Everyman

Short description: Stock character; an ordinary individual

Actor Gary Cooper served as an idealized everyman during the "golden age of Hollywood", appearing as the protagonist in movies such as 1952's High Noon.[1][2]

The everyman is a stock character of fiction. An ordinary and humble character,[3][4] the everyman is generally a protagonist whose benign conduct fosters the audience's identification with them.

## Contents

* 1 Origin and history
* 2 Narrative uses
* 3 List of examples
* 4 See also
* 5 References

## Origin and history

The Parable of the Good Samaritan features an everyman type character who suffers but receives compassion at the hands of the Samaritan.[5]

The term everyman was used as early as an England morality play from the early 1500s: The Summoning of Everyman.[4] The play's protagonist is an allegorical character representing an ordinary human who knows he is soon to die; according to literature scholar Harry Keyishian he is portrayed as "prosperous, gregarious, [and] attractive".[6] Everyman is the only human character of the play; the others are embodied ideas such as Fellowship, who "symbolizes the transience and limitations of human friendship".[6]

The use of the term everyman to refer generically to a portrayal of an ordinary or typical person dates to the early 20th century.[7] The term everywoman[8] originates in the same period, having been used by George Bernard Shaw to describe the character Ann Whitefield of his play Man and Superman.[9]

## Narrative uses

An everyman is described with the intent that most audience members can readily identify with him. Although the everyman may face the same difficulties that a hero might, archetypal heroes react rapidly and vigorously by manifest action, whereas an everyman typically avoids engagement or reacts ambivalently, until the situation, growing dire, demands effective reaction to avert disaster. Such a "round", dynamic character—that is, a character showing complexity and development—is generally a protagonist.[10]

Or if lacking complexity and development—thus a "flat", static character—then the everyman is a secondary character.[citation needed] Especially in literature, there is often a narrator, as the written medium enables extensive explication of, for example, previous events, internal details, and mental content. An everyman narrator may be noticed little, whether by other characters or sometimes even by the reader. A narrating everyman, like Ché in the musical Evita,[11][12] may even address the audience directly.[citation needed]

## List of examples

* The anonymous "Common Man" of Robert Bolt's play A Man for All Seasons (1960).[citation needed]
* Leopold Bloom of James Joyce's novel Ulysses (serialized 1918–1920, published in its entirety in 1922)[13]
* The anonymous narrator of Chuck Palahniuk's novel Fight Club (1996) and its movie adaptation (1999)[14]
* C.C. "Bud" Baxter of Billy Wilder's movie The Apartment (1960).[15]
* Emmet Brickowski of The Lego Movie[16]
* Charlie Brown of Charles Schulz's comic strip Peanuts.[17]
* Ché in Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical Evita[11][12]
* Christian of John Bunyan's book The Pilgrim's Progress (1678).[18]
* John Candy's various roles, most notably Del Griffith from Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, Chet Ripley from The Great Outdoors, and Buck Russell from Uncle Buck
* Norman Dale of Hoosiers
* Arthur Dent of Douglas Adams' novel The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy novels[19]
* James Gordon in DC Comics.[20]
* Jim Halpert inThe Office[21]
* Jonathan Harker of Bram Stoker's novel Dracula (1897).[22]
* George Jetson of The Jetsons[23]
* Will Kane of Fred Zinnemann's movie High Noon (1952).[1][2]
* Jacob Kowalski of J. K. Rowling's Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them books and movies.[24]
* Stan Marsh of South Park[25]
* Joe Martin of the television series All My Children.[citation needed]
* Marty McFly of Back to the Future[26]
* Ted Mosby of the television series How I Met Your Mother.[27][28]
* Jack Ryan in Tom Clancy's book and film series known as the Ryanverse[19]
* Homer Simpson from The Simpsons
* Winston Smith in George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949)[29]
* Kevin Arnold in The Wonder Years
* Egbert Souse in Edward F. Cline's film The Bank Dick (1940)[30][31]

## See also

* Average Joe – wholly average person
* Commoner – person neither nobility, royalty, nor priesthood
* Elckerlijc – Dutch medieval morality play
* Everyman's right – freedom to roam
* Joe Bloggs – British generic average man
* John Doe – generic everyman used in English-speaking countries
* John Q. Public – generic, hypothetical "common man"
* Kafkaesque – everyman being overwhelmed by vast, dehumanizing social labyrinth
* Man on the Bondi tram – hypothetical reasonable Australian
* Person having ordinary skill in the art
* Reasonable person – term helping a jury interpret a law's wording
* Straight man
* T.C. Mits – acronym for "the celebrated man in the street"
* The man on the Clapham omnibus – hypothetical reasonable person
* Zé Povinho – Portuguese everyman

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 King, Susan (April 29, 2001). "Back When Decency Was Glamorous". Los Angeles Times. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2001-apr-29-ca-57032-story.html.
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Murrin, John M.; Johnson, Paul E.; McPherson, James M.; Fahs, Alice; Gerstle, Gary (2011). Liberty, Equality, Power: A History of the American People, Volume 2: Since 1863. Cengage Learning. pp. 764. ISBN 9781133171867. https://books.google.com/books?id=OX4IAAAAQBAJ.
3. ↑ "WordNet Search - 3.0". Princeton University. http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=everyman.
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 "Everyman - Definition". Everyman - Definition. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/everyman. Retrieved April 11, 2020.
5. ↑ Pickett, Howard (August 2012). "Theatrical Samaritans: Performing Others in Luke 10:25-37". The Journal of Scriptural Reasoning 11 (1). http://jsr.shanti.virginia.edu/back-issues/volume-11-no-1-august-2012/theatrical-samaritans-performing-others-in-luke-1025-37/. Retrieved April 14, 2020.
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Harry Keyishian, "Review of Douglas Morse, dir.,The Summoning of Everyman (Grandfather Films, 2007)", Shakespeare Bulletin (Johns Hopkins U P), 2008 Fall;26(3):45–48.
7. ↑ ""Everyman, n."". "Everyman, n.". http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/65346. Retrieved October 26, 2021.
8. ↑ collinsdictionary.com: everywoman, backup
9. ↑ ""Everywoman, n."". "Everywoman, n.". http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/249673. Retrieved October 26, 2021.
10. ↑ "Common Character Archetypes". University of Texas at Austin. https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/uteach/_files/pdf/teaching-from-the-archives/Archetypes in Drama, Notes.pdf.
11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Miller, Scott. "Inside Evita by Scott Miller". http://www.newlinetheatre.com/evitachapter.html.
12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Gans, Andrew (February 10, 2012). "In upcoming revival of Evita, Che will be the "everyman", not Che Guevara". Playbill. https://www.playbill.com/article/in-upcoming-revival-of-evita-che-will-be-the-everyman-not-che-guevara-com-187373.
13. ↑ Gharraie, Jonathan (June 27, 2011). "Around Bloom in a Day". Paris Review. http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2011/06/27/around-bloom-in-a-day/.
14. ↑ Smith, Gavin (September–October 1999). "Inside Out: Gavin Smith Goes One-on-One with David Fincher". Film Comment 35 (5): 64.
15. ↑ Bowman, James. "The Apartment". Ethics & Public Policy Center. https://eppc.org/publications/the-apartment/.
16. ↑ Crawford, Julie (February 8, 2019). "The Lego Movie 2 returns with a purpose". North Shore News. https://www.nsnews.com/entertainment/film/the-lego-movie-2-returns-with-a-purpose-1.23627808.
17. ↑ Beach, Lisa A. (October 2016). "Good Grief! Lessons From Charlie Brown". Washington Parent. https://www.washingtonparent.com/articles/1610/1610-good-grief-lessons-from-charlie-brown.php.
18. ↑ Johnson, Barbara A. (1992). Reading Piers Plowman and The Pilgrim's Progress: Reception and the Protestant Reader. SIU Press. pp. 20. ISBN 9780809316533. https://archive.org/details/readingpiersplow0000john.
19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 Jones, Brian; Hamilton, Geoff (2010). Encyclopedia of American Popular Fiction. Infobase Publishing. pp. 62–63, 153. ISBN 9781438116945. https://books.google.com/books?id=JEvyadBdwYQC.
20. ↑ DiBello, John (October 24, 2011). "Bizarro Back Issues: Commissor Gordon vs. the Space Alien (1978)". https://comicsalliance.com/bizarro-back-issues-gordon-space-murder/.
21. ↑ "The Office: Co-Workers You'd Love to Have - Jim Halpert (John Krasinski)". http://tv.msn.com/tv/series-photos/the-office.5/?photo=d31efda6-baeb-4da0-8104-351586828871&gallery=25053.
22. ↑ Rickels, Laurence A. (1999). The Vampire Lectures. University of Minnesota Press. pp. 28. ISBN 9781452903934. https://books.google.com/books?id=_Svi-z0mg-8C.
23. ↑ Alfar, Paolo (January 24, 2020). "10 Most Memorable Hanna-Barbera Characters". https://screenrant.com/most-memorable-hanna-barbera-characters/.
24. ↑ Byrnes, Paul (November 16, 2016). "Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them review: Fun but long-winded". Sydney Morning Herald. https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/movies/fantastic-beasts-and-where-to-find-them-review-fun-but-longwinded-20161115-gsptra.html.
25. ↑ Scott, Hugh (June 7, 2019). "The 25 Best South Park Characters Ever, Ranked". https://www.cinemablend.com/television/2474481/the-25-best-south-park-characters-ever-ranked.
26. ↑ "Back to the Future Day: Where Were They Now (The Cast Then and Today)". Glide. October 21, 2015. https://glidemagazine.com/150571/back-future-day-now-cast-today/.
27. ↑ Chris, Ball (September 26, 2009). "New on DVD: 'Shrink,' 'Management,' 'The Patty Duke Show' and more". Cleveland Plain Dealer. http://www.cleveland.com/movies/index.ssf/2009/09/new_on_dvd_shrink_management_t.html.
28. ↑ Adkins, Leslie (May 13, 2009). "AS SEEN ON: My new addiction: 'How I Met Your Mother'". The Dartmouth. http://thedartmouth.com/2009/05/13/arts/seen.
29. ↑ Rodden, John (2007). The Cambridge Companion to George Orwell. Cambridge University Press. p. 9. ISBN 9780521675079. https://books.google.com/books?id=x8-fnamQuUkC.
30. ↑ "W.C. Fields Biography". http://www.thebiographychannel.co.uk/biographies/w-c-fields.html.
31. ↑ Neibaur, James L. (February 28, 2007). "Film Reviews: The W.C. Fields Comedy Collection Vol. 2 (2007)". Rogue Cinema. http://www.roguecinema.com/article952.html.

* v
* t
* e

Stock characters

By ethics and morality

| Heroes|

| Classic hero|

* Action hero
* Christ figure
* Everyman
* Folk hero
* Knight-errant
* Legacy hero
* Mythological king
* Superhero
* Youngest son

|

Antihero|

* Byronic hero
* Man alone
* Tragic hero

Other|

* Supersoldier

Rogues|

| Lovable rogue|

* Gentleman detective
* Jack
* Trickster

|

Tricky slave|

* Harlequin
* Zanni

Outlaw|

* Bad boy
* Gentleman thief
* Pirate
* Air pirate
* Space pirate

Other|

* Good cop/bad cop
* Rake

Villains|

| Antivillains|

* False hero

|

The mole|

* Double agent
* Evil twin

Social Darwinist|

* Dark Lord
* Mad scientist
* Supervillain

Monsters|

* Bug-eyed monster
* Evil clown
* Killer toy
* Skeleton
* Swamp monster
* Vampires
* Zombies

Other|

* Alazon
* Archenemy
* Igor
* Masked Mystery Villain
* Miser

By sex and gender

| Feminine|

| Love interest|

* Bishōjo
* Farmer's daughter
* Girl next door
* Hooker with a heart of gold
* Ingénue
* Loosu ponnu
* Magical girlfriend
* Catgirl
* Manic Pixie Dream Girl

|

Hag|

* Cat lady
* Crone
* Fairy godmother
* La Ruffiana
* Loathly lady

Hawksian woman|

* Dragon Lady
* Femme fatale
* Tsundere

Woman warrior|

* Jungle girl
* Magical girl

Queen bee|

* Princesse lointaine
* Southern belle
* Valley girl
* Yamato nadeshiko

LGBT|

* Class S
* Laotong

Lady-in-waiting|

* Columbina
* Mammy archetype

Geek girl|

* Girl gamer
* Meganekko

Damsel in distress|

* Final girl
* Princess and dragon

Masculine|

| Harlequin|

* Pierrot

|

Father figure|

* Wise old man
* Elderly martial arts master
* Magical Negro

Young|

* Ivan the Fool
* Jack
* Jock
* Nice guy
* Nice Jewish boy
* Superfluous man
* Himbo

Prince Charming|

* Bishōnen
* Knight-errant
* Megane

Primitive|

* Feral child
* Noble savage
* Caveman
* Moleman
* Mountain man

LGBT|

* Seme and uke

Bad boy|

* Pachuco
* Black knight

Others

* Adolescent cliques
* Clown
* Dragonslayer
* Donor
* Fool
* Imaginary friend
* Little green men
* Lovers
* Pop icon
* Straight man
* Tokenism
* Town drunk
* White savior

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