Sir Thomas More is a very religious man. He goes to church on a regular basis and he sometimes even skips whole days so he can just pray. He is loyal to the Catholic Church almost fanatically. Yet More is not just another bible thumping idiot who preaches to everyone. Not only is he the Chancellor to the King but also a well known lawyer, author, and nobleman. He is obviously a very intelligent man, but then why does he compromise the safety of his family by not swearing his allegiance to the King and recognizing him as the supreme power in the Church of England. His morals and ethics dictate that he must stay true to the Catholic Church’s teachings.. It is his belief that there can only be one god, one supreme ruler and that is the Catholic god.
But really how moral is this? What he is basically doing is putting his life and his family’s life in danger. He is going directly against the will of the King. Not very many people went against the will of the King and got away with it and it s not just his life on the line but his social standing and economic situation as well. More is resolve is admirable but the majority of us I would think a little harder on this scenario because as the stakes get higher it becomes clear that More will have to cling to his morals at the cost of his job and his relationship with his family. He ends up resigning from his post as chancellor.
The clash between the moral standards of More and the immorality of the subject of the King’s to divorce was an essential theme in the play. More cannot stay silent from the case as he is well ‘known for his honesty…’. More was found guilty of High Treason after the perjurous testimony of Richard Rich, an immoral opportunist who sold his own soul for bureaucratic advancement — in other words, an archetypal “modern” man. The first appearance of Rich finds him prophetically asserting to More that “every man has his price.” In their argument Rich voices a modern preoccupation with self-interest over integrity and hard currency over ethical value. And yet, it is not Rich that Bolt means the audience to blame.
Bolt repeatedly draws the viewer’s attention to the Common Man, who, if not, directly responsible for More’s execution, represents the greater danger to the life expectancy of virtue. The Common Man changes outward identities as easily as he changes hats, but his essential, opportunist self remains the same. He serves as a foil to More’s integrity and reinforces the heroism of More’s martyrdom. For Bolt, a man who was by his own description “not a Catholic nor even in the meaningful sense of the word a Christian,” More was a “hero of selfhood” because he “knew where he began and left off, what areas of himself he could yield to the encroachments of his enemies, and what to the encroachments of those he loved.” Though he is a ‘plain and simple man’, the Common Man is the core character in this case as he is the one that had been playing multiple roles in order to gather information about More and leading to his demise for he had been paid by the immoral characters such as Cromwell and Rich to watch every move of him, what he says and what he does.
More was true to his ethics to the very end; More believed in the ultimate supremacy of God. For him, this was a fact and not simply a matter of allegiance. For him, God was supreme and nothing the King of England said or did could change this fact. More was also a loyal subject, and he supported the King’s governance of the State and of the English Church. More helped Henry write a defense against Martin Luther and he turned down William Roper as suitor to his daughter until Roper mended his heretical views. But when it came to the King’s “Great Matter,” as Henry’s desire to annul his marriage to Catherine came to be known, More could not condone an act that the Pope expressly refused to sanction.
The destruction of a man is materialistic, while defeat is spiritual. Although More was killed, his "soul", lives on. More held on to his convictions, beliefs and ideals, without allowing others to interfere with them. He stands tall despite the pressure from the most meaningful people in his life; his family and friends. He knows where he is going as he speaks to the Common Man, "Friend, be not afraid of your office. You send me to God " . Risking his family, friends, and ultimately his own life is quite a powerful indication that More is a man of great virtue.
It is so important to follow you heart and to do what you think is right. If you don t then people will see that and push you around. You have to be independent and think for yourself. The rewards for this are immense. But you won t know how so until you experience them for yourself. Obviously Thomas More agreed with on this subject. But in my book, family comes first so his actions were more immoral than moral.
