Throughout the play Bolt lets us think that More is going to be all right defeating Cromwell´s attacks, but this doesn´t work out quite the way we expect it to. Robert Bolt is very skilful in recapping all that has gone on by using parallelism. He parallels quite a few conversations, for example the conversation between Wolsey and More he parallels this with More and Rich´s conversation which in turn he parallels with Henry´s and Thomas More´s. There is also another parallel structure with “man´s utterly reliable”; this is a parallel between More and Chapuys. The other bit of parallelism in this play in the whole business is about whether “someone somewhere´s collecting information”. 6yvKfGh Visit essaybank ff co ff uk ff for more ff Do not ff redistribute 6yvKfGh
There are some scenes in the play, which would have clear historic documentation that Robert Bolt could research, but there are some in which bolt was skilful and made them up using his own imagination and creativity, for example the scene between Cromwell and Rich in the public house. In this scene there is a reference to the way the king behaved and parallels conversations earlier on in the play. Bolt successfully handles the problem of dealing with a large timescale of history inside three hours and does it in such a way that the audience know what year it is and can still understand what is going on. He hasn´t made it seem disjointed or seem complicated and this was very skilful of Bolt. wwdg dgw esdgdgs aydg dgba ndg kcdg dguk.
Bolt manages to start and end the play quite skilfully with the same character, the Common Man, I think that if anyone else were to write a play about the same subject they would find it hard to get the audiences attention without confusing them but Bolt presents it to the audience in a simple and dramatic way by using the common man to act as a link between the actors and the audience. He keeps the audiences interest all the way through by using little bits of subtext here and there. Robert Bolt uses the characters in such a way that everyone thinks they know what is going to happen to that character later in the play but instead of it actually happening the opposite or something different happens. wwab abw esababs ayab abba nab kcab abuk.Bolt creates psychologically realistic characters because they act as we know human beings react and he makes characters more interesting by contrasting them with each other, for example Chapuys and Cromwell, both of them are trying to get the same information about Sir Thomas More. There are also characters, which are fickle and can change their minds very easily about their beliefs and these contrasts with More who is very steadfast and stands for what he believes in.There is a huge contrast between Rich and More. Sir Thomas More is not ambitious but Rich is desperate for anything. Rich tries to flatter Norfolk for a job and Norfolk asks Sir Thomas More whether he recommends him but More just pints him out. This shows us that Sir Thomas More is very literal in his meaning of words. More always takes the meaning of words to their extremities and is a very highly educated man. More has humour and sarcasm with self-clarity and a generosity of spirit. More wants his children to be like him so he has given Meg the best possible education so that she has the best possible talent.
Henry is a very extravagant and splendid character but is really a big baby. This is shown in the scene where he steers his own ship “The Great Harry”. Cromwell earlier explained to the audience “he will wear in every respect a common pilot´s uniform. Except for the material, which will be a cloth of gold.” In this part of story Bolt may be referring to the “Cloth of Gold” as the historical meeting to emphasise the friendship theme. Henry only cares about himself and uses his power to his advantage. He gets what he wants and doesn´t understand much else about politics. He leaves everything up to his advisors and Thomas More. The only thing that Henry put his time and effort into was his music and this is shown in the pay and we also know it to be historically correct. However in the play when we do have his music it was on one of his “passing” visits and we don´t see it we only hear it. wwff ffw esffffs ayff ffba nff kcff ffuk:
In the last scene the Common Man (Jailer) highlights a key point in Thomas More´s character because he doesn´t want to see More in an awkward position and would help him out but he doesn´t want to get into trouble. Sir Thomas More puts others in front of himself and is a martyr. He isn´t a theoretically idealist and stands up for his faiths, he is a pragmatist. wwba baw esbabas ayba baba nba kcba bauk.
Bolts skill in the use of language is portrayed since he manages to find a compromise between 20th and 16th century language without confusing the audience too much. There are times throughout the play when Bolt is anachronistic, referring to objects in the 20th century, though when he does this nobody would notice them and he manages to get away with it successfully. The play that Bolt wrote is full of tension and excitement since he wants to gain the attention of the audience and keep them in the theatre but not confuse them. He has little climaxes going on in sub–plots which are meant to attract the attention of the audience. Bolt has an extended nautical metaphor throughout the play and shows the themes of the play in a more concrete manner. He refers to this water imagery quite a lot and uses it in a very skilful way. Most of the time the character that is referring or reminding us of the water imagery is Sir Thomas More and he comes up with some unusual examples of water imagery when he is talking to Norfolk about the Sermon on the Mount , “Marsh Mastiffs? Bog Beagles?” Cromwell refers to the water theme as well. from www.essaybank.co.uk
Bolt prevents the play from becoming too gloomy and serious by using the wit and irony of Thomas More and the sadistic manner of Cromwell. He uses the Common Man as the main opposition against anything that happens in the play, and uses humour in his narrator bits to the audience.
Bolt uses unusual stage techniques for a rather unusual play. At the beginning of the play a very unusual lighting techniques is used because it casts shadows all over the place and is not natural like it should be for a play. The audience see all the scene changes, and this seems unconventional and novel. At the beginning the Common Man has a basket in front of him, which he puts his costume on from and symbolises himself as one person or another person. The throwing of the Cardinals Hat and the red robe into a spotlight signifies the death of Wolsey, the common man then bundles them up and puts them into the basket and that is the end of that character. The costumes that are used are very simplistic and symbolic; when the jury convict Thomas More they are wearing grey caps which are meant to show the audience that they are the jury. Usually in theatre the stage lights stay down whilst the scene is set but Bolt wants the audience to see the change, maybe to keep their interest, so the lights come up and then the set is lowered down. This is also where the Common Man comes on and gives the audience a brief synopsis of what has happened between the scene changes so that the gap is filled and that the audience don´t feel as though they´ve lost the plot. wwbd bdw esbdbds aybd bdba nbd kcbd bduk. wwbg bgw esbgbgs aybg bgba nbg kcbg bguk! wwfc fcw esfcfcs ayfc fcba nfc kcfc fcuk.
The Common Man is an effective device to maintain interest, interpret the action and convey the themes. He is like the Chorus in ancient Greek drama: their role was to review the action, explore motivations and issues, prognose what might happen and explore any consequences. They related the action to everyday life and the audience's own frame of reference in today's time. The Common Man does this too. Like them, he is the continuing link with the audience.
Bolt describes him as "a device to draw the audience into the play, not thrust them off it. " In other words, Bolt wanted to retouch a common chord at crucial points in the play, to reach the ordinary bloke and his wife in London's streets and by implication in the theatre watching the play and to reflect their everyday twentieth century values and their pragmatic approach to life so as to contrast it with More and his medieval world view. This device was intended both to relate to More however ironically and politely but not sympathetically and to locate him on that moral pedestal he chose (or was finally forced to chose) for himself so far away from common people's concerns. Nonetheless, his role does not alienate us from More; it merely contextualises it in that society at that time. fCrHjerlM from fCrHjerlM essay fCrHjerlM bank fCrHjerlM co fCrHjerlM uk
Bolt characterized More as a man as a man who could never give up until his word had gotten across to the foolish people. This would have worked for More if the rest of the departments even the members of the church had stuck with him. But only the foolish get the worse of it, excluding More. “Yes what would you do? Cut a great road through the law to go after the devil?” This is what More said. I think this shows that More is different than the people against him. In More´s last words he said to Margaret “ in matters of conscience the loyal subject is more likely to be loyal to his conscience than to any other thing”. In my opinion More is a saint because he never let go of his beliefs in the law and his faith. Bolt wrote A Man for All Seasons probably without realising its relevance to modern day teenagers since teenagers need a real example of moral responsibility. We do need our heroes, saints, exemplars who live out a theory on principle. Teenagers respect risky behaviour and he tried to play it out safely. Alas Silence was not his protection. More was eminently courageous too.
Bolt's play is an enduring modern classic
A Man for All Seasons dramatises the conflict between King Henry VIII and Sir Thomas More. It depicts the confrontation between church and state, theology and politics, absolute power and individual freedom. Throughout the play Sir Thomas More's eloquence and endurance, his purity, saintliness and tenacity in the face of ever-growing threats to his beliefs and family, earn him status as one of modern drama's greatest tragic heroes.
The play was first staged in 1960 at the Globe Theatre in London and was voted New York's Best Foreign Play in 1962. In 1966 it was made into an Academy Award-winning film by Fred Zinneman starring Paul Scofield.
"A Man for All Seasons is a stark play, sparse in its narrative, sinewy in its writing, which confirms Mr Bolt as a genuine and solid playwright, a force in our awakening theatre." (Daily Mail)
