The bare statement that “death comes to every man”—inwhich the word “man” is human-generic—may be made tolook more dramatic when both of the nouns arepersonified or individualized by being given acapital letter: Death comes to Everyman. The basicstatement is a truism. Death is an inevitable aspectof the human condition, the single thing of which weare quite certain when we are born. It is not acomfortable fact, and the postulation of anacceptable afterlife is the longest-lasting strategyfor coping with the fact of death. Furthermore,attempts have been made in religion, myth, andliterature to pretend that it is not alwaysinevitably the case—Enoch taken up into heaven inthe whole body, the Assumption of the Virgin, KingArthur transported to Avalon. Perhaps morefrequently, on the other hand, memorable fables havealso been constructed precisely to underscore and toremind us of that factual inevitability—Orpheus mayhave an apparent chance of bringing Eurydice backfrom the dead, but we know that he will break theinjunction and will fail to do so. The two worldwars of the twentieth century brought death,inevitable in any case, closer to the humanconsciousness than at any time (with the possibleexception of the great plagues in the Middle Ages orthe seventeenth century), especially the SecondWorld War in Europe, where for years sudden deathwas a possibility for soldiers and civilians alikeat any time, by weapons, bombs, or ideological orracial mass murder. Genocide and the murder of wholegroups of people are hardly restricted to thetwentieth century, but modern technology has made itmore extreme, even if some cases are less well knownthan others. Since the Second World War, too,humanity has been faced not only with large-scalekilling on many continents but also with thepotential of the complete and instant extinction ofall humanity with nuclear weaponry; of course,climate change, pandemic disease, or even—though itis perhaps less likely—an asteroid strike alsoremain possibilities for the eradication ofmankind.

The conceit of an individual and skeletal Death comingto Everyman was used at the end of the Middle Agesas the subject of a morality play, first in Dutchand later in English, printed in the first part ofthe sixteenth century.