Emotions. Both the plays invoke different kinds of emotions in a viewer with respect to their themes and underlying meanings. Both plays are about redemption and the value of good deeds in order to achieve it. In Shepherd’s Play, the shepherds’ spiritual side is veiled under their material burdens, but the general tone of complaint is something anyone can relate. It invokes feelings of self-pity, as Coll so deftly puts it in the beginning of the play
We are so hammed,
Fortaxed, and rammed,
We are made hand-tamed
With these gentlery-men. (Shepherds' Play 23-26)
While Mak’s story is seemingly unrelated, we tend to appreciate the shepherd’s actions when they let him stay the night with him and when they want to do something nice for the baby the next morning, etc. The spirit of redemption is invoked when the good-spirits of the shepherds return and they decide to go visit the baby Jesus after they decide not to report Mak to the police.
Identity. In Everyman, the names of the characters each invoke a special feeling in Everyman and soon a viewer begins to sympathise with the reasons why Everyman thinks that a specific character like Goods or Fellowship will help him with his ultimate judgment. Everyman’s slow loss of faith in man is heart breaking, “fair promises men to me make, / but when I have most need they me forsake” (Everyman 370-371). While some like Cousin are forthright and almost rude about not going with Everyman, others are apologetic and even humorous at times, like when Beauty refuses to be buried.
The character I most identified, of course, is Everyman. Even in times of dire hopelessness, there always seems to be something material that could redeem a person or comfort them. But it is only after we reach for them and fail to be comforted, do we realise the frailty of the world we are in and the importance of Good Deeds in showing who we are, when all else fails. The situation where Death comes to Everyman ordering him to leave on the long journey to heaven, to make his reckoning, makes one wonder whether death would really knock on our door before it is time to go. The situation is particularly identifiable with, because every time we reflect on life, we think of death and whether or not we will be ready for it when it comes. And the fact that Death allows Everyman some time to find himself a companion who can vouch for him brings about the soothing notion that it is never too late to get on the right tracks of life.
