The Everybody we know today is a contemporary adaptation of the 15th century morality play, Everyman. Going a little further back, Everyman is most likely an adaptation of a Dutch play called Den Speyghel der Salicheyt van Elkerlijc. These two plays follow essentially the same storyline: God laments what humanity has become, sends Death to collect Everyman for a report of how Everyman has lived his life and why, Everyman is frightened and attempts to find worldly attachments such as his close friends, family, possessions, even his body and aspects of himself, but in the end must confront the fact that only his good deeds will matter after he leaves this world.
​
This narrative closely follows a parable from the Buddhist canon, A Man and His Four Wives. In this parable, a man is about to die. He asks three of his wives, who represent the body, relationships, and material possessions, to accompany him to death. They all deny him. When he asks the fourth wife, who represents one's Karma, to accompany him. She says that they can never be separated.
The Ur-Texts of Everybody
bronze statue of the Buddha
the Zen circle, symbol of Zen Buddhism
Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs
So what was going on centuries ago when these stories entered the world?
​
Siddhartha Gautama is thought to have lived in the 6th - 4th century BCE. He is considered to be the original Buddha, the founder of the religion we now refer to as Buddhism. There are several meanings to the word ‘buddha’ and followers of Buddhism believe that there have been several Buddhas since Siddhartha Gautama, and there will be Buddhas in the future. The fable of the Four Wives is thought to be a fable that was spoken to Siddhartha Gautama’s disciples and was eventually written into the Buddhist canon.
Several other world religions came into being around this time as well; Hinduism around 15th-5th century BCE, Zoroastrianism around 10th-5th century BCE, Judaism around 9th-5th century BCE, Confucianism in 6th-5th century BCE, and Taoism in 6th-4th century BCE. So why did all these religions begin forming at the same time? I would propose an explanation by applying Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs to world history.
Maslow’s pyramid suggests the order in which human ‘needs’ are prioritized, claiming that after the first level, a tier of the pyramid cannot be met unless the one below that tier is met first. The pyramid is arranged with physiological needs at the base, followed by safety, love and belonging, esteem, and self-actualization. Later in his life, Maslow proposed that ‘transcendance’ be added at the top of the pyramid. I would suggest that in the chain of events in world history, after farming, written language, and establishments of civilizations, humans were looking for transcendence. Something to do beyond just trying to stay alive.
The Four Wives fable was most likely canonized to provide structure and aid in prioritization of one’s time on Earth. The fable defines the four wives as one’s body, material possessions, relationships, and karma respectively. It says that at the end of our lives we will be forced to leave behind our body, possessions, and the people we care for behind. However, we cannot be separated from our own karma.
The perspective of death as a natural occurrence seems to have been the broad view, at least in Europe where Elkerlijc and Everyman were written, up until the 12th century. From what we can tell, people as a whole approached death in a routine and familiar way. This attitude follows the phrase et moriemur (and we shall die). An 'inner conviction' was felt, and one could sense that their time was simply up. At this point, the rituals would begin; visitations from family including children, finals prayers, and anointing of the room and body by a priest. All this was done unemotionally as routine.
​
Cemeteries were seen as places where people could seek asylum during this time period. There were houses built around them, they could be public meting places, and in 1231 the church had to pass a law stating that dancing was not allowed in cemeteries. This is how comfortable people were coexisting with the dead!
​
This comfort came in part from a commonly held belief that if you belonged to the church, you were saved for eternity. There was no question of what would happen to someone after they died. However, around the 12th century the church began giving more emphasis to the idea of souls being judged by God upon the moment of death. This raised the stakes, as people were now concerned with how their ratio of good to bad deeds might not be good enough to get them into heaven.
​
Thus came a shift in people's attitudes towards death. There was a renewed importance placed on one's unique life and reflecting upon choices, la mort de soi, (one's own death). It was said that "In the mirror of his own death each man would discover the secret of his individuality."
Out of this line of thinking came the Vanitas art of the 17th century depicting symbols of death such as skulls existing among symbols of life going normally. Also, macabre artwork of decomposing bodies, a warning of what is to come of those who are ridden with 'inner toxins', that their fate is to suffer as those toxins (sins) manifest to break down the body. It is therefore unsurprising that both Elkerlijc and Everyman were written during this time.
​
It is on this trajectory that the topic of death has become taboo. In the 18th century another shift in ideology brought about 'romanticized death', death as a paroxysm, the idea that death is cruel and comes to rip loved ones from our lives too soon.
​
Then, beginning around the 20th century with new innovations in technology, people found comfort in the idea that death could be delayed for as long as possible. It has become natural to shield the ugliness of death whenever possible. People began dying in hospitals rather than at home.
​
Source: 'Western Attitudes Toward Death: From the Middle Ages to the Present' by Phillipe Ariès, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1975.
"Dance of Death" woodcut by Michael Wolgemut
"The Last Judgement" by Hieronymus Bosch
‘Vanitas-Still Life’ by Maria van Oosterwijck
'By The Deathbed' by Edvard Munch