47 pages • 1 hour read
Robert BoltA Man For All Seasons
Fiction | Play | Adult | Published in 1960A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
More’s Chain of Office
In the break between Act I and Act II, More becomes England’s lord chancellor, succeeding Cardinal Wolsey. To reflect his role, he wears a chain of office. The chain represents the challenges of More’s political position. His role is a powerful one, and it is one that great men have held in the past. Despite this, the role does make him uncomfortable. He is required to support the King, and the King is in the process of creating the Church of England and separating from Catholicism. Though the chain of office is initially an honor, it becomes a heavy burden, and More is unwilling to continue wearing it once it becomes clear that Henry is fully in favor of Protestantism. Several characters object when More tries to take the chain off: They recognize that turning against the King will put More in danger. Margaret, the only character who really understands More’s position, is the only one who can remove the chain from his neck. Once the chain is removed, More is in more danger, but he is also free from the earlier contradictions of his work.
The Common Man’s Costumes
The Common Man puts on a new costume each time he plays a new role in the play. Usually, his costumes are just different hats that designate his place in society. He changes his costume on stage in front of the audience. This choice emphasizes that the Common Man is not an individual; instead, he represents society as whole, both in England during the Reformation and in the present day. He is the servant, the exploited laborer, the juror, and ultimately the executioner. It is worth noting that the Common Man does not have an executioner’s costume—Thomas Cromwell hands him the mask. Powerful people make the decisions that change the world, but they rely on the common people to perform the most unpleasant and unsightly tasks with minimal compensation. The Common Man’s changing costumes are a Brechtian element of the play.
The Land and the Water
In the play’s Preface, Bolt discusses his use of dry land and water as two opposing symbolic forces in the play. The water represents uncertainty, God, and all things outside of human control. Whenever he wants to travel, More has to go by boat, which means that he has to cross uncertain waters to find his way back to a solid place. Cromwell sets the Boatman’s fares as though the Boatman is traveling on dry land: the same price for a journey upstream or downstream. In fact, Cromwell’s laws fail to consider the current: something largely invisible that nonetheless affects the lives of individuals. As More’s fate becomes more uncertain, the stage directions indicate that the back part of the stage should look watery. The land, by contrast, is the sphere of rationality and the law. More compares laws to trees that give people shelter. If people were to ignore the law, they would flatten these metaphorical trees, making the land inhospitable and barren.
