Adversity and Its Effects in a Man for All Seasons

A soldiery for all Sea countersigns is a butterfly that was written by prolific English writer, Robert Bolt. Born in 1924, he worked as an insurance agent forward joining the World contend II as a Royal Air Force officer. He worked as a school teacher, after his time at the force, before embarking on writing this particular play. The same year he wrote it it fuddle as a play in London and New York. It is crucial to under contain the underpinground of the play to under jib it with more originator.According to Kincaid, it is useful to understand that for galore(postnominal) years in England there had been aggressiveness to the clergy, be courting the perform had great worldly powers, property, and wealth, while many members of the clergy were corrupt and self-seeking. (11) With this play, Bolt wanted to bring fall out the strengthened reference bookistic steadiness of stand up on ones feet and stimulates ground in what one believes irrespective of what others retriev e or say. The main character, Sir doubting doubting doubting doubting doubting Thomas more than, is a judge who is steadfast and inviolable in his beliefs.He is not easily swayed by peoples opinions, influence, threats, and intimidation. He objects to endorsing nance total heat eightsomes plan of divorcing his wife, Catherine of Aragon, and tie Anne Boleyn. The pansy having promoted Sir Thomas to the position of Lord Chancellor of England, and Thomas beingness his long standing friend, voluntary automatically guarantee Sir Thomas agreeing to weather him. He wants Thomas to creationly endorse his break up plan, but Thomas more feels Henrys actions ar not justified, and the divorce is not appropriate.This is backed by Greene when he affirms that even as Nobles, universities and the Clergy fell into margin behind the king, mores silence on the matter resounded thunderously. notwithstanding the kings unhappiness with muchs decision to go forward silent, he stands fi rm and refuse to do what e verybody else did even though the impel on his family grew stronger and stronger (7). This shows his autonomy and independence in making his own certain decisions unlike the likes of Crom sound and abundantard Rich who act as the queens yes work force doing all his bidding.Cromwell, the kings intimate, works for the king to have more than ridiculously persecuted and be precedeed. We will develop here three main manikin of adversities that to a greater extent had to face authoritarian, Family, himself. Sir Thomas Mores strong character and moral integrity be alluded to by the title of the play, A Man for all Seasons. The title is a reference to Mores neer changing character and direction in life. According to Miller, More was a character with extraordinary blending of gaiety and gravity and for his flexible accommodation to company of all sorts.However, he knew how to compromise and not go out of his way he did not bend rules, adopt or reposition for the sake of anyone, even King Henry VIII apart from his own God (26-27). This statement concisely puts down his beliefs and what kind of person he was. Thomas works within the boundaries of his own principles and in the end, dies for what he believes in. leeward compares Sir Thomas More with ropemaker. At the beginning of the play when the two of them are talking, Roper seems really devoted to his principles but as the play shrouds on, we collect that Roper is in fact not as true to his set as Sir Thomas More is.Lee talks around the Romanticized visual sense of a prison that Roper has compare to the reality of what More is living. When Roper visited More in prison he even encouraged More to drop dead up when he saw the awfulness of prison. (319). His hang on sense of self -righteous and defense for justice sees him earn many foes and adversaries. undecomposed like Roper, many people pretending to be Mores friends turned out to become his enemies plotting behind his back for his downfall. His family, friends, and colleagues turn their back on him, and the adversaries from both his seniors and juniors continue swelling.The followers are some of the al nigh signifi notifyt and outstanding adversaries Judge Sir Thomas More earns himself and faces off with. His many adversaries rise from his strong stands and refusal to bow down to the social order. His main and most prominent adversaries are the authorities and technocrats in the country. Upon meeting with Cardinal Wosley, thus the Lord Chancellor of England Thomas More reviews the decision by King Henry to divorce his wife Catherine and marry Anne and the subsequent decisions.He states his disfavor and says he doubts the Pope will give his assent on this divorce as it is confirmed by Greene when he describes the Kings impression about the decision of Rome as Frustrated. The king was very disappointed with the decision of the Clergy and Henry vainly sought to increase the twitch on Rome. When th at failed, Henry began to target the English Clergy. (7) It is from this particular point that Wosley declares a witch hunt on the judge, having him investigated and falsely accused of receiving bribes, and insult towards the King.These arrange the authoritarian adversary, the adversaries that Sir Thomas More has to face that hold the keys of the g everywherenment and have power and authority to hurt him according to the law. Although they are not following the law when they persecute him, they pretend to do so. The other adversary in the authority level that Sir Thomas encounters is King Henry VIIIs closest confidant, the recently promoted cardinal secretary, Cromwell. He is used by King Henry as a tool to fight and suppress Sir Thomas due to his stand against the Kings planned divorce.Here we are button to see the kind of adversity that was apply to More by his so-called friends in their thirst for power, they did not hesitate to step over him on their ascension to power. Cromwe ll plans for Thomas downfall by collaborating with the corruptible Richard Rich who is a low ranking functional authority. Cromwell offers Richard an opportunity to advance his rush and climb the social ladder in substitute for information about Thomas and testifying falsely against him. Cromwell goes ahead and come up with a false case of how Sir Thomas received a bribe and brings to evidence the eloquent cup that Sir Thomas gave Rich.At this point as readers we are already amazingly disgusted by the machinery these two people are pose together to get Sir Thomas More down. Eventually, this leads to the conviction and beheading of Thomas. On this matter, Abraham Lincoln said Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a mans character, give him power. Rich was a honourable men, probably able to stand adversity with a good self-esteem, but when power was proposed to him, he gave up his conviction. The trut however, is that Thomas received the silver cup oblivious that it was a bribe.Yet, on realizing, he gave the cup to Richard as he did not want anything to do with it. Cromwell, goes ahead to meet with the Duke of Norfolk, some other supposed friend, to get him to fix More in a bad light concerning the bribery scheme. The duke, however, proves to him that silver cup, in fact, was passed on by the judge as soon as he realized it was a bribe. Cromwell insists that the duke cooperates and participates in the grand scheme to bring Thomas down. This is because King Henry expects the duke of Norfolk to fully participate in the persecution of Thomas.Thomas woes continue pilling up when Signor Chapuys turns against him and joins the witch hunt. Signor Chapuys adversary towards Thomas arises from the intermission of the illusion that Chapuys was under concerning Thomas friendship towards the Spanish. Cengage Learning explains the relationship on Sir Thomas More with Chapuys as follow In speaking with More, Chapuys tries to continue his true moti ves which are political, with flattery and references to religion. Because he is devious himself, he hears out of sight meanings in what More says which leads to misunderstanding. 14) This quote explains why Chapuys did not understand More. He was trying to prove that More aleegiance to spain was no longer and so Chapuys idea that he had found an ally in Thomas to encourage the rice beer of Catherine of whom he was cautious and concerned that she is embarrassed or insulted by King Henry as she is the aunt of the king of Spain. The Spanish ambassador states that he was unsuccessful in persuading More to support Spain saying, as it is affirmed by the sentence Chapuys uses in the play when he says, Goodness can be difficulty (Bolt, 62).Thomas refusal to accept the letter of appreciation that is sent by the King of Spain is also a possible source of the aggravated hostility from the Spanish diplomat, Signor Chapuys. All of these men are complotting against individual they knew, som eone they worked with, and for some of them someone they had a close relationship with. Adversity can come from authority, friends and sometimes both. The other adversary of Thomas is King Henry VIII who is Thomas friend and King.. The king desires to get a son as the heir that his wife Catherine has not borne.He, therefore, plans to get a atomic number 16 wife to fulfill this, and it is here he seeks the support of the lord chancellor of England, Sir Thomas More. More is a devout Christian, and of strong moral standing hence, he does not approve of this. Although he does not publicly or openly voice his displeasure, he is silently opposed to this. Johnson explains that it is probably to protect his family the best he can that he acts like that, He is well aware of dangers on the horizon but does not want to cause them to worry by addressing the dangers directly. 7) At first, More enjoys a somewhat salutary zone by remaining silent about the Kings plans. This comfort zone is tres passed when the King demands the vocal support of the wise, respect public figure. When the King visits him at Chelsea home, in London, More tells the king he will not agree to his plan. The King storms out in anger telling More that he will only leave him alone if he does not openly voice his disagreement for his planned divorce of Catherine and coupling to Anne Boleyn. This aggravates and worsens their relationship, which had been set on the rocks earlier.This was when Thomas More had declared he was going to resign if the Church of England Bishops were going to go along with the Parliaments Act of Supremacy. This Notorious act puts the King as the absolute head of the Church of England, as well as the overall ruler of England reconcile the genesis of their conflict. This hostility towards the Judge comes to a boiling point where he flatly refuses to take an oath of allegiance in the Kings name, another creation of the Kings puppet parliament.Boughey posits that, Henry VIII Wan ted to look reigning and strong. Henry VIII was a powerful king who was completely in charge of England. Nobody was stronger than Henry VIII, not even Parliament. (1). This is how the king was perceived in real life, probably it was the understanding why he was described like that in the play and Sir Thomas More was described then stronger than the parliament and stronger than the King. This is the proof that Thomas More stood strong against the adversity even when it was his King and friend.This adversity can demo a symbol between the King and More with the king symbolically representing the monarchial absolute power and More representing civil law. Thomas refuses to have the King rule even his conscience. As a result, he is ready and willing to keep his honesty at all costs, even if it means losing his life. Kincaid expresses Thomas Mores willingness to die for his principles in this little paragraph When Mores wife was sent to prison to visit him in the expect that she would persuade him to sign the Oath, she told him that he might, if he signit, have another twenty dollar bill years of life.More answered with his usual wit that if she had offered him a thousand years, he might have been tempted, but twenty years in exchange for an eternity of damnation was a very poor bargain. (9). The kings tries to give More a chance but he refuses and choses to remain faithful to his principles. Thus, attack back to our symbolism, the civil law win over the absolute power meaning that absolute power in ones egest can be lethal. Thomas ethics and integrity is based on a strong base.In the play, other characters appear to be good people but do not have as strong a base as the Judge. The duke of Norfolk for example seem to be a good guy. However, he does not understand Mores motivation. As Lee puts it, The behavior of the duke of Norfolk are dictated by yet another good, the benefit of friends. The constant for Norfolk is the preservation of friendship with the peo ple of the here and now, and thus, he cannot comprehend mores insistence on risking those friendships for his love of a heavenly God. (313).