A Man For All Seasons By Robert Bolt

John Foulcher writes interesting poetry because he can make the reader see, feel, and think. Summer Rain , demonstrate to the reader that Foulcher’s poetry is not only thought provoking and realistic, but it is also able to capture aspects of society through his unique use of imagery.

In the play A Man For All Seasons by Robert Bolt the audience learns about the extraordinary life of Sir Thomas More. Sir Thomas is faced with a moral dilemma that will determine the outcome of his life. More, chancellor of England , and a strong Christian believer is forced to choose between his close friend, King Henry VIII, and the supreme lord his God. More is a man of moral integrity because he refuses to submit to external pressures to sign the oath condoning the Act of Supremacy. He follows his heart and soul in doing what he believes to be right no matter what the consequence.

Many centuries after the first spaceship landed on the moon, a group of brave rocket men and women did the unbelievable. The short story “All summer is a day”, by Ray Bradbury, takes place in the underground city of the planet Venus where tunnels roamed instead of streets. The land above them was submerged with endless pouring rain and deadly jungles. The sight of the sun was a rare miracle that only happened once every seven years. The children spent all their life in the enclosed underground tunnels, well all except for one. Margot was the only child who came to Venus when she was four, and the biggest difference was that she still remembered the times when the glowing sun gave warmth and hope.

The small city of Brownsville is small in both population and mind. Even though there are individuals who commute morning and night from country to country, there is no unity. Growing up, I had never experienced a “diverse” city. In the city of Brownsville, Hispanics are the majority. As a result, individuals who saw somebody of a different race or ethnicity would make negative and offensive comments towards them. At times, these offensive comments were accidental. Other times, the offensive comments were on purpose and intended to appear humorous to friends. Apart from discriminatory remarks to outsiders, this happened amongst people of my Hispanic community.

In his essay “The Country Just over the Fence,” Paul Theroux describes his trip to Nogales, Mexico. He begins his essay by illustrating the physical appearance of the wall separating Nogales, Arizona and Nogales, Mexico. He calls it “an unintentional masterpiece”. Theroux feels the wall is somewhat informal. He discovers that crossing the border into Mexico is not too difficult itself. He marvels over the appearance of the wall and also the underlying call to action it places on a person, “Do you go through, or stay home?” Theroux decided he needed to see for himself. After deciding to cross the border, he met many different people. They told him about the celebrations that used to be held between the two neighboring towns which are now divided by the wall. Theroux also met people who had attempted to cross the border illegally into America only to get sent back to Mexico. On his adventure, Theroux also learned about all the medical tourists who travel to the country for cheaper treatments, specifically dentistry. I am interested in discussing Theroux’s presentation of the his decision to cross the border, the people he met, and the medical tourism Nogales, Mexico draws in.

In the beginning of A Man for All Seasons, Sir Thomas More is introduced as a profoundly religious man focused on adhering to the laws of his country and faith. As the play progresses the audience sees More putting further faith into his belief that by abiding to the present laws and withholding his opinion about King Henry VIII’s divorce he will be protected from prosecution. The issue starts when the King wishes to divorce his brother’s wife, who initially he had taken as his own through a special papal dispensation, in order to wed Queen Anne and produce a male heir. More, being a devoutly religious man, realizes this goes against the laws of the Church. He refuses to give his willing approval based on the fact it is not morally or

In the short story “To Every Thing There Is a Season” written by Alistair Macleod, the narrator was shown changing from childhood to adulthood. Macleod claimed that the process of becoming a teenager was difficult, and was shown feeling the pain of leaving his old life behind in the short story. He changed as he was invited to stay up late with the adults and watched his younger siblings unwrap presents from Santa. The night of Christmas eve, the narrator’s father told him, “We would like you to stay up with us a while (Sightlines 10, page 305)”. The narrator realised that he has changed to adulthood, as he watched his younger siblings unwrap presents with his parents and older siblings.

Upon reading the title to the reading “Camping for Their Lives” by Scott Bransford, A lot of images come to mind as they do for many people. Whether it be family outings, military experience or just plain adventure. Scott Bransford takes a good long look at camping in a different way. The author’s topic is about tent cities and their homeless populations. He argues the struggles that they have with little or no help from the government and highlights a location in Central Valley California. The author structures the article well starting off with an example of a married couple that does not have enough money to sign a lease or take out a mortgage. He then goes into the day to day life and difficulties that are accustomed with living as a homeless person. He mentions statistics and the government’s temporary remedies to deal with the homeless population and the complications when imposing restrictions. The author goes into depth about the lack of jobs within the areas but does not go deep into the addictions, the crime networks that operate out of the areas nor the filth associated with enabling these tent cities to pop up.

     But you can not write a play on the excellent character of a man alone and this is another reason why Robert Bolt had to go all the way back to the 16th century. I believe he was also thinking of the setting. This is because the setting is actually a time of political and spiritual upheaval so there is a great deal of conflict for Bolt to make use of. King Henry was a king who abused his power so people had to make sure that they were on his good side, no matter what. Another reason was that More acted differently than everyone else; he believed that you had to earn your status. And the divorce, well, the divorce can be looked at as the King and the Church meeting at a head. It was king versus the church, and for Thomas More, it was his life vs. his spirit.

In Name of the Wind, Patrick Rothfuss gives life to The Four Corners of Civilization through his storytelling. Storytelling gives the author an opportunity to show their experiences and reflect their beliefs within the world they are creating. During the time this book was being written, there was the Iraq and Afghanistan War taking place which had been sending many soldiers back home with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Rothfuss parallels this disorder within his book through the main character, Kvothe, when he experiences trauma and he shows how Kvothe copes with the persisting trauma through grief theory, “four doors of the mind” (135) . His four doors of the mind is similar to the Kubler-Ross Model, which is widely accepted by practitioners, but challenges it by believing the mind copes with pain through the central idea of numbing. However, this mindset of categorizing emotions experienced within grief can be destructive behavior towards any griever rather than helping them cope; stages of post-loss grief do not exist.

A Man for All Seasons asks the audience a crucial question; would a man sacrifice his beliefs for power and control? Plagued with themes of supremacy and control, Robert Bolt’s A Man for All Seasons features the protagonist Thomas More who is fiercely truthful and honest. Thomas More is foregrounded within the play to highlight the themes of power, control and ultimately corruption amongst the monarchy. The play, A Man for all Seasons, provides the audience with a deeper and more accurate portray of Sir Thomas More in comparison to the film, giving the audience a more enriched story of the overarching theme. Represented in two different forms, the story is given more depth and justice in the play, unpacking the different themes of the Common Man, water and corruption.

In “The Snow Man” by modernist poet Wallace Stevens, the idea is brought up that one must have a certain mind to see things a certain way; in his poem, Stevens explores the idea of perception, challenging the realities commonly seen, with one common scene often interpreted. The poem describes a scene in the midst of winter’s gloom, then shifts into the perception of this scene, saying how in reality there is no gloom. Stevens mentions how “one must have a mind of winter”(line 1) to refuse internal psychological interpretations on the outside world. But at the same time, he is leaning to the other side, saying how difficult something like that is. In an earlier line, Stevens says “to regard”(line 2), but he laters shifts to “behold.”(line 5) The word behold implies awe, and the words that follow it, “the junipers shagged with ice/ the spruces rough in the distant glitter/ of the January sun;”(lines 5-7) seem to evoke a sense of melancholy. He follows that set up with a sort of obvious-fact tone in his next line by saying “and not to think of any misery in the sound of the wind.” (lines 7-8) Stevens is stating that one must have a mind of winter, or a mind that is like winter, in order to look at all the desolation, and not think of precisely that. But he uses language that sets up a very lonely mood, which is the reality of what he is trying to say. As something is seen and perceived, minds interpret it accordingly to what they feel; vise versa, something commonly associated

People in positions of power are always under scrutiny by those they rule. Despite their moves being watched closely, rulers often have a deep-seated inability to compromise their beliefs, thus corrupting the government. In this day and age, it is far easier for the public to combat this ignorant worldview, but in the time of King Henry VIII, this was nearly impossible. It took men in other positions of power to stand against the king’s will, but even this fared poorly for the dissenters. In Robert Bolt’s play A Man for All Seasons, Sir Thomas More was beheaded for his decision to remain silent on the matter of the King’s marriage. The leaders of England value More and view him as a man for all seasons, but only while his morals match their

In the play A Man for All Seasons by Robert Bolt, the lawyer Thomas More is an intelligent and outspoken man who is devoted in entirety to the Catholic Church. When King Henry VIII decides to annul his marriage to his late brother’s wife Catherine of Aragon, Thomas More inwardly opposes the King’s actions and opinions. Thomas More is made a significant figure to the country not only from his writings and honest reputation but by his election to the office of Chancellor following Thomas Wolsey’s death. Thomas Wolsey was the Chancellor of England before Thomas More, but was dismissed in disgrace due to his failure to secure the annulment of King Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon. This inward opposition causes no harm to anyone until Thomas

More than 400 years after the remarkable death of Sir Thomas More, the saint is still being honored today through the words of Robert Bolt. Bolt’s play serves not to recount the history of the dramatic events of England’s separation from the Catholic Church, but rather to pay tribute to More through drama, humor, and romance. However, beyond the laughter and tears that the play provoked lay a more serious theme orchestrated through characters such as Richard Rich and the Common Man. In his play, A Man For All Seasons, Robert Bolt illustrates the corruptibility of England’s aristocracy by contrasting their immorality to the moral constancy of Sir Thomas More. Bolt then extends this definition to all of society in order to satirize the ordinary person when faced with wealth and power.