Everyman and the Bible Exploring Good Deeds, Faith, and...

God has become angry with his people. He complains in the fifteenth century English play Everyman about humans and their obsession with material items, riches, and wealth. Men and women, he feels, have taken for granted their blessings. God wants to reprimand Everyman for his sinful life and sends Death to summon him. At the beginning of the allegorical work where figures and actions symbolize general truths, a messenger shares God’s concerns. The messenger tells the audience to watch and listen closely to the morality play so they can learn a lesson about life. Everyman fears Death, and he desires to know what one must do to earn salvation and enter heaven. The writer then implies that the way to achieve salvation is by doing good works.†¦show more content†¦Doing good deeds are an important part of the Christian life, but they do not grant an entrance into God’s kingdom. Everyman, as a morality play, does still have some Biblical truth and teaches a valuable lesson about life. Thomas J. Jambeck describes Everyman as a Bernadine humanism work, a work in which a man acts as â€Å"an active agent in the work of his own redemption† (109). William Munson echoes this idea, writing that Bernadine humanism gives emphasis to a persons motive, which is the reason why a person acts the way he does (252). Both authors agree that if knowledge is what a person uses to influence his or her actions, then good works in Everyman become the play’s central theme. Knowing what to do and doing it are necessary to accomplish good works (Munson 257-58). Everyman shows the importance of Knowledge and Good Deeds acting together when he plurally addresses them when he says, now friends, let us not part in twain (Line 651). Good works become the result of the two working together. Since man has fallen after Adam and Eves original sin, Murdow William McRae argues that a true Christian must cooperate with grace; that is, he must live well in the life of grace in order to achieve heaven (723). This statement implies that good works save people from hell and allow them to dwell eternally with God. When Everyman learns of his pending death and judgment, he makes an effort to change his lifestyle. Since he does not have a