English – Bolt - A man for all seasons
Introduction:
This play is about the life of Sir Thomas More (1477 – 1545) He’s one of the great
European humanists.
It’s also set during the renaissance. It’s a time of rebirth, for all thinkers of the
society. In fact, they reread the great Antique philosophers with a new spirit,
because science has become experimental.
It’s the beginning of the modern age. There is a shift from a god-centred world to a
man-centred society, a world the centre of which is man (individual autonomy
beyond God)
Bolt is a contemporary playwright (1960)
He writes about modernity. As did Shakespeare, he will rewrite history, changing
historical characters into dramatic characters.
The historical and political context to the play:
There was the war of the two roses, between the white rose (the house of York) and
the red rose (The house of Lancaster)
After the battle of Bosworth, which was won by the Earl of Richmond (Lancaster),
who became Henri VII, by defeating Richard III.
It was a very important turn in English history: England became a united nation.
The king who reigns has an important concern: finding an heir to the throne to
maintain the unity.
King Henri VII has two sons, Arthur and Henri. Arthur is married to Catherine of
Aragorn (Spain), because of an alliance with Spain.
When Arthur died, Henry is the heir and has to marry Catherine.
As the king is the representative of God on earth, he has to respect God’s will, so he
can’t marry his brother’s widow. Spain and England also asked the Pope to dispense
the couple from this rule and to accept that the marriage takes place.
He accepts and the marriage takes place, but Catherine is sterile, also Henry wants
to divorce.
He must ask the pope. His reasons are that the marriage is a Sin, as he couldn’t
marry his brother’s widow.
But Spain doesn’t back the request and the pope refuses (Spain was in Roma, so
there was a military pressure)
He claimed to find support from the philosophers, the theologians and the thinkers to
back his own supremacy of the English Church.
He proclaims himself supreme head of the church in England and appoints the
Archbishop of Canterbury, because he backed his divorce.
The reformation of church didn’t take place of religious ground but on political
ground.
The king asked More to help him, as More was famous.
Henri VIII made a schism and founded the Anglican church.
Summary:
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.
Summary Scene by scene:
Act 1
Scene 1:
More and Rich converse earnestly; More's family at home, Norfolk present.
Rich tries to use his friendship with More to get a higher office. More belongs to the
king’s council and Wosley presides the council.
Cromwell is the closest guy to the cardinal and has advised Rich to read Machiavelli
and so he did.
Rich has been stopped by Chamberlain to reach the cardinal.
More is appealed by Wolsey for a big affair: the divorce of the king in sort of getting
him an heir. He has to get a second dispensation of the king.
He needs Thomas More’s support because he’s a man of influence.
Scene 2: p.17
Wolsey tries to obtain More's support for the divorce
Wosley is asking More to help him, to give his agreement
Wosley makes all the leading remarks. More uses all his wit to avoid answering
directly.
Scene 3:25
Cromwell appears, in search of information.
Chapuys appears, in search of information
Scene 4: 30
Roper asks for the hand of Lady Margaret
Scene 5: 36
Cromwell and Chapuys thirst for information
Wolsey seems to have died of pneumonia, but in fact he failed to satisfy the king and
was also sent to the tower, also got his head chopped off.
That shows the determination of the king to get divorced.
He was charged with high treason. More, a man of influence becomes Lord
Chancellor and presides the council.
Scene 6: 43
More is the cause of domestic distress
King at Chelsea tries to win More's support
The king’s supposedly unexpected visit to More’s household.
The visit has in fact been planned by the king, but More and Alice knew it. We can
see it by the huge meal which had been prepared.
The Visit is pretence.
The king has come to get More’s agreement to the divorce. He acts in the beginning
with authority.
The visit is supposed to be unofficial and informal; it pretends to be a friendly visit to
a dear and estimated friend.
More's family is apprehensive. The family believes he put the entire family in danger.
More is afraid because he's in terrible danger.
Scene 7: 62
Rich is rewarded for services rendered
There is no law against Rich that can be used to arrest him.
Roper doesn’t understand why More respect the law so strictly. In fact, it comes from
his honesty, he won’t betray his conscience.
Act II
Scene 1: 81
More is taken to task by Roper; Chapuys joins them
Cromwell requires that More declare his support for the King
More refuses and resigns public office
Scene 3: 105
Chapuys' letter from his master
The Spanish's ambassador's visit is ambiguous, because it seems to be a friendship
visit, but in fact, it's an official visit, as Chapuys brings as an ambassador a letter
from the king.
He congratulates More on his position and asks him to open the letter. He wants him
to stand against the divorce.
More has no official position; opening the letter would be something compromising.
Chapuys wants to give a sense to More's silence, as does everybody. Everyone lay
him tracks, so as to make him talk.
Scene 4: 113
More is interrogated by Cromwell at Hampton
More refuses to support the king's policy. He's silent because he doesn't want the
king to charge him of high treason: So he protects his life. (pragmatic grounds)
As a subject he has taken an oath of obedience to the king. If you break the oath,
you lose your own self.
They have been trying to create some evidence that More was opposed to the king
and as they can't find any, Cromwell admits that he's about to invent false evidence.
Scene 5: 120
More insults Norfolk to break their friendship and protect his old friend.
Scene 6: 124
A parliament act has been taken about the marriage of King Henry VIII, stating that
the King of England will be the Supreme Head of the English Church. Margaret and
Roper advise More to take the oath. All the subjects in the realm have to take an
oath, otherwise you will be charged with high treason, so death sentence.
More says : "Let us take the oath if it's possible"
He has to know if the oath is against his conscience or not, so study it as he's a
lawyer, in details.
127: More in Tower appears before a Commission hearing
Scene 7: 138
So he uses his will and use the law as a shelter.
More's family visit him in the Tower
Scene 8: 148
Westminster trial, sentence and execution
Cromwell couldn't face More, so he called Rich as a witness.
Injustice:
More hasn't the right to defend himself with witnesses. He
defends himself as best as he can.
The court would be executed if she doesn't say he's guilty.
The end is totally ironical: Cromwell speaks of justice even if the procedure he
engaged disrespects the justice.
Themes:
 Should a policy acts with moral considerations?
The play is about the government.
The government starts with rule over ourselves and involves the responsibilities of
those governing other people.
How far does the individual owe obedience to whoever is in power?
At what point may we disobey our rules?
How far our rulers are justified in using any methods in order to achieve their ends?
They’re debating on the divorce of Henri VIII, because if he doesn’t have an heir,
there’ll be a civil war.
A divorce is an offence to God’s law, as a marriage is a sacrament, it’s holy.
Quotation to illustrate:
p.22: “Well . . . 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.”
Wolsey believes a person should take the most convenient and advantageous option
in political matters, but More believes a statesman’s duty is to weigh his “own private
conscience” because doing so will ultimately lead to the common good.
 The selfhood : having a sense of one's own self
There is a deep reflection about the identity of one individual. Everyone has his own
opinion and his own views, his own tastes, his own principles and his own moral.
Quotation to illustrate:
p.55-56 when More said that he likes that music, but that his tastes in music are
deplorable.
More is a defender of individual conscience
 Justice and the law and the distinction with morals or ethics
Roper pretends to know the difference between good and evil. For More it’s not a
human capacity. Roper also trespasses his human limits and assumes that he’s God.
He acts like in a theocracy.
There are two laws: God’s law and Men’s laws. More thinks that God is difficult to
understand, so any reading of the scriptures is an interpretation. “God’s my god. . . .
But I find him rather too . . . subtle.”
Men’s laws are about what’s legal and what’s illegal.
Any human society must be based on man’s laws; otherwise it’s the law of the
jungle.
Deciding that someone is good or evil means talking God's law. Such an attitude
quickly leads to the reign of arbitrary, violence, intolerance.
God and his law should be respected as a mystery. Otherwise it leads to integrism.
Quotation to illustrate:
p. 66:”And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned round on you—where
would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? (He leaves him) This country’s planted
thick with laws from coast to coast—man’s laws, not God’s—and if you cut them
down—and you’re just the man to do it—d’you really think you could stand upright in
the winds that would blow then?”
 The ambition, the greed for power, as opposed to personal ethics, the
morality and the conscience.
In Act One, scene eight, Rich gives Cromwell information about the silver cup in
exchange for a job. Rich laments that he has lost his innocence, and the scene
suggests that Rich has sold his soul to the devil. Cromwell himself evokes the devil as
he craftily cajoles Rich into selling out before cramming Rich’s hand into a candle
flame.
Rich acquires more and more wealth and greater status by selling out his friend and
his own moral principles. Although Rich at first bemoans his loss of innocence, by the
end of the play he has no qualms about perjuring himself in exchange for a highranking position. Opportunism can lead to corruption and disaster: perjury and killing
of an old friend. Don’t forget: When you take an oath, you have your soul in your
hands.
What des moral conscience mean?
Everyone has a point beyond which he’ll obey to cooperate for the sake.
Characters:
More:
More has shown he’s clever, witty and moderated.
He is a man of authority and influence.
More saw through Rich that all he wants is a high office and so Rich is corruptible. A
statesman has to govern with justice and has to be incorruptible.
A man of faith won’t agree asking the pope for a second to the divorce dispensation.
It’s illegal.
More is honest, straight and refers to some identity.
For More, there is a law that has to be respected otherwise it will be the chaos.
His choice is made on individual grounds, his respects for God’s commands.
The government of realm is based on an alliance between God and his people.
More’s respect for the law is a respect for the society. If society falls apart, no
individual conscience will exist any more. In his preface to the play, Bolt calls More “a
hero of selfhood.” More refuses to sacrifice his self, which he defines by his moral
conscience, even as he sacrifices his life.
More is discreet about the divorce, because he doesn’t want to say he’s against the
divorce. He uses the law as a shelter.
More rejects principles as he knows they are too often changed at the suitable
moment and used to build up self-interested.
He's a man of conscience, not of principles.
More believed in the Pope as he's the descendant of the Christ. That's HIS belief.
The silence: It's no freedom of expression: you have to follow the king's thoughts.
For More it's the only issue.
Nevertheless, he’s tolerant; he will accept the new king and queen but won't say he
accepts the act.
He insists on individual. He's not a martyr but enjoys life.
At the end he's isolated from his family, from his friends, from the country and,
because of the torture, from his own self.
He’s in a difficult situation: He enjoys life, so he doesn't want to be sentenced, but
he has an incredible sense of selfhood and conscience. Human's being's duty is to
remain alive. “Better a live rat than a dead lion”
Rich:
He’s a Machiavellian hero, someone who seeks to advance himself politically and
socially, whatever the cost. He symbolizes the tendency to succumb to the
temptation of wealth and status
Rich is an opportunist: for example he tries to know how his relationship with More
is, to get something out of it. Page 7 Rich is ready to use his friendship to get a good
office: “Well, there! A friend of Sir Thomas and still no office?”
Rich appears as a desperately ambitious character, ready to betray anybody to get a
good position. Revealing Matthew's talking to Cromwell about Thomas, he himself
acts as an informer. He acts without tact.
Rich's perjury:
He's perjuring because he's ambitious. Fore More, perjuring is
worse than being executed.
The Common Man:
In most instances, the Common Man plays characters who just do their jobs without
thinking about the consequences of their actions or anyone’s interest other than their
own. Therefore, most of these characters end up betraying their own personal moral
values. Over the course of the play, the characters the Common Man plays become
more and more guilt-ridden. In the end, the Common Man silences his guilty
conscience by finding consolation in the fact that he is alive. He ends the play by
implying that most people do the same thing.
The Common Man is not a hero. He’s clever and doesn’t have a big sense of selfhood
and conscience, contrary to More: He has his own price. He doesn't stay any more,
as he won't have the same wages (p.96-97)
He seems to accept the coins that will let him live for two weeks but he doesn’t tell
anything, only what the others want to hear, without betraying his master. P.42:
“That’s what he wanted to know” on p.43 important quotation.
When he doesn’t act for many, he acts so as to remain alive, by executing orders
from his superiors (when he’s jailor, president of the court, etc.)
The Common Man plays many characters in the play. He gets a dangerous position
by being the president of the court. He has a practical sense of staying alive.
The Common Man could be any of us just doing our jobs. In a world that celebrates
history as a series of trends, we should all accept personal responsibility and pay
attention to our consciences, even if we feel there’s nothing we can do.
Roper:
Roper is tactless. Their vision of God is different.
More can trust Roper because he stands on his principles. Roper doesn’t accept wine
because he stands on his principles, he’s strictly religious.
Roper appears as an honest but impulsive character that easily changes his mind on
vital questions. He's a living example of More's views on principles exposed.
King Henri VIII:
He’s incredibly impulsive and quick-tempered. He can fly into terrible rage very
quickly.
He’s terribly dangerous, as he’s determined and will stand no opposition. He’s a real
tyrant. P.65 “No opposition, your conscience is your own affair!”
Fear motivates all characters’ response to him. Failing the king means death.
If the king breaks the law, who is going to respect it? It’s the anarchy.
It is very important to Henry that others think of him as a moral person, and he
therefore cares greatly about what More, a man of great moral repute, thinks of him.
Henry, who believes that he can force everyone, including the pope, into validating
his desires, wants to put his conscience at ease by forcing More to sanction the
king’s divorce from Catherine.
He has the loneliness of the one who has an absolute power. P.55 Quotation top of
the page: “There are those… and there is you”
The king uses Thomas’s honesty to his own ends.
What the king does, says, wants, is morality, and he's the law. His words are
arbitrary (totalitarian regime)
Cromwell:
A crafty lawyer who is the primary agent plotting against More. Whereas Rich and
the Common Man are driven to their immoral actions (conspiracy, execution, and so
on) somewhat reluctantly at times, Cromwell is motivated more by an evil nature. He
facilitates More’s downfall with only a minimum of guilt.
He’s a powerful, gross and decadent figure.
He’s a man of power, authority, who has few scruples on using it as need demands.
He’s clever and has considerable skills to convince More.
Cromwell is pragmatic. He will serve the king to get the power.
A man of conscience is for Cromwell a man who takes the necessary actions to
achieve his ends. It shows that he's pragmatic. He’s entirely submitted to the king
and tries to get informers and bribe everyone
Wosley:
Wolsey governs the country. He’s Lord Chancellor, he presides the king’s council.
Wosley is ready to satisfy the king. He’s sceptical about the prayers, he’s afraid and
corrupted.
His clerical position doesn’t affect his point of view. He’s ready to oppose the
authority of the Pope to get to his own ends. He acts as a pragmatic politician.
He’s also ready to exhort pressure on the pope.