow him. He calls upon Good Deeds, though he has done few in his lifetime, and finds that he is weak and brittle and cannot walk. Good Deeds points out that he cannot accompany him on his own, but sends him to his sister, Knowledge, who will help him. Knowledge says that she will accompany Everyman and they both go to see Confession, a holy man in the church. Everyman kneels down and prays that his sins will be forgiven and that his Good Deeds will be made stronger and will be capable of moving. Confession gives him a precious jewel called Penance. Everyman punishes himself, shouting out his list of sins and begging for forgiveness, and Good Deeds rises from the ground and says that he is fit enough to go with him, then. Everyman calls together Five Wits, Discretion, Strength and Beauty to accompany him, Knowledge and Good Deeds. He goes to the priest to receive his last Sacraments, and then to his own grave. When he asks Strength, Five Wits, Discretion and Beauty to follow him into the grave, they decline. Good Deeds vouches to speak for Everyman, and he falls into his grave alone. An angel appears and takes Everyman to Heaven. A Doctor, representing scholars, delivers the final speech in the play where he summarises the moral of the story: pride, beauty, discretion, strength and five wits will forsake you only good deeds will follow you through the final reckoning, but if there are too few done, they will not accompany you.
QUOTES
Drowned in sin, they know me not for their God. God. If thou had loved me moderately, then shouldest thou would not in this dolor be. Goods.
THEMES
Prepare for life after death by doing good deeds. o Man, in the beginning/ Look well, and take good heed to the ending. Death. o Everyman takes good heed before it is too late, repents and goes to Heaven. Deceptive appearance of sin. o Ye think sin in the beginning full sweet/ Which in the end causeth thy soul to weep/ When the body lieth in clay. Material versus spiritual gain riches are nothing if the cost is your soul, and Everyman cannot take his riches with him. Gods mercy is snubbed due to the humans interest in gaining material things. o I perceive here in my majesty/ How all the creatures be to me unkind/ Living without dread in worldly prosperity/ Of ghostly sight the people be so blind./ Drowned in sin, they know me not for their God;/ In wordly riches is all their mind. Final judgement is something that no human can escape.
CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE
An atheist. o Robert Greene, an English prose writer of the same period, stated that Marlowe confided to him that there was no God. Held the principles of Machiavellis Il Principe as truth. o Il Principe had a reputation as being the devils own writing and anyone who agreed/embraced Machiavellis principles was considered to be unorthodox and strange. Richard Baines, an English spy, reported that Marlow thought: o Religion was to keep men in awe. o Moses was a juggler, if there is any good in religion. Homosexual, with a fiery temper he was habitually involved in brawls and locked up for fighting. Shared a room with Thomas Kyd, who shared his opinions. Thomas Kyd was later tortured for information about Christopher Marlowe, which led to a warrant being issued for his arrest. On the th very same day 18 May, 1593 Marlowe was stabbed in the eye and died in a pub. His reputation as a libertine, atheist and pleasure seeker lived on.
DOCTOR FAUSTUS
Exists in two versions 1604 and 1616. The 1616 version has over 600 additional lines. The prologue and epilogue establish Doctor Faustus as a fable about the danger of knowledge. o Link between knowledge and sin is compared to the biblical Fall, where the Fruit of Knowledge (the Apple) was eaten by Adam and Eve. Religion, throughout history, has stressed the dangers of knowledge in the face of scientific discoveries. o Galileo was placed underneath house arrest for his claim that the world moved around the sun, not the other way around. God is absent in the play and does not punish Faustus sin the demons want Faustus soul more. Doctor Faustus is the dark side of the Renaissance. o Pursues a goal which is not inherently bad, but becomes that way due to his obsessive nature. o Complex and cannot totally be disliked at the end of the play, he is entirely broken.
Opens with a warning about what is about to happen the Chorus runs through Faustus life, saying that he was born to a poor family in Rhodes, Germany, and moved away to Wertenberg later, where he was brought up by family. Comparison to Icarus his waxen wings did mount above his reach,
The scene then changes to Faustus sitting in his office, discontented with his life. He has done nothing to lift him above humanity cured no illness, found no way to heal the sick and his pride is suffering. He is a clever man, outsmarting everyone he comes across, and wants to become God, though he knows that he will face a reckoning one day and that the reward of sin is death (death of the soul and physical body) but he still decides to try black magic to become God and rise above common humanity.