Everyman Religion Analysis

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To begin, Everyman deals with the structure of the medieval Christian religious ritual. Everyman takes a psychomachic journey from the living world to meet with God on his day of reckoning. Medieval Christians had a standard set of performances that they engaged in before their own day of reckoning. The medieval Christians needed to “show” their compliance with the main Christian rituals. God commands the Messenger to Everyman which portrays God as the powerful being and the Messenger as the supporting character in the performance of ritualized confession. Julie Paulson, in her 2007, “Death's Arrival and Everyman's Separation” essay states:
Everyman’s focus on the communal practices established by penitential ritual reflects the degree to …show more content…
As part of the hegemonic confessional ritual, Knowledge suggests to Everyman to make his sins known to all, including God. Everyman responds to Knowledge: “In the name of the Holy Trinity, My body sore punished shall be: Take this, body, for the sin of the flesh!” (Everyman 611-13). Everyman performs a self-injurious ritual where the audience and other characters on stage are witness to his petition for forgiveness for the way that he has lived. Medieval Christians believed that one of the suggested ways to serve penance for one’s sins was to endure flagellation between one and forty times. The sinner satisfied the completion of the contrition by partaking in the act of flagellation. Tierney states, “The offender was to be beaten in the presence of judges…” (1). The traditional church, the source of the dramaturge’s material, relied on the public performance of this ritual to hold the sinner accountable for their actions. Knowledge along with Good Deeds held Everyman accountable for completing his …show more content…
(614, 616-18).
Along with convincing God, Everyman was also attempting to convey to the audience through the use of performative structure, which this could one day be them on their day of reckoning if they were not careful and watch the way in which they live. Everyman’s actions of beating himself followed the more modern version of flagellation that first appeared to change in the late eleventh century. The playwright likely would have known the works of Peter Damian, quoted in Tierney stated:
The later wrote (St. Peter Damian) wrote a special treatise in praise of self-flagellation; through blamed by some contemporaries for excess of zeal, his example and the high esteem in which he was held did much to popularize the voluntary use of the scourge or “discipline” as a means of mortification and penance
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