What does “knowledge” mean for Dr. Faustus and to Everyman? What is the content and how do they use knowledge?

Knowledge also counsels him to undergo Penance which he willingly accepts . They work in tandem for the salvation of Everyman 's soul . It is worth noting that while Everyman 's humility and good intention ensure helps from all quarters , Dr .Faustus ' hubris drives away the Good Angel and attracts sinister forces in nature . Knowledge offers Everyman the garment of sorrow called Repentance . As he struggles to free himself from the clutches of the Devil , Knowledge urges him to go to Priesthood and have recourse to holy sacrament and ointment Knowledge counsels : `It

is a garment of sorrow / From pain it will you borrow / Contrition it is / That getteth forgiveness / It th God passing well (p .11 )In this case it is the Angels who triumph and welcome him to heaven . With a clean account he is ready to appear before the Day of Last Judgment

Everyman is an allegory of personified virtues and vices which provide dramatic conflict . Dr .Faustus is more like ambition and greed personified . Here the anti-hero is a knowledgeable man who spurns scholarship and opts for black magic . He agrees to surrender to Lucifer or Beelzebub and `abjure the Trinity ' in to have Mephistophilis at his command . Armed with knowledge and strong will power , he makes a conditional offer to Mephistophilis -

Learn thou of Faustus manly fortitude

And scorn those joys thou never shalt possess

Go bear these tidings to great Lucifer

Seeing Faustus hath incurred eternal death

By desperate thoughts against Jove 's deity

Say he surrenders up to him his soul

So he will spare him four and twenty years

Letting him live in all voluptuousness

Having thee ever to attend to me

To give me whatsoever I demand

To slay mine enemies , and aid my friends

And always be obedient to my will...