Everyman

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File:G. Conti La parabola del Buon Samaritano Messina Chiesa della Medaglia Miracolosa Casa di Ospitalità Collereale.jpg features an everyman type character who suffers but receives compassion at the hands of the Samaritan.{{cite journal|url=http://jsr.shanti.virginia.edu/back-issues/volume-11-no-1-august-2012/theatrical-samaritans-performing-others-in-luke-1025-37/|access-date=April 14, 2020|title=Theatrical Samaritans: Performing Others in Luke 10:25-37|first=Howard|last=Pickett|journal=The Journal of Scriptural Reasoning|volume=11|number=1|date=August 2012}}]]

The term everyman was used as early as an English morality play from the early 16th century: The Summoning of Everyman. 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".Harry Keyishian, [http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/shb.0.0022 "Review of Douglas Morse, dir.,The Summoning of Everyman (Grandfather Films, 2007)"], Shakespeare Bulletin (Johns Hopkins U P), 2008 Fall;26(3):45–48. 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".

The use of the term everyman to refer generically to a portrayal of an ordinary or typical person dates to the early 20th century.{{cite encyclopedia|dictionary=Oxford English Dictionary|url=http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/65346|title="Everyman, n."|access-date=October 26, 2021}} The term everywoman[https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/everywoman collinsdictionary.com: everywoman], [https://web.archive.org/web/20210428215241/https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/everywoman backup] originates in the same period, having been used by George Bernard Shaw to describe the character Ann Whitefield of his play Man and Superman.{{cite encyclopedia|dictionary=Oxford English Dictionary|url=http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/249673|title="Everywoman, n."|access-date=October 26, 2021}}

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.{{Cite web|title=Common Character Archetypes|url=https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/uteach/_files/pdf/teaching-from-the-archives/Archetypes%20in%20Drama,%20Notes.pdf|website=University of Texas at Austin College of Liberal Arts|publisher=University of Texas at Austin|access-date=2021-10-24|archive-date=2022-01-28|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220128025612/https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/uteach/_files/pdf/teaching-from-the-archives/Archetypes%20in%20Drama,%20Notes.pdf|url-status=dead}}

Or if lacking complexity and development—thus a "flat", static character—then the everyman is a secondary character.{{citation needed|date=April 2020}} 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,{{cite web|title=Inside Evita by Scott Miller|url=http://www.newlinetheatre.com/evitachapter.html|last=Miller|first=Scott|website=NewLineTheatre.com|access-date=April 15, 2020}}{{cite news|last=Gans|first=Andrew|date=February 10, 2012|title=In upcoming revival of Evita, Che will be the "everyman", not Che Guevara|periodical=Playbill|url=https://www.playbill.com/article/in-upcoming-revival-of-evita-che-will-be-the-everyman-not-che-guevara-com-187373|access-date=April 15, 2020}} may even address the audience directly.{{citation needed|date=April 2020}}

{{original research|section|date=November 2024}}

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• The anonymous "Common Man" of Robert Bolt's play A Man for All Seasons (1960).{{citation needed|date=April 2020}}
• Leopold Bloom of James Joyce's novel Ulysses (serialized 1918–1920, published in its entirety in 1922){{cite news|magazine=Paris Review|title=Around Bloom in a Day|first=Jonathan|last=Gharraie|url=http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2011/06/27/around-bloom-in-a-day/|date=June 27, 2011|access-date=April 15, 2020}}
• The anonymous narrator of Chuck Palahniuk's novel Fight Club (1996) and its movie adaptation (1999){{cite journal|last=Smith|first=Gavin|title=Inside Out: Gavin Smith Goes One-on-One with David Fincher|journal=Film Comment|date=September–October 1999|volume=35|issue=5|pages=64}}
• C.C. "Bud" Baxter of Billy Wilder's movie The Apartment (1960).{{cite web|url=https://eppc.org/publications/the-apartment/|title=The Apartment|first=James|last=Bowman|access-date=April 15, 2020|publisher=Ethics & Public Policy Center}}
• Emmet Brickowski of The Lego Movie{{cite news|url=https://www.nsnews.com/entertainment/film/the-lego-movie-2-returns-with-a-purpose-1.23627808|title=The Lego Movie 2 returns with a purpose|periodical=North Shore News|first=Julie|last=Crawford|date=February 8, 2019|access-date=April 15, 2020}}
• Charlie Brown of Charles Schulz's comic strip Peanuts.{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonparent.com/articles/1610/1610-good-grief-lessons-from-charlie-brown.php|title=Good Grief! Lessons From Charlie Brown|first=Lisa A.|last=Beach|date=October 2016|access-date=April 15, 2020|periodical=Washington Parent|archive-date=August 7, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200807093444/https://www.washingtonparent.com/articles/1610/1610-good-grief-lessons-from-charlie-brown.php|url-status=dead}}
• Ché in Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical Evita
• Christian of John Bunyan's book The Pilgrim's Progress (1678).{{cite book|title=Reading Piers Plowman and The Pilgrim's Progress: Reception and the Protestant Reader|isbn=9780809316533|url=https://archive.org/details/readingpiersplow0000john|url-access=registration|pages=[https://archive.org/details/readingpiersplow0000john/page/n33 20]|first=Barbara A.|last=Johnson|publisher=SIU Press|date=1992}}
• J.D. of Scrubs
• Norman Dale of Hoosiers
• Arthur Dent of Douglas Adams' novel The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.{{cite book|title=Encyclopedia of American Popular Fiction|first1=Brian|last1=Jones|first2=Geoff|last2=Hamilton|pages=62–63, 153|year=2010|publisher=Infobase Publishing|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JEvyadBdwYQC|isbn=9781438116945}}
• James Gordon in DC Comics.{{cite web|url=https://comicsalliance.com/bizarro-back-issues-gordon-space-murder/|first=John|last=DiBello|title=Bizarro Back Issues: Commissor Gordon vs. the Space Alien (1978)|date=October 24, 2011|website=ComicsAlliance|access-date=April 15, 2020}}
• Jim Halpert in The Office{{cite web|website=MSN TV|access-date=April 15, 2020|title=The Office: Co-Workers You'd Love to Have - Jim Halpert (John Krasinski)|url=http://tv.msn.com/tv/series-photos/the-office.5/?photo=d31efda6-baeb-4da0-8104-351586828871&gallery=25053|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121019144925/http://tv.msn.com/tv/series-photos/the-office.5/?gallery=25053&photo=d31efda6-baeb-4da0-8104-351586828871|archive-date=October 19, 2012|url-status=dead}}
• Jonathan Harker of Bram Stoker's novel Dracula (1897).{{cite book|title=The Vampire Lectures|first=Laurence A.|last=Rickels|year=1999 |pages=28|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_Svi-z0mg-8C|isbn=9781452903934|publisher=University of Minnesota Press}}
• George Jetson of The Jetsons{{cite web|url=https://screenrant.com/most-memorable-hanna-barbera-characters/|access-date=April 21, 2020|website=Screen Rant|title=10 Most Memorable Hanna-Barbera Characters|date=January 24, 2020|first=Paolo|last=Alfar}}
• Will Kane of Fred Zinnemann's movie High Noon (1952).
• Jacob Kowalski of J. K. Rowling's Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them movies.{{cite news|access-date=April 15, 2020|title=Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them review: Fun but long-winded|periodical=Sydney Morning Herald|first=Paul|last=Byrnes|date=November 16, 2016|url=https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/movies/fantastic-beasts-and-where-to-find-them-review-fun-but-longwinded-20161115-gsptra.html}}
• Stan Marsh of South Park{{cite web|url=https://www.cinemablend.com/television/2474481/the-25-best-south-park-characters-ever-ranked|website=CinemaBlend|title=The 25 Best South Park Characters Ever, Ranked|access-date=April 16, 2020|first=Hugh|last=Scott|date=June 7, 2019}}
• Joe Martin of the television series All My Children.{{citation needed|date=April 2020}}
• Marty McFly of Back to the Future{{cite news|url=https://glidemagazine.com/150571/back-future-day-now-cast-today/|access-date=April 15, 2020|date=October 21, 2015|periodical=Glide|title=Back to the Future Day: Where Were They Now (The Cast Then and Today)}}
• Ted Mosby of the television series How I Met Your Mother.{{cite news|first=Ball|last=Chris|url=http://www.cleveland.com/movies/index.ssf/2009/09/new_on_dvd_shrink_management_t.html|title=New on DVD: 'Shrink,' 'Management,' 'The Patty Duke Show' and more|date=September 26, 2009|access-date=April 15, 2020|periodical=Cleveland Plain Dealer}}{{cite news|first=Leslie|last=Adkins|url=http://thedartmouth.com/2009/05/13/arts/seen|periodical=The Dartmouth|title=AS SEEN ON: My new addiction: 'How I Met Your Mother'|date=May 13, 2009|access-date=April 15, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110917092145/http://thedartmouth.com/2009/05/13/arts/seen|archive-date=September 17, 2011|url-status=dead}}
• Jack Ryan in Tom Clancy's book and film series known as the Ryanverse
• Homer Simpson from The Simpsons
• Truman Burbank from The Truman Show
• John H. Watson from Sherlock Holmes
• Willy Loman from Death of a Salesman
• Josef K. from The Trial
• Prince Hamlet from Hamlet
• Winston Smith in George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949){{cite book|publisher=Cambridge University Press|title=The Cambridge Companion to George Orwell|first=John|last=Rodden|page=9|year=2007|isbn=9780521675079|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=x8-fnamQuUkC}}
• Kevin Arnold in The Wonder Years
• Stanley in The Stanley Parable
• Jeff Winger from Community
• Egbert Souse in Edward F. Cline's film The Bank Dick (1940){{cite web|title=W.C. Fields Biography|url=http://www.thebiographychannel.co.uk/biographies/w-c-fields.html|website=TheBiographyChannel.com|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130406054319/http://www.thebiographychannel.co.uk/biographies/w-c-fields.html|archive-date=April 6, 2013|url-status=dead|access-date=April 15, 2020}}{{cite news|journal=Rogue Cinema|title=Film Reviews: The W.C. Fields Comedy Collection Vol. 2 (2007)|first=James L.|last=Neibaur|date=February 28, 2007|url=http://www.roguecinema.com/article952.html|access-date=April 15, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081119075416/http://www.roguecinema.com/article952.html|archive-date=November 19, 2008|url-status=dead}}

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{{wiktionary|everyman}}

• 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

{{Reflist}}

{{Stock characters}}

Category:Stock characters