The morality play Everyman deals with the vanity and uselessness of pride, wealth and popularity in light of eternity. Everyman, the main character, is fixing his mind upon material things such as lust and treasure, when he is surprised by Death, who informs Everyman that he must die today. Everyman, being too caught up with worldly indulgences, had never contemplated Death in the slightest. He panics and offers Death money to delay the appointment, but Death responds that he is no respecter of persons or wealth and thus cannot give Everyman any more time.
The character Everyman literally represents “every man.” He is selfish, seeking his own desires, while things concerning God are far from his mind. He is not concerned about his spiritual state, but his material state. When Everyman is presented with the fact that he will die, he finds that all his materialistic belongings and prideful vanities are useless to him. All the fun and success he had in life has now amounted to nothing and left him nowhere but truly unprepared in the face of mortality.Death leaves and tells Everyman that he will return shortly with no notice. Everyman looks for someone to help him prepare, but all his friends, Fellowship, Wealth, Strength and Beauty have abandoned him. Everyman is left alone, save for only one friend that remains.
The play deviates from being Scripturally accurate here and introduces Good Deeds, who states to Everyman, “Fear not, I will speak for thee,” as if any of man’s good works somehow merit redemption. Romans 3:23 says that “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God,” and Isaiah 64:6 says that man’s good deeds are like “filthy rags” …hence we really have no means of attaining any shred of justification by ourselves. Only perfection can enter Heaven, and the only way we are made perfect is through Christ’s sacrifice: the taking of our sins upon Himself and suffering death for us. The only action that is required of us for salvation is repentance and faith. True good works are a result of salvation, not a factor in attaining it.
Returning to the story, Good Deeds decides to go with Everyman, but is weighed down by all of Everyman’s sins that she is not well enough to defend him by herself, so she introduces Everyman to Knowledge.
Knowledge, obviously, is not shallow information about the material world, but divine revelation about the human condition and its only remedy. This includes conscience, the knowledge of sin; the Scriptures, the answer for fallen man; and the Holy Spirit convicting Everyman’s heart. This knowledge leads Everyman to repent and cry out for Christ to intercede on his behalf before the Father. He dies after having committed his spirit to Christ and is received into Heaven on the basis of his repentance, faith, and (the still Scripturally inaccurate justification by) good works.
The epilogue advises men to “forsake pride, for it is deceiving.” It provides false security for a life that can be extinguished as swiftly as a candle. Everything Everyman thought truly profited him ended up being trivial and powerless when Death came to extinguish his life. If he had died without having forsaken his selfishness and vanity, he would have “had no help at all” during the inquiry of a just God.
