A Man For All Seasons Literary Elements

Historical drama/biography

English

England: 1529-1535, primarily taking place in the court of KIng Henry VIII and the country home of Thomas More

A middle-aged male appears at various point to provide expository information before scenes, as well offering occasional commentary or explication of background information providing context to for understanding important events. This character entirely symbolic and know only as the Common Man.

Although More is presented as inspiring heroic figure of rebellion against absolute power, that tonal dissonance is made all the harsher by the prevailing mood of an ominously intensifying awareness that this one-man insurrection is doomed to failure. There is nothing More can do to avoid his fatal showdown with a king fully committed to investing in the concept of divine right of kings.

Protagonist: Thomas More, King Henry VIII's Lord Chancellor and closest adviser. Antagonist: King Henry VIII.

More has risen though the minefields of courtly politics to become the second most powerful figure in England and a loyal and trust adviser to the mercurial Henry. Everything changes when Henry falls in love with Anne Boleyn and engages in a long and protracted battle with the Vatican to gain the divorce necessary to marry Boleyn and thus confer legitimacy upon any male heir which might result. More loyalty to his is pitted against loyalty to his god and Henry simply cannot turn out as victor on this battlefield.

The plays reaches its stirring climax when More finally rises to speak eloquently on his own behalf after having remained silent throughout the trial at which he was found guilty and sentenced to death.

The discussion of the doctrine of Machiavellian—the justifies the means within the context of predicting a quick rise and fall from the graces of King Henry for Thomas Cromwell as he sets his eyes upon More’s own position of power foreshadows with great irony the lack of foresight at just how well Cromwell would prove to put into concrete practice the theories of Machiavelli.

The entire play is structured around the great power that lies in silence or being quiet and moves relentlessly to an overstated example of understatement on More’s part: his steadfast refusal despite entreaties from his family to speak up in his defense and say something…anything. More puts his trust and faith in the power of an understated response to accusations being made against him and finds that sometimes this approach just isn’t as powerful as the raised chorus of voices against you.

Machiavelli, the very icon of becoming a master of court intrigue by believing the end always justifies the means is referenced early on in the first mention of Thomas Cromwell. The reference is use to situation Cromwell as lacking the appropriate circumstances of birth to afford him much chance of being very Machiavellian in hi designs on court power, a shortsightedness that More and his supporters will regret.

In an example of Bolt’s designs for Brechtian theories to be applied to the production in which emotional distance is create between audience and the character for the purpose of forcing a more intellectual engagement with the material, playwright Robert Bolt outlines the predominant imagery he has included within the play. That imagery is one associated with recurring motif regarding water and the unsteady footing one has aboard a ship trying to navigate through dangerous water and precarious situations.

The great paradox at the center of the play is that despite all efforts at creating an emotional distance between the audience and More, the playwright created such a character of tremendous empathy and vulnerability that the tension created by frustration with More's silence results in an emotionally explosive sense of relief and joy when he finally does deliver is stirring speech. .

More's religious devotion and willing to martyr himself for God situates himself throughout the narrative through religious imagery and frequent allusion to scripture as a character the playwright intends for audiences to parallel with Christ as a figure of suffering and sacrifice and silence in response to charges made against him.

The Common Man is a symbolic character, but he fulfills the thoughts and attitudes of various individuals as a means of personifying a collective representative of human begins without embodying just one monolithic impossibility.

The Common Man is just the most obvious of the dramatic devices that Bolt engages for the purpose of Brechtian confrontation with standard expectations of realism and emotional engagement. Outlining the intent of his purpose of his figurative language rather than letting it unfold naturally to either be comprehended or not by the audience is another.