Suggestions

Use up and down arrows to review and enter to select.
  • Shakespeare dark gray
    • No Fear Shakespeare Translations
    • Shakespeare Study Guides
    • Shakespeare Life & Times
    • Glossary of Shakespeare Terms
  • Literature dark gray
    • No Fear Literature Translations
    • Literature Study Guides
    • Glossary of Literary Terms
    • How to Write Literary Analysis
  • Other Subjects dark gray
    • Biography
    • Biology
    • Chemistry
    • Computer Science
    • Drama
    • Economics
    • Film
    • Health
    • History
    • Math
    • Philosophy
    • Physics
    • Poetry
    • Psychology
    • Short Stories
    • Sociology
    • US Government and Politics
  • Test Prep PLUS dark gray
    • Test Prep Lessons
    • AP® English Literature
    • AP® English Language
  • Teacher dark gray
    • SparkTeach
    • Teacher's Handbook
  • Blog
My PLUS Dashboard
  • Account Details
  • Subscription & Billing

Please wait while we process your payment

Reset Password

  • Please wait while we process your payment

    Log in Create account

    Sparknotes

  • By signing up you agree to our terms and privacy policy.

    Don’t have an account? Subscribe now

    Step 1 of 4

    Create Your Account

    Sign up for your FREE 7-day trial. Get instant access to all the benefits of SparkNotes PLUS! Cancel within the first 7 days and you won't be charged. We'll even send you a reminder.

    • Ad-free experience
    • Study notes
    • Flashcards & Quizzes
    • AP® English Test Prep
    • Plus much more

  • Already have an account? Log in

    Step 1 of 4

    Create Your Account done

    Step 2 of 4

    Choose Your Plan

    BEST VALUE

    Save over 50% with a SparkNotes PLUS Annual Plan!

    Step 2 of 4

    Choose Your Plan done

    Step 3 of 4

    Add Your Payment Details

  • We're sorry, SparkNotes Plus isn't available in your country.

  • Step 3 of 4

    Add Your Payment Details done

    Step 4 of 4

    Payment Summary

    SparkNotes Plus

     Change

    US + tax

    You'll be billed only after your free trial ends.

    7-day Free Trial

    DUE NOW

    $0.00

    Total due on July 1, 2022

    This is not a valid promo code.

    Promo Code

    SparkNotes Plus subscription is $4.99/month or $24.99/year as selected above. The free trial period is the first 7 days of your subscription. TO CANCEL YOUR SUBSCRIPTION AND AVOID BEING CHARGED, YOU MUST CANCEL BEFORE THE END OF THE FREE TRIAL PERIOD. You may cancel your subscription on your Subscription and Billing page or contact Customer Support at custserv@bn.com. Your subscription will continue automatically once the free trial period is over. Free trial is available to new customers only.

    Step 2 of 4

    Choose Your Plan

    Step 3 of 4

    Add Your Payment Details

    Step 4 of 4

    Payment Summary

    Suggestions

    Use up and down arrows to review and enter to select.
    • My Account Icon My Account white
      • Account Details
      • Subscription & Billing
      My PLUS Dashboard
    • Shakespeare white
      • No Fear Shakespeare Translations
      • Shakespeare Study Guides
      • Shakespeare Life & Times
      • Glossary of Shakespeare Terms
    • Literature white
      • No Fear Literature Translations
      • Literature Study Guides
      • Glossary of Literary Terms
      • How to Write Literary Analysis
    • Other Subjects white
      • Biography
      • Biology
      • Chemistry
      • Computer Science
      • Drama
      • Economics
      • Film
      • Health
      • History
      • Math
      • Philosophy
      • Physics
      • Poetry
      • Psychology
      • Short Stories
      • Sociology
      • US Government and Politics
    • Test Prep PLUS white
      • Test Prep Lessons
      • AP® English Literature
      • AP® English Language
    • Teacher white
      • SparkTeach
      • Teacher's Handbook
    • Blog
    • Help

    Please wait while we process your payment

    expired-logo

    Your PLUS subscription has expired

    • We’d love to have you back! Renew your subscription to regain access to all of our exclusive, ad-free study tools.
    Renew your subscription

    Please wait while we process your payment

    expired-logo

    snpromo-logo
    • Looking for exclusive, AD-FREE study tools? Look no further!

    Everyman

    Philip Roth

    Study Guide
    • Study Guide
    • Summary
      • Summary & Analysis
      • Epigraph and Section 1
      • Sections 2-4
      • Sections 5-7
      • Sections 8-10
      • Sections 11-14
      • Sections 15-18
      • Sections 19-20
      • Sections 21-24
      • Sections 25-28
      • Sections 29-31
      • Conclusion: Section 32-33
      • Full Book
      • Full Book Summary
      • Key Facts
    • Characters
      • Character List
      • The everyman
      • Howie
      • Nancy
      • Phoebe
    • Literary Devices
      • Themes
      • Motifs
      • Symbols
    • Quotes
      • Important Quotes Explained
    • Quick Quizzes
      • Book
      • Full Book Quiz
      • Essays
        • Mini Essays
        • Suggested Essay Topics
      • Further Study
        • Suggestions for Further Reading
        • Philip Roth and Everyman Background

      Please wait while we process your payment

      snplus-logo

      Unlock your FREE SparkNotes PLUS trial!

      Unlock your FREE Trial!

      Sign up and get instant access to bookmarks.
      • Ad-Free experience
      • Easy-to-access study notes
      • Flashcards & Quizzes
      • AP® English test prep
      • Plus much more
      Already have an account? Log in
      Characters

      Character List

      Characters Character List
      • The everyman

        the unnamed protagonist of the novel. He is dead at the opening of the novel. He is married three times, and each marriage ends due to his affairs with other women. Only one of his three children, his daughter Nancy, has a good relationship with him. The everyman works as a successful art director at a well-regarded advertising firm in New York City, before retiring early out of ill health. He is deeply afraid of the oblivion that faces him after death. However, throughout multiple surgeries on his arteries, the everyman tries to maintain a stoic, accepting outlook on life, particularly to reassure those around him.

        Read an in-depth analysis of The everyman .

      • Howie

        the protagonist’s older brother. It is through Howie’s eulogy to the everyman that we first learn of the everyman’s childhood and the factors which shaped his outlook on life. Loving, kindly, and loyal, Howie, unlike his brother, remains married to one woman his whole life and stays on good terms with his four sons. Howie rises up the ranks at Goldman Sachs to become a very wealthy and successful man, and uses his money to look after the everyman in any way he can.

        Read an in-depth analysis of Howie .

      • Nancy

        The everyman’s only daughter by his second wife, Phoebe. The everyman views Nancy as a pure force of good, though at times her naïve belief in the goodness of others leads her into poor judgement. Her weak, order-loving husband left her in the chaos after the birth of their twins. She is one of the few female characters to remain beside the everyman even as his behavior leads him towards isolation.

        Read an in-depth analysis of Nancy .

      • Phoebe

        The everyman’s second wife, and the mother of Nancy. Candid, unaffected and with an elegant but straightforward, almost child-like beauty, Phoebe is the woman the everyman most regrets losing. Having suffered from severe migraines, Phoebe is able to deal in a calm and reassuring manner with the everyman’s own illnesses. After she suffers a debilitating stroke, the everyman regrets the loss of her eloquent manners of speech, even though she also used it to express her anguish and humiliation at his affairs.

        Read an in-depth analysis of Phoebe .

      • Maureen

        the everyman’s day nurse. Buxom, brash and kindly, Maureen carries on an affair with the everyman and lends the everyman her vitality and sexual strength to help him recover from a serious operation and the death of his father. She enjoys the stares of men and is unafraid of the judgements of Merete, the everyman’s wife at the time.

      • Merete

        the everyman’s third and final wife. Merete is beautiful, vain and utterly unable to provide the everyman with the support he needs during his illness. Merete is a young model when the everyman, still married to Phoebe, begins their affair. In their early days Merete’s daring self-possession and stunning good looks are a source of power to the everyman, but after they are married, the negative side of Merete’s character emerges, such as her financial debts, her morbid fear of sickness, and her weakness under pressure.

      • Randy

        the everyman’s oldest son by his first wife Cecilia. Like his brother Lonny, he harbors a deep and intractable hatred for the father who left him, Lonny and their mother. Both he and Lonny are unable to understand that they are not the only people in the world to experience hardship. They are both described as handsome men beginning to thicken with age.

      • Lonny

        the everyman’s second son by his first wife Cecilia. Like his brother Randy, he hates his father. The everyman believes that Lonny and Randy hate him to the point that they would relish his death, though we see this is not the case by both Lonny and Randy’s awkwardness at the funeral. Lonny is distinguishable from Randy only by his hesitation to drop a clod of earth on the everyman’s grave as they both stand beside it.

      • Cecilia

        the everyman’s first wife, and Randy and Lonny’s mother. Cecelia barely appears in the novel and is mostly described in relation to other two wives. She is prone to angry outbursts. The everyman leaves her for the more stable and accommodating Phoebe.

      • Olive Parrott

        the night nurse supplied by Howie after one of the everyman’s operations. Olive Parrott is a large black woman with the bearing of Eleanor Roosevelt. At night, Olive tells the everyman stories about her life as a child on the avocado farm in her lovely West Indian-accented voice.

      • Millicent Kramer

        one of the everyman’s painting students at the retirement community and recent widow of Gerald Kramer. She is above average in her artistic abilities and reminds the everyman of Phoebe in her appearance. Unlike Phoebe, Millicent is unable to face illness and mortality. Feeling lonely and humiliated by her physical and mental weakness, she kills herself. She serves mostly to spur the everyman into facing mortality and to thinking through (and ultimately rejecting) the idea of suicide.

      • Gerald Kramer

        Millicent Kramer’s recently deceased husband and another resident of the retirement community. An opinionated, outgoing former newspaper publisher and owner, Gerald lost his sense of identity when illness took away his independence.

      • Ezra Pollock

        the accounting executive of the everyman’s firm. The everyman uses Ezra as an alibi for his affairs. While terminally ill, Ezra talks cheerfully with the everyman about writing his memoirs. He dies of cancer at 70.

      • Matilda

        Nancy’s Antiguan nanny for her two children.

      • Brad Karr

        a creative supervisor and former colleague of the everyman. Brad is hospitalized for suicidal depression. It is unclear whether he can remember how long he has been in hospital or anything of the memories the everyman speaks about with him.

      • Clarence Spraco

        the everyman’s former boss. Clarence dies of a myocardial infarct after having been ill for many years. A clear-eyed and much-loved figure, he supported the everyman in his early career, recognizing his talent and promoting him above his peers.

      • Gwen Spraco

        Clarence Spraco’s widow. Although recently bereaved, she maintains a modestly upbeat conversation with the everyman when he calls her to send his sympathies after her husband dies.

      • The gravedigger

        a strong, diligent, hardworking man of about fifty. The everyman meets the gravedigger at the cemetery. He tells the everyman in great detail all about the processes involved in his job, but is more concerned with life than with death. He enjoys working with his son, and tries his hardest to make the graves look as good as they can for the sake of mourners and the dead.

      • The everyman’s mother and father

        Unnamed in the novel, they appear mostly in the everyman’s childhood memories. His father owns a jewelry shop called Everyman’s Jewelry Store. A Yiddish speaker, the everyman’s father is a generous and savvy businessman who is methodical in his work and later in life becomes more religious. The everyman’s mother calmly provides comfort to the everyman as a child as he faces his hernia surgery. Their bones, buried in the cemetery, provide a touchstone of familial memories and a source of assurance and continuity to the everyman before his final operation.

      Next section The everyman
      Did you know you can highlight text to take a note? x

      Popular pages: Everyman

      • The everyman: Character Analysis CHARACTERS

      • Important Quotations Explained QUOTES

      • Themes LITERARY DEVICES

      • Review Quiz FURTHER STUDY

      Take a Study Break

      • Every Shakespeare Play Summed Up in a Single Sentence

      • The 7 Most Embarrassing Proposals in Literature

      • The 6 Best and Worst TV Show Adaptations of Books

      • QUIZ: Which Greek God Are You?

      Sign up for our latest news and updates!
      By entering your email address you agree to receive emails from SparkNotes and verify that you are over the age of 13. You can view our Privacy Policy here. Unsubscribe from our emails at any time.

      The #1 FREE study site for students

      • Most Popular
      • No Fear Shakespeare
      • Literature Guides
      • Other Subjects
      • SparkNotes Blog
      • More Help
      • About
      • Help
      • Contact Us
      • How to Cite SparkNotes
      • How to Write Literary Analysis
      • Advertise
      • Find Us On
           
         

      Copyright © SparkNotes LLC

      • Terms of Use
      • |
      • Privacy
      • |
      • Cookie Policy
      • |
      • Do Not Sell My Personal Information