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Smith Monique Everyman PDF
Smith Monique Everyman PDF
Smith Monique Everyman PDF
Thesis:
MoniqueSmith
ENGL102
DEATH
AGENT OF GOD
Death
May7,2014
Death
May7,2014
The plague swept through villages and towns faster than bodies could be
buried.
Man, woman and child rich, poor and priesthood royal and
peasant randomly strewn with mangled limbs intertwined. Death: the great
equalizer. The Black Death, lethal union of Bubonic and Pneumonic Plague,
riddled 7 out of every 10 bodies with excruciating hideous eruptions that
threatened to decompose the very flesh of the still-breathing. Those that survived
were haunted with images of grotesque corpses and the smell of decay that
permeated the air.
Pieter Bruegel the Elder's famous painting portrays death as a legion of skeletons, attacking society
with widespread epidemic catastrophe. From peasant to jester to executioner to king, no one is spared.
The Plague had come to the battlefield as well.
entrenched in turmoil. Food was still scarce, despite the passing of The Great
Famine. Not too soon, either, for a starving soldier rarely sees victory. Little did
they know, the conflict with France would earn the historic title, Hundred Year
War. (Fossier, 1986)
Death
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Death had
Death
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Although mankind is the only living creature fully aware of its mortality, this
does not presuppose that an inherent, and equivocal, level of comprehension
exists as well. For the people of the Late Middle Ages, awareness of mortality
without context, meaning a full understanding of physical death and spiritual
outcome, led to fear. One most readily would admit that fear of the unknown
can paralyze, making even the simplest daily routine impossible. However, the
fear of the known, meaning the fear of a specific entity, whether person or
event, allows the associated emotions to be compartmentalized. Tucked away
safely behind a virtual door, the panic and angst remains at bay until triggered
by said enemy. In the meantime, everyday lives, rich with simple routine, are
carried out. No longer ever-present and debilitating, the fear of the unknown
is now the known, however intangible the enemy may be. Likewise, the people
of the medieval realm faced an unknown force with unexplained power.
Rather than fear Death, in its elusive and abstract form, Death was personified
into an enemy with an imagined likeness; one worthy of the dread it represented.
On the blank canvas of the unexplained, the population displayed their
very imaginings illustrating the intensity of emotion that mere words seemed
helpless to convey. The Portrait of Death, and its perverted power, took shape in
the morbid and macabre. Artistic artifacts from the time period depict Death as
both morbid and macabre: an insidious presence that finds delicious pleasure in
pursuit of prey. This battle, between the living and the creature was commonly
called The Dance of Death. (Holbein, 1971)
In the midst of decimated villages and overall devastation, the Church
desperately tried to be a source of comfort. Against the backdrop of the Great
Famine, the Hundred Years' War and Black Death, theological focus was shifted
from the judgment of collective humanity (at the end of time) to individual
judgment at the time of death. (Kastenbaum, 2002) A judgment that could be
lessened with a moral life and a good death.
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Death
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of
salvation
as
linear
keeping
to
the
teachings
of
the
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Plausibly
intended as visual, liturgical instruction, the now infamous morality play entitled
Everyman made its debut.
A clever
adaptation to 15th century thought, the Anonymous author used the theatrical
element of character to modify the errant character of personified Death. By
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Death
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Death responds:
It is important to note that Death promptly arrives at Gods request, which implies
that it is God Himself who summons Death at the time of His choosing. Additionally, Death
states, I am here at Your will to fulfill Your commandment. From a theological
standpoint, keen insight can be revealed into the relationship between God and Death.
Clearly, Death is accountable to God, as His superior, and purposed to carry out
whatever God orders.
The authoritative nature of the relationship, implied within the text, and the obvious
hierarchy, God over Death, alludes to the intrinsic roles within military command. The
commanding officer gives an order, which those under his or her command are
expected to follow without question.
commander asks of them will result in a contribution to a noble greater good. Their faith
is not so much in the order itself, nor the order that was given to their commander, but in
the character and convictions of their leader. They believe in the order because they
believe in him.
Similarly, Death intently listens to Gods directions, as a soldier listens to his C.O.:
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Go thou to Everyman,
And show him in my name
A pilgrimage he must on him take,
Which he in no wise may escape;
And that he bring with him a sure reckoning
Without delay or any tarrying.
God has given Death the authority to speak on His behalf which
Death
May7,2014
God laments over the sacred history that His creation has forgotten. Their very life,
He bought and paid for with His blood. With His suffering, He healed their pain. As if
throwing His hands in the air with despair, He proclaims that He has given everything for
them there is nothing more He can give. How can My death not be enough for them?
Herein lies Gods motivation: His true reason for action. If man is left to himself,
without Divine intervention, he will abandon all semblance of humanity and resort to feral
measures.
Death
May7,2014
DEATH:
Everyman:
DEATH:
As previously noted, God clarifies that all worldly goods and pleasures are lent to them
from His own coffers. Death, then addresses the issue with Everyman by re-educating
him that all he has was lent to him by God. Further affirmation of this truth is reiterated by
worldly Goods, himself:
Goods: What, weenest thou that I am thine?
Everyman:
(Lines 437-450)
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Finally, Death
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The above excerpt (Lines 72-77) serves as a culmination: the key unlocking the
nature of Death as Gods Agent. According to the play, God has expressed deep
disappointment in His creation, listing several specific complaints. However, Death had
not yet been summoned. The verbal interchange between Death and God is rather
short: just enough time to give Death his instructions. When comparing that brief interlude
with the lines from Deaths monologue above, the dissemination of information appears
to incongruent.
How then, can Death assume to know the heart of God? How does Death know
that God is specifically disturbed that Everyman is not concerned by his foolish conduct
(dreadeth not folly) or his love for money?
foreknowledge is not divulged within the text, one must deduce that Death is a
confidante of the Most High or God has revealed the nature of His character to Death.
Either way, it could be inferred that Death is a member of the Inner Circle, per say. The
relationship between Death and God is indubitably intimate; thusly, Death is the ideal
choice in Agency. Who better to act in His name than the one who knows His heart?
Romans 13:4
For he is the minister of God to you for good. But if you do that which is evil, be afraid; for he
bears not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath on him
that does evil. (American King James Version)
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References
Fossier, Robert. (1986). The Cambridge illustrated history of the Middle Ages.
Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press.
Holbein, Hans Ltzelburger Hans Corrozet Gilles Vauzelles Jean de. (1971). The Dance of
Death. New York: Dover Publications.
Kastenbaum, Robert. (2002). Black Death. In R. Kastenbaum (Ed.), Macmillan
Encyclopedia of Death and Dying (Vol. 1, pp. 62-66). New York: Macmillan
Reference USA.
Kellehear, Allan. (2007). A social history of dying. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge
University Press.
Master of the Chronique Scandaleuse. (1500). Denise Poncher before a Vision of Death
(pp. Tempera colors, ink, and gold on parchment). Los Angelos, CA: The J. Paul
Getty Trust Museum.
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Scott, Anne Kosso Cynthia Arizona Center for Medieval, & Renaissance, Studies. (2002).
Fear and its representations in the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Turnhout;
Cheltenham: Brepols ; European Schoolbooks] (distributor).
Spinrad, P. S. (1987). The Summons of Death on the Medieval and Renaissance English
Stage: Ohio State University Press.
The J. Paul Getty Trust. (2012). Images of Death in the Middle Ages. Heaven, Hell, and
Dying Well. Retrieved 30 April, 2014, from
https://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/death_middle_ages/
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