A Man for All Seasons recounts the significant events which led to
King Henry VIII of England first appointing Sir
Thomas More to be Lord
Chancellor of England and then, only a few years later, to having him
charged with treason and condemned to death.
In the preface, playwright Robert Bolt explains his fascination with
More. Sir Thomas More was a man who zestfully enjoyed
life.
He had a large family who adored him and whom he adored in
return. He was a famous scholar, successful lawyer and later a
judge, and had served as an ambassador. Famous people visited his
home and the king consulted him. He was known everywhere as an
affable, sociable, reasonable, politically powerful man who enjoyed
immense success. Yet he gave up everything he had, including his
very life, rather than take an oath contrary to his conscience.
The play begins with Thomas More at home with his family and
friends. Among those friends is Richard Rich, an impecunious law
student who later perjures himself to secure More’s conviction for
treason. More is summoned from the family circle to report to the
Chancellor, Cardinal Wolsey, at Richmond Palace to discuss the king’s
efforts to
divorce Queen Catherine and marry Anne Boleyn. The
conversation between the two of them outlines the arguments for and
against the divorce, with More firmly opposed to any efforts to coerce
the Pope by penalizing the Church in England.
Later, when More is Chancellor and the king visits him at Chelsea with
the ominous figure of Cromwell hovering in the background, More repeats
his stand and enrages the king. From that point, Cromwell grows
in importance as he works to secure the divorce, while More’s influence
wanes to the point that he feels compelled to resign his office.
First Sir Thomas loses his livelihood, then his freedom, and finally
his life.
Robert Bolt portrays Thomas More as a man with a clear knowledge of
himself. Although he willingly accommodates himself to others
wherever possible, Thomas More will not violate his conscience – he
will not trade his soul for any temporal good. Bolt admires
More’s sense of self, a quality which he succeeds in making his
audience admire as well. When the headsman demands at the end of
the play that the audience behold the head of a traitor, there is
instead the sense that one has witnessed the making of a saint.