Everyman
Medieval allegorical drama
Everyman is a fifteenth-century English morality play in which the title character, representing all humanity, is summoned by Death and discovers that worldly companions—Fellowship, Goods, Beauty—abandon him, while only Good Deeds accompanies him to judgment.
The play's name has become shorthand for allegorical works featuring representative human figures. (Lowercase everyman means an ordinary person.)
Drama teaching ethical lessons
- pilgrimageReligious journey to shrine
- salvationDeliverance from harm
- redemptionRecovery or moral restoration
- deathCessation of life
judgement · fellowship · confession · penance · sin · virtue · vice · heaven
Affecting all equally
- representativeOne who acts for another
- anonymousOf unknown origin
- facelessLacking identity or features
- genericNot brand-name
quintessential · emblematic · symbolic · prototypical · epitome · exemplar · paradigm · pilgrim
morality play
Drama teaching ethical lessons
- pilgrimageReligious journey to shrine
- salvationDeliverance from harm
- redemptionRecovery or moral restoration
death · judgement · fellowship · confession · penance · sin · virtue · vice · heaven · hell
universal
Affecting all equally
- representativeOne who acts for another
- anonymousOf unknown origin
- facelessLacking identity or features
generic · quintessential · emblematic · symbolic · prototypical · epitome · exemplar · paradigm · pilgrim
- PlaysHamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, Othello, King Lear
- moral talesfable, parable, moral stories, allegory, moral fables
- movie theaterscineplex, AMC, screens, auditoriums, lobby
- personificationsMother Nature, Father Time, Grim Reaper, Lady Luck, Lady Justice
- common namescommon names, John, Jane, Joe, Bob
- allegoriesallegory, fable, parable, Animal Farm, Pilgrim's Progress
Everymansuperman
Extraordinary achiever
genius · prodigy · übermensch · one in a million · virtuoso
Everymanone-of-a-kind
Having no equivalent
sui generis · individualist · maverick · eccentric · original