THOMAS MORE
FROM
SAINTHOOD
TO A HERO
OF
SELFHOOD
UNIT OBJECTIVES
On completion of this unit the student should be
able to analyse, how a selected text constructs
meaning, conveys ideas and values, and is open
to a range of interpretations.
• An understanding of the ideas, characters and themes
constructed by the author and presented in the selected text;
• The structures, features and conventions used by authors to
construct meaning in a range of literary texts;
• Methods of analysing complex texts and the social, historical
and/or cultural values embodied in texts;
• The ways in which the same text is open to different
interpretations by different readers;
A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS
&
EXISTENTIALISM
Bolt’s Existential Streak
I think the paramount gift our thinkers,
artists, and for all I know, our men of
science, should labour to get for us is a
sense of selfhood without resort to magic.
Albert Camus is a writer I admire in this
connection.
~xiv
EXISTENTIALISM
So what is
Existentialism?
EXISTENTIALISM
Existentialism is a philosophical
framework, or a way of looking
at the world, that takes as its
starting point, human
existence.
EXISTENTIALISM
 The Existentialist Worldview
 Human Existence
 The Absurd
 Responsibility
 The Authentic Self
 Alienation
EXISTENTIALISM
We will be looking at two types of
Existentialism:
 A Theistic (God based) version –
Kierkegaard
 An Atheistic version – Camus.
KIERKEGAARD
• 1813 – 1855
• Considered to be
the father of
existentialism
though was alive
a long time before
the term was
coined.
KIERKEGAARD
The question we must all face is:
‘What shall I choose to
do with my life?’
KIERKEGAARD
- The problem of uncertainty.
The human predicament is
that we are forced to make
choices based on nothing that
is certain.
Our minds will not and cannot
understand the mind of God.
KIERKEGAARD
• Believing in God required taking a
blind leap of faith.
KIERKEGAARD
Faith, for Kierkegaard meant
experiencing God through
relationship, rather than
intellectually defining him
from a distance. It involved
a whole life commitment,
not just an abstract belief.
MAKE THE LINK
How does Bolt
convey More’s
view of God?
More’s relationship to God
Oh Roper, you’re a fool, God’s my
god…But I find him rather too (very
bitter) subtle…I don’t know where he is
nor what he wants.
~ pg 39
More’s relationship to God
More’s trust, or faith in God is
evident. When Wolsey asks him
what he intends to do about the
king’s need for a son (p.11), More
responds that, he ‘pray[s] for it
daily.’
More’s relationship to God
• Just as King Henry is about to arrive,
More comes out of Vespers ‘wearing
a cassock’ (26)
• ‘I am the King’s true subject, and
pray for him and all the realm.’ (97)
More’s relationship to God
Although God’s nature is not clear for
More, he still believes
wholeheartedly and with his whole
life.
‘[God] will not refuse one who is so
blithe to go to him.’ (p.99)
More’s relationship to God
More’s steadfast belief in God and
the way his faith is expressed is
contrasted with both Roper and
Chapuys.
More’s relationship to God
While More’s convictions are deeply
held and resolute, Roper feels the
need to trumpet his views and
considers gestures important.
“Sir, you’ve made a noble gesture.”
(p.55)
More’s relationship to God
Roper is dressed in black and wears a cross
The time has come for decent men to
declare their allegiance! (47)
More’s relationship to God
Chapuys’ religious beliefs are so intertwined
with his politics, that the two are
inseparable and indeed, his religiosity
appears to be for show.
Steward: He pulls to the front an enormous
cross until then hanging at his back on a length
of string – a caricature of the ebony cross worn
by Chapuys. (p.24)
More’s relationship to God
To some extent, it is this unshakable
trust in God that takes More all the
way to the executioner’s block.
But this trust in God, is only part of
the picture according to Bolt.
EXISTENTIALISM
• It wasn’t so much the trust in God
that Bolt focused on. After all he
was himself an atheist and the
message that he wanted to convey
to his audience went beyond
religious conviction.
ALBERT CAMUS
1913 - 1960
EXISTENTIALISM
Camus believed
that
Kierkegaard’s
Leap of Faith was
not a real
solution to the
human
predicament.
Existentialist Worldview
Like Kierkegaard, he believed
that the only way to get real
understanding was through
personal insight. (Not science)
Existentialist Worldview
Through
personal
insight, we
have the sense
of being
‘thrown’ into
existence.
Human Existence
• Human beings
exist without
justification.
• Life for us, is like
the life of
Sisyphus –
utterly
meaningless.
The Absurd
What is ultimately
absurd is the
clash between
ourselves and
everything we
deem important
and an
‘indifferent
universe’
The Absurd
• We are cast into the world,
with no guidance, no rules, no
instruction manual.
• There isn’t anything or anyone
that particularly cares what
you do with that life.
MAKE THE LINK
How does Bolt
present the
universe in
AMFAS?
THE TERRIFYING COSMOS
I took [The Church of Christ] as a
metaphor for that larger context
which we all inhabit, the terrifying
cosmos. Terrifying because no laws,
no sanctions, no mores obtain there.
~ Preface (xv)
THE TERRIFYING COSMOS
As a figure for the superhuman context
I took the largest, most alien, least
formulated thing I know, the sea and
water. The reference to ships, rivers,
currents, tides, navigation, and so on,
are all used for this purpose.
~ Preface (xvi)
Despair
It seems that one
cannot respond
to Camus’ bleak
worldview
without despair.
Despair
But this,
according to
Camus, would
be selfindulgent.
Radical Responsibility
Since we are ‘thrown’ into
existence in an ‘indifferent
universe’, when we look to
the path our lives can lead,
our lives and futures are
entirely open.
Radical Responsibility
As such, we have radical
freewill and responsibility
for our own lives.
Our own lives, or own selves,
are, in a manner of
speaking, all we have.
Radical Responsibility
Thus, we have a radical
responsibility to our selves not to anyone else and not
to society but to ourselves
alone.
The Authentic Self
The difficulty with turning
this responsibility towards
society is that we conform
to public pressure and to
society’s expectations for us
and as such, do not live an
‘authentic’ life.
The Authentic Self
This is why Bolt considers it
important to define oneself
intrinsically, rather than
through external criteria
and why ‘the self’ is so
fundamentally important to
him.
MAKE THE LINK
In what way is More
a Hero of
Selfhood?
THE SELF
Bolt admired More’s
‘adamantine sense of his own
self.’
~ Preface
THE SELF
When Alice rightly assesses the King’s
anger, she urges More to be ruled.
More is loyal to his king until the
wishes of his sovereign come in
conflict with his self.
“But there’s a little…little area…where I
must rule myself.” ~ (p.35)
THE SELF
So strong is More’s sense of
self that certain actions are
described as physically
impossible for him to do.
THE SELF
“I couldn’t find the other way.”
~ More to Alice p.34
“I can’t give in Howard – (smile)
you might as well advise a man to
change the colour of his hair!.”
~ More to Norfolk p.71
THE SELF
For Bolt,
The self,
conscience,
and one’s soul
are largely interchangeable.
‘Very and pure necessity for respect of my
own soul…Yes, a man’s soul is his self.’
OATHS
There is a special relationship between
the self and the taking of an oath.
‘When a man takes an oath, Meg, he’s
holding his own self in his own hands.
Like water (cups hands) and if he
opens his fingers, then – he needn’t
hope to find himself again.’ (p.83)
OATHS
To go against an oath, was to
commit perjury. For More, this
meant putting his soul in peril
– it means damnation.
OATHS
For Bolt,
“a man takes an oath only when he wants to
commit himself quite exceptionally to the
statement, when he wants to make an identity
between the truth of it and his own virtue; he
offers himself as a guarantee…there is a
special kind of shrug for a perjurer; we feel
that the man has no self to commit, no
guarantee to offer.”
~ Preface.
OATHS
More had such a keen sense of
self, in this regard, that his
reputation extended
throughout Europe.
p. 32, 58
OATHS
Bolt conveyed the strength of More’s sense
of self by contrasting his attitude to the
taking of oaths to others.
 Henry
– Vowed that he would not involve
More on the issue of the divorce. (33)
- Act of Supremacy went against his
coronation oath.
 Rich – Blithely commits perjury.
 Margaret – Takes an oath to make More
change his mind.
CONVENIENCE &
CONSCIENCE
• To act according to one’s
conscience is often
inconvenient.
“I’ve got an inconvenient conscience”
~ Roper
CONVENIENCE &
CONSCIENCE
• Political expediency
– Henry
– Cromwell
– Wolsey
• Personal gain
– Rich
• Survival
- Common Man
CONVENIENCE &
CONSCIENCE
To give into convenience or
expediency at the price of
conscience, or doing the right
thing, destroys the self.
CONVENIENCE &
CONSCIENCE
- Rich – I’m lamenting. I’ve lost my
innocence…it can’t have been very
important. ~44
- And you’ll find it easier next time ~45.
CONVENIENCE &
CONSCIENCE
But there is another reason for
why Bolt spoke against
political expediency:
Cast your minds back to Bolt’s
view of the universe.
The Shelter of Society
He will not try to live in
[the cosmos]; he will gratefully
accept the shelter of his
society.
~Preface (xv)
The Shelter of Society and Law
More’s trust in the law was his trust
in his society; his desperate
sheltering beneath the forms of
the law was his determination to
remain within the shelter of
society.
~Preface (xv)
The Shelter of Society and Law
And when the last law was down, and the Devil
turned round on you – where would you hide,
Roper, the laws all being flat? This country’s
planted thick with laws from coast to coast –
Man’s laws, not God’s – and if you cut them
down…do you really think you could stand
upright in the winds that would blow then?
~More (p.39)
The Shelter of Society and Law
Cromwell’s contemptuous
shattering of the forms of law by
an unconcealed act of perjury
showed how fragile for an
individual is that shelter.
~ Preface (xv)
The Shelter of Society and Law
• “ ‘so far as the law of God allows’. How
far the law of God does allow it remains a
matter of opinion since the Act doesn’t
state it.” (48)
• “Man, you’re cautious.” Norfolk to More (53)
The Shelter of Society and Law
• “Pooh, he’s a pragmatist – and that’s the
only resemblance he has to the Devil.”
(66)
• It’s just a matter of finding the right law.
Or making one.
~ Cromwell
• Why, Richard, it profits a man nothing to
give his soul for the whole world…But for
Wales___!
The Shelter of Society and Law

The trappings of the Law p.88

Perjury as the weakening of the law.

The terrifying cosmos – water imagery.

The Role of the Comman Man
THE COMMON MAN
Opportunistic (14)
 Realist (57)
 Uses his sense of powerlessness for
inaction. (75)
 Guided by common sense.

THE COMMON MAN
A Brechtian device – addresses the
audience.
 What the Common Man represents

 Represents
the ‘common people’ – ‘everyman’
 Adam
 The
average man who witnesses injustice
without speaking out or acting to intervene.

Didactic – moral message
I’m breathing…Are you breathing
too?...It’s nice isn’t it? It isn’t
difficult to keep alive friends
…just don’t make trouble – or if
you must make trouble, make the
sort of trouble that’s expected.
~Common Man (Alternate ending)
THE PRIMACY OF SELF
Public Duty vs Private Conscience
I believe when statesmen forsake their
own private conscience for the sake of
their public duties…they lead their
country by a short route to chaos.
~ More to Wolsey (p.12)
THE PRIMACY OF SELF
But what matters to me is not whether
it’s true or not but that I believe it to
be true, or rather not that I believe it,
but that I believe it. (53)
THE PRIMACY OF SELF
• What you have hunted me for is not
my actions, but the thoughts of my
heart. It is a long road you have
opened. For first men will disclaim
their hearts and presently they will
have no hearts. God help the
statesmen who walk your road.
(p.95)
Alienation
When there is a conflict between
society’s expectations and the
individual, the person must be
authentic to themselves. This
will often mean being alienated
from society.
MAKE THE LINK
In what ways was
More alienated
from his society?
ALIENATION
In the end, More was lucky
to have his family’s support,
ALIENATION
‘As for understanding, I
understand you’re the best
man that I ever met or am
likely to…’
~Alice to More (p.86)
ALIENATION
But even if he didn’t, he
would have to remain true
to himself – even to the
point of death.
ALIENTATION

Lighting change commences, darkness
gathering on the others, leaving More
isolated in the light out of which he
answers them in the shadows. (66)

In the scene before the execution, More
finds himself alone in a spotlight to the
right.
• ‘obstinate opinions’ (89)
• ‘And you’ll find it easier next time.” (45)
• ‘a man’s soul is his self’ (93)
• Will you help England by populating her
with liars? (93)
• It’s just a matter of finding the right law.
Or making one.
• The King’s a man of conscience and he
wants either Sir Thomas More to bless his
marriage or Sir Thomas More destroyed.
Either will do.