Everybody

After Everybody learns that what they believed was important is empty in the face of death, and that they must undergo the journey into death alone, they encounter Love, who agrees to go with them after breaking down their resistance. In the scene that follows, “Skeletons dance macabre in a landscape of pure light and sound” (46). After the dance, Death returns to start Everybody’s final journey. La Danse Macabre is a strange interlude that marks a turning point in the text.

La Danse Macabre, French for “The Dance of Death,” is an allegorical trope from the high Middle Ages that became a popular subject for artists and dramatists. In mid-14th century, death became a constant presence across Europe as the Black Plague killed nearly a third of the population, and England and France fought the Hundred Years’ War (1337-1453). The Black Plague in particular left devout Catholics desperately to win God’s forgiveness by massacring thousands of Jewish people and through ritualized acts of self-flagellation. Their confusion led to the popularity of morality plays.

In many iterations of La Danse Macabre, the dead (often skeletons) dance with the living and usher them into death. The living are typically from different socio-economic classes—a reminder that death is universal and inevitable. The figures of death often laugh at the living, especially those who are of high status. In the play, Everybody comes to understand that death is a great equalizer. Everything Everybody accumulated and achieved in life is gone, as are the advantages of their body’s health. They aren’t special, and just like the subjects in medieval depictions of La Danse Macabre, they learn that there is no dignity in death.