Talk:Everyman

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Citations needed desperately
Like a lot of articles on literary and dramatic conventions, this one is sort of reasonable. But it bears all the hallmarks of some editor thinking the matter through on his own. All the claims about difference between the medieval and the modern need scholarly justification, for starters.

I've also brutally pruned the list of examples. Again, there are no citations that someone or another considered any of them to be this sort of character; but it also seemed to me that a number of them definitely are not. I could just as well have struck them all, but it seems to me that Heywood Floyd is just bland (because he's in an Arthur C. Clarke novel, after all), rather than representing some sort of human universality. Mangoe (talk) 16:26, 31 October 2008 (UTC)


 * The list of examples is getting big once again. I'm going to delete all the unsourced examples; if anyone wants to restore an example, ensure that it is properly sourced. Hasta luego (talk) 22:31, 30 August 2010 (UTC)


 * Go for it, as far as I'm concerned. Mangoe (talk) 00:28, 31 August 2010 (UTC)

The Simpsons
The article mentions Homer Simpson of The Simpsons as an example. An interesting fact is that in a recent episode, Homer the Whopper, Homer literally becomes "Everyman" in the film adaptation of the comic book superhero Everyman created by Comic Book Guy. This could be added to the article, but I've chosen to mentioned it on this discussion page for now. --82.171.70.54 (talk) 11:03, 4 November 2009 (UTC)

James T. Kirk
Could James Kirk be considered another example of the "Everyman" in contemporary fiction? He embodies all of the qualities that the article lists as defining the Everyman, plus the story of him reaching middle age in The Wrath of Khan contains themes about mortality, masculinity, and reconciling with a past romantic partner that could cause that movie to be considered an Everyman story. Although most of the films/TV series listed as examples are comedies, I still believe this character is worth adding to the list. He is arguably more familiar to the general public than any of the other characters listed, with the possible exception of Jim from The Office.--Antodav2007 (talk) 20:27, 7 December 2009 (UTC)


 * Not unless someone comes up with a citation! Seriously, he's an obvious heroic character so there's little chance that anyone is going to tag him as an "everyman". Mangoe (talk) 20:29, 7 December 2009 (UTC)

Example used
In this article example used do not match with explanation given for 'Everyman'. Everyman is like a perfect man, so example will be like James bond etc. But example includes 'Ted Mosby', 'Lester Burnham' although whole series and film revolve around them, but they aren't shown as 'Everyman'. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.78.217.151 (talk) 15:32, 6 July 2010 (UTC)

Examples Used & Definition
I can not find a source to site, however, I am an English Major at Iowa State University in Iowa. In our classes "everyman" is established as not an ideal character but as intending to be representative of all people. The name was originally used to establish that the character can or could be anyone. As such, Neither Homer Simpson nor James T. Kirk are good examples

Also relevant is the term Aptronym. Which is the term for a character name that describes the nature, occupation, personality, or traits of said character. A good example is the character "Everyman" from the Morality play. (I have an exact definition of this ina literary dictionary somewhere but I can't find it at the moment). -Aramil —Preceding unsigned comment added by Aramilalpha (talk • contribs) 05:09, 6 October 2010 (UTC)

Yet another example purge
I've cited all the classics and removed everything else without a citation. Mangoe (talk) 17:09, 16 July 2012 (UTC)

German: "Jedermann" is "everyman"
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jedermann referring to the character of a novel by Hugo of Hoffmansthal http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_von_Hofmannsthal 91.60.187.227 (talk) 23:21, 14 October 2013 (UTC)

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some examples may not be very accurate?

 * Is Jean Valjean, from Les Miserables, really an everyman?
 * Zé Povinho, in Portuguese, is somewhat derogative. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 191.181.133.68 (talk) 23:19, 1 June 2019 (UTC)
 * I removed Jean Valjean on 2019-10-20 -- definitely not an example of this, as he's almost depicted as a super-hero with an exceptional physical strength and agility, especially for his age (that's how Javert recognizes him), and a superior moral standing. (From Les Misérables, Marius would be a much better exemple.) Don't know about the other comment. --Abolibibelot (talk) 00:23, 28 August 2020 (UTC)


 * Similarly, how is President Ford an everyman? I don't know about his background, but I would think being VPOTUS then POTUS would disqualify someone from being an everyman. Also, the inclusion of real-life figures in examples of a narrative trope seems odd to me, unless the real-life figure has been portrayed in some work of historical fiction as such. --Jabrhartman (talk) 19:38, 30 August 2021 (UTC)

Weird wording
This introduction to the "Prime examples" section, added on 2020-05-12, seems weirdly worded : « Discussing New York City's Greenwich Village townhouse explosion via the radical group Weather Underground's bombing in 1970, Camille Paglia writes, "Standing in the chaotic street, actor Dustin Hoffman, who lived next door, seems like Everyman at the apocalypse." Yet the exemplars that Hoffman, here, resembles are fictional characters: » --Abolibibelot (talk) 00:23, 28 August 2020 (UTC)

Weird Wording 2
There is definitely some weird wording here, such as in the first 3 sentences. I think somebody does not really know the definition of "benign." I cannot figure out what is trying to be said here, can somebody help me on this? Opkiller82 (talk) 02:55, 23 January 2021 (UTC)


 * Same here—really confused as to what is trying to be said. Made some minor changes to the second paragraph but I still think the entire introduction section makes little sense. Dilastau (talk) 11:24, 24 March 2021 (UTC)

John and Jane Doe
Do these deserve 'everyman' status ? 120.18.130.249 (talk) 04:28, 23 March 2022 (UTC)