Everyman Soliloquy

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In the morality play, Everyman, the leading character is forced to reconcile with the issues surrounding his morality to attain salvation for his sinful soul. While the entire play deserves recognition, this paper will examine the Doctor’s closing soliloquy of the play and the issues that are addressed within it. The Doctor’s abrupt inclusion at the end of the play is visually unexpected to contemporary audiences because of the spiritual message the Doctor presents when he preaches to the audience. While the Doctor’s speech serves to reiterate the core issues of an individual’s morality and mortality, it also coincides with some of the beliefs that I have about the afterlife. Within the play, every character — with the exception of Everyman, himself — personifies a particular characteristic or trait found within ourselves and the physical world around us. The…show more content…
Interestingly, the only other character to warn audiences about the“buy[ing] or sell[ing]” (757) of papal indulgences to cleanse one’s soul of sin is the character, Knowledge. She, like the Doctor, know that “whan Jesu hanged on the crosse with grete smarte…[he] gave out his blessyd herte the seven sacraments” (751-53) for the sole purpose of cleansing humanity of the stain upon their souls. Consequently, I believe the Doctor and Knowledge interplay on the aforementioned idea that a doctor is a learned person. Therefore, this makes him inherently knowledgable to advise the audience to “forsake [p]ride, for he [will] devieveth [them] in the ende" (904) and to instead, “save [their] [g]ood [d]edes” (907). Ultimately, the Doctor’s dialogue is an interesting aspect of the play because it conflicts with the contemporary images associated with his introduction at the end of

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