By: Claire Noring
I’ve chosen the play Everyman as a prime example of the treatment of allegory in the Middle Ages. Everyman, whose author is unknown, is a morality play. Morality plays all employed allegory to describe the moral struggles inherent in every person. In this case, the play is about a man called Everyman who must prepare himself for his death. This text is a wonderful example of allegory because the meaning of the piece is deeply tied to its figurative meaning. Just as I’ve mentioned before, its figurative meaning is more important than the literal meaning of the piece. The text required Medieval readers to recognize the symbolism of the embedded moral metaphor.
A good example of the figurative meaning superseding the plot occurs when Everyman asks Good Deeds, who lies “cold in the ground,” to help make the journey to death:
“EVERYMAN Therefore I come to you my moan to make: I pray you, that ye will go with me.
GOOD DEEDS I would full fain, but I cannot stand, verily.
EVERYMAN Why, is there anything on you fallen?
GOOD DEEDS Yea, sir, I may thank you for all;
If ye had perfectly cheered me,
Your book of account full ready now had been” (496-502)
A basic level of analysis reveals a slightly ridiculous situation that has no foothold in reality. A man talks to a woman lying on the ground and she tells him that she can’t get up because he hasn’t made her happy enough. However, this passage takes on a whole new level of importance and meaning when viewed allegorically.
One needs to have done good deeds to help themselves when they are judged, but because they have not done any in their lifetime, good deeds cannot save them. The moral lesson urges the reader to collect good deeds while they are still living so that they don’t have to fear going to hell when they die. This lesson refuses to be constrained to one character in a play, instead becoming immediately applicable to the whole of the audience.
The names of the characters are essential to this attribute. In this text, Everyman and Good Deeds stand for exactly what their names mean. Other names such as Knowledge, Strength, Confession, and Beauty function in the exact same way. Names function to make the characters universal, make explicit the real-world application of the allegory, and are constant reminders of the ultimate moral lesson of the play.
This is the power of allegory when it’s used to its full potential. Allegory captures all of humanity in one fell swoop, offering a breathtaking example of relatability.