Sir Thomas Mores A Man For All Seasons :: Sir Thomas More Man All Seasons Essays

Sir Thomas muchs A opus For All SeasonsA Man For All Seasons was compose about Sir Thomas More and hisrelationship with the more powerful members of the country in thesixteenth century. It is a recreation of history, dramatised toenhance the experience. Written in the 1960s in a world coming out ofglobal depression, a time of peace, love and drugs, it was a thornamongst the rose coloured glasses. When people were used to a morerelaxed establishment, with much more equality than the decadesleading up to it, A Man For All Seasons confronted an immoral, strictand spineless monarch that was Henry VIII. The play was a strong studyof moral integrity versus corruption and selfishness, which bothcontradicted and enforced what the world was like in the 1960s.Bolts intention was to influence the present by depicting the past.A Man for All Seasons has a slow build up the first three quarters ofthe book lays the foundations of the plot in a bilinear fashion beforegradually advancing to a mu ch more meaningful climax. This climax issplit into four main sections In The Tower, More Sees His Family,The Trial and The Execution. I will proceed to analyse these inturn.The beginning of the end is where More is in the tower. This startswith the entrance of the Common Man. He speaks and at that place is no oneelse on the stage, and he is facing the reference. This indicates thathe is a modern device, he is a character in the play, but he acts as akind of narrator to break the audiences suspension of disbelief. Thisis ironic because we know its not real, it makes us more poignant,and the audience knows things the characters dont. This is needed, asthe play is very emotional, the audience need someone to remind themthat the play isnt real, yet it is based on a true story, which theCommon Man reminds us of as well. Now wait on shows that he is funny,cheeky and much less formal. The fact that he plays small charactersthroughout the play, and none of the other characters notice al sobreaks the audience away from the earnestness of the play. This isimportant as the play is based on a true story, the audience are morelikely to get emotional about the events in the play, and need to berelieved of this tension if they are to filly appreciate, understand,and enjoy the play. Better a live rat than a dead lion shows thatthe Common Man is almost the complete opposite of More, as More is