The play reflects some of the social issues that were occurring at the time. At the time the play was written it was the cold war. In a way some of the social pressures were reflected in the play ‘A Man for all seasons’. Individuals were under pressure from the state to be ‘loyal’. If you were in the west where they were capitalists, you were under a lot of pressure to also be a capitalist. This is a similar situation that Thomas More was in. Basically you had to fit in with the people around you, otherwise you would be under constant ruthless pressure.
‘A man for all seasons’ is a play that is designed to make social and political points. Bolt reflects Brecht in the way Brecht wanted to draw the audience to the theory of the play. In this play Bolt explores the question of how far the state will pressure the individual citizen to agree with them, which also means it also explores the question of how far people will go to defend their conscience. Bolt explores loyalty of the kings people throughout the play, one in particular Thomas More.
Bolt explores the idea that society is always putting pressure on individuals, as an example Cromwell does in the conversation with Rich and himself.
CROMWELL:” I think you’d make a good collector of Revenues for the York of Diocese.
RICH:”What do I have to do for it?”
Here Cromwell is trying to bribe information about More from Rich. Cromwell and Rich obviously have no moral standpoint. They seem to be better off, but in fact More is the better person because he does have a moral standpoint, Bolt thought this was worth writing a play about.
There are lots of messages and points to put across in the play, Bolt does not want people to get lost in the play, but then he doesn’t want them to just merely entertain them or for them to get too emotionally involved. Bolt wants the audience to understand and appeal to their intelligence. To do this he borrowed some ideas from Brecht to achieve the alienation effect, so people could see what a play is meant to be like.
Bolt has tight control on the stage settings and also how the actors were dressed and how they spoke.
In Act one the common man appears on the stage with a property basket. This straight away stops the audience from thinking that what’s going on is real because they can see where all the costumes are. The common man is dressed in black, at this point he has no real character, he needs a costume to give him an identity, this is as if the property basket controls him. The idea of the property basket on stage makes it all unreal, normally in a play the actor would come onto the stage in character and costume so the audience would believe what they saw.
“I need a costume. (Takes out and puts on the coat and hat of a STEWARD)
When the common man puts on the hat and coat, this shows the alienation effect. The audience has seen the common man change into a different costume and character, this means they know it’s not real, already the audience wont get emotionally involved.
Although Bolt doesn’t want the audience to get emotionally involved he said of the common man,
“He is intended to draw the audience in not thrust them off it.”
He wants them to get involved with the social and political issues raised within the play, he wanted the audience to leave the play with critical thought of the social and political points in question.
The common man is everybody and nobody, he is powerless but also has no responsibility, for example in Act one the common man is in character as Mathew and is being paid to spy on More because he couldn’t afford to stay, but then it all turns round because at the end the common man doesn’t want to be the executioner. This is in Act two where the common man has no costume to be the headsman.
“He drags the basket into the light and again indicates there is no costume in it. Cromwell takes a small black mask from his sleeve and offers it to him.”
This again shows the alienation effect, the common man obviously wasn’t expecting to be the headsman as he had no costume, it’s as if Cromwell is letting him know that he is not doing a bad thing. Cromwell knows that he did no wrong and so shall go to heaven. The common man now has an identity as the headsman. When Cromwell takes the mask from his sleeve the whole audience can see him doing it and so again it breaks the realism even at an intense moment. This break in reality might get the audience think about the morality of what is happening to More and whether they think that he should die or not, this is exactly what Bolt wanted, the audience to be thinking about the theory.
In Act two we are told the exact stage settings,
“Bars, rack and cage flown swiftly upwards”
This happens all in front of the audience so the idea showing the audience that it is not real is done here, they can see the change of scenery so it now is impossible to believe that what they see is real, this again is the alienation effect. In this part of the play Cromwell starts speaking in rhyme, again this breaks the realism, because when you are talking to someone you don’t talk in rhyme. This shows the audience that what he saying has obviously been planned out and he is simply acting, the audience are being constantly reminded that what they are seeing is in fact not real.
In Act one the common man is playing the character Steward. When Steward starts to talk to Chapuys he produces his enormous cross round his neck.
“CHAPUYS: Good simple man. Here (Gives coin. Going.) Peace be with you.”
Here the common man has produced this cross only because Chapuys is also wearing the same, it shows in a way that the Steward is on Chapuys side, this is why Chapuys gives the Steward a coin. This reflects the way the common man is because he is different with different people, it symbolises the way he changes his character. Chapuys wanted information on Thomas More, the information the common man gave him was common knowledge, so in a way the common man is a good simple man as he just wants to earn some money but is not actually telling anything private. The common man makes a speech to the audience, this is again the alienation effect. Straight after he has made his blunt common sense speech there is a change in scenery, as always it is was changed directly in front of the audience. The stage directions straight after the common man’s speech really emphasises the alienation effect, here Bolt is constantly reminding the audience that is not real by the absence of realistic costume and scenery and the fact the audience see it all change.
At the beginning of Act two the common man opens the chapter, firstly there are stage direction,
‘The scene is as for start of Act one. When the curtain rises the stage is in darkness save for a spot, front stage, in which the common man. He carries the book, a place marked by his finger, and wears his spectacles’
The idea of a spotlight just on the common man, emphasises him, here he is not really playing any main character.
“The interval started early in the year 1530 and it’s now the middle of May 1532 (Explanatory) Two years.”
In this part he is explaining what is going on in the play, this in a way kind of shows the alienation effect because only a little while ago the common man was a publican, so the audience don’t really know who is and so can’t believe what they see.
I think bolt was successful with his play because he kept constantly reminding the audience that what they were seeing was not real by using the common man as many characters, and the change of scenery, props and costume which happened in front of the audience. Bolt also had the common man ‘step out of’ character at the beginning of Act two and comment on the situation. Bolt makes us aware that we need people like Thomas More to make the difficult decisions for us, and give us a moral example. We know we often can’t make those decisions but an example like Thomas More is set to enrich us all. Overall Bolt was successful in this play, he didn’t copy Brecht’s ideas exactly but he used the alienation effect, and I agree that Thomas More’s moral standpoint was worth writing a play about.
