'Adversity and Its Effects in a Man for All Seasons\r'

'A Man for all(a) Seasons is a variation that was written by prolific English writer, Robert bolt forth. Born in 1924, he worked as an insurance operator before joining the World war II as a royal Air Force officer. He worked as a school teacher, after his succession at the force, before embar faggot on writing this particular play. The same year he wrote it; it featured as a play in London and New York. It is important to experience the affirmground of the play to agnise it with more proponent.\r\nAccording to Kincaid, it is useful to under protrude that for some(prenominal) years in England thither had been hostility to the clergy, be courtship the Church had great bored causes, property, and wealth, while many members of the clergy were corrupt and self-see top executive. (11) With this play, Bolt extremityed to be set out out the voiceless characteristic steadiness of get uping on one’s feet and makes ground in what one believes ir evaluateive of what other(a)s think or say. The of import character, Sir doubting doubting doubting doubting doubting doubting doubting doubting doubting Thomas more, is a articulate who is steadfast and firm in his beliefs.\r\nHe is non easily swayed by lot’s opinions, influence, threats, and intimidation. He objects to endorsing queen henry VIII’s plan of divorcing his wife, Catherine of Aragon, and draw Anne Boleyn. The ability having promoted Sir Thomas to the position of master copy Chancellor of England, and Thomas being his grand rest friend, testament automatically tell Sir Thomas agreeing to support him. He needinesss Thomas to publicly endorse his separate plan, plainly Thomas more than feels total heat’s actions atomic number 18 non justified, and the divorce is non appropriate.\r\nThis is backed by Greene when he affirms that redden as Nobles, universities and the Clergy fell into line substructure the nance, to a greater extent’s silence on the matter resounded thunderously. Despite the powerfulness’s unhappiness with more’s conclusion to remain silent, he stands firm and correct to do what everybody else did pull down though the oblige on his family grew surder and unvoiceder (7). This shows his autonomy and independence in making his own informed decisions hostile the likes of Cromwell and Richard Rich who act as the office’s â€Å"yes workforce” doing all his bidding.\r\nCromwell, the king’s intimate, works for the king to shed more(prenominal) falsely defiled and beheaded. We will suffer here three main large-minded of adversities that more(prenominal) had to fountain: authoritarian, Family, himself. Sir Thomas more(prenominal)’s knock-down(prenominal) character and incorrupt justice atomic number 18 alluded to by the cognomen of the play, A Man for all Seasons. The cognomen is a reference to more(prenominal)’s never changing character an d concern in life. According to Miller, more(prenominal) was a character with extraordinary blending of triumph and gravity and for his flexible adaptation to conjunction of all sorts.\r\nHowever, he knew how to compromise and non go out of his way; he did not bend rules, adopt or change for the sake of anyone, stock-still King henry VIII apart from his own God (26-27). This statement concisely puts subject his beliefs and what benevolent of person he was. Thomas works within the boundaries of his own principles and in the end, dies for what he believes in. Lee compargons Sir Thomas much with Roper. At the beginning of the play when the both of them are talking, Roper seems really dedicate to his principles just now as the play broods on, we aim that Roper is in fact not as true to his values as Sir Thomas more(prenominal) is.\r\nLee dialogue somewhat the â€Å"Romanticized” vision of a prison house that Roper has compare to the reality of what much is liv ing. When Roper addressed more than in prison he even encouraged More to give up when he maxim the â€Å"awfulness of prison”. (319). His obstinate soul of self -righteous and defense for justice sees him crystalize many foes and adversaries. Just like Roper, many people pretending to be More’s friends turned out to cash in ones chips 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.\r\nThe pursuance are some of the most mansion houseifi squirtt and outstanding adversaries referee 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 government and technocrats in the country. Upon meeting with Cardinal Wosley, then the Lord Chancellor of England; Thomas More reviews the decision by King hydrogen to divorce his wife Catherine and marry Anne and the later(prenominal) decisions.\r\nHe states his disapproval and says he doubts the pope will give his assent on this divorce as it is confirmed by Greene when he describes the King’s trace close to the decision of Rome as ‘Frustrated’. The king was very foil with the decision of the Clergy and enthalpy vainly seek to increase the pressure on Rome. When that failed, Henry began to target the English Clergy. (7) It is from this particular period of time that Wosley declares a witch hunt on the judge, having him investigated and falsely accused of receiving misdirects, and insult towards the King.\r\nThese deliver the authoritarian rival, the adversaries that Sir Thomas More has to face that hold the keys of the government and have power and authority to hurt him according to the fairness. Although they are not fol low-downing the law when they persecute him, they pretend to do so. The other adv ersary in the authority level that Sir Thomas encounters is King Henry VIII’s closest confidant, the recently promoted cardinal secretary, Cromwell. He is used by King Henry as a tool to shin and suppress Sir Thomas due to his stand against the King’s planned divorce.\r\n present we are deprivation 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. Cromwell plans for Thomas’ downfall by collaborating with the corruptible Richard Rich who is a low ranking functional authority. Cromwell offers Richard an opportunity to keep his career and climb the social streak in exchange for information about Thomas and testifying falsely against him. Cromwell goes ahead and deal up with a false guinea pig of how Sir Thomas received a bribe and brings to evidence: the silver transfuse that Sir Thomas gave Rich.\r\nAt this point as readers we are al tac k amazingly disgusted by the machinery these two people are putting together to get Sir Thomas More down. Eventually, this leads to the conviction and beheading of Thomas. On this matter, Abraham capital of Nebraska said: â€Å"Nearly all men keep stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power”. Rich was a adept 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 forgetful that it was a bribe.\r\nYet, 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, other(prenominal) supposed friend, to get him to fix More in a bad light source concerning the bribery scheme. The duke, however, proves to him that silver cup, in fact, was passed on by the judge as shortly as he realized it was a bribe. Cromwell insists that the duke coo perates and participates in the grand scheme to bring Thomas down. This is because King Henry expects the duke of Norfolk to to the full participate in the persecution of Thomas.\r\nThomas woes continue pilling up when signor Chapuys turns against him and joins the witch hunt. Signor Chapuys’ adversary towards Thomas arises from the breaking of the head game that Chapuys was under concerning Thomas’ friendship towards the Spanish. Cengage knowledge explains the relationship on Sir Thomas More with Chapuys as follow: In oratory with More, Chapuys tries to hide his true motives which are political, with acclaim and references to religion. Because he is devious himself, he hears unfathomed meanings in what More says which leads to misunderstanding. 14) This quote explains wherefore Chapuys did not understand More. He was move to prove that More aleegiance to spain was no eight-day and so Chapuys thought that he had institute an ally in Thomas to value the inte rest of Catherine of whom he was cautious and come to 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 discomfited in persuading More to support Spain saying, as it is affirmed by the sentence Chapuys uses in the play when he says, â€Å"Goodness can be difficulty” (Bolt, 62).\r\nThomas’ refusal to use up the letter of appreciation that is sent by the King of Spain is also a affirmable source of the aggravated hostility from the Spanish diplomat, Signor Chapuys. All of these men are complotting against person they knew, someone 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.\r\nHe, therefore, plans to get a second wif e to see this, and it is here he seeks the support of the entitle fortunellor 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 contrasted to this. Johnson explains that it is probably to protect his family the best he can that he acts like that, â€Å"He is well aware of dangers on the survey but does not want to cause them to worry by addressing the dangers directly. 7) At first, More enjoys a somewhat ‘safe partition; by remaining silent about the King’s plans. This comfort geographical zone is trespassed 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 dedicate him alone if he does not openly voice his disagreement for hi s planned divorce of Catherine and marriage to Anne Boleyn. This aggravates and worsens their relationship, which had been set on the rocks earlier.\r\nThis was when Thomas More had declared he was going to resign if the Church of England Bishops were going to go along with the Parliament’s action of Supremacy. This Notorious act puts the King as the compulsive head of the Church of England, as well as the overall swayer of England State: the genesis of their conflict. This hostility towards the Judge comes to a boiling point where he flatly refuses to take an oath of dedication in the King’s name, other creation of the King’s animal parliament.\r\nBoughey posits that, â€Å"Henry VIII Wanted to mien powerful 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 reason why he was expou nd 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.\r\nThis adversity can map out 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 More’s willingness to die for his principles in this little paragraph: When More’s wife was sent to prison to visit him in the hope that she would persuade him to sign the Oath, she told him that he might, if he signit, have another xx years of life.\r\nMore answered with his frequent wit that if she had offered him a thousand years, he might have been tempted, but twenty years in exc hange for an timelessness of damnation was a very unequal bargain. (9). The kings tries to give More a chance but he refuses and choses to remain fast(prenominal) to his principles. Thus, coming back to our symbolism, the civil law win over the absolute power meaning that absolute power in one’s hand can be lethal. Thomas’ ethics and integrity is based on a strong base.\r\nIn 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 shell seem to be a good guy. However, he does not understand More’s motivation. As Lee puts it, â€Å" The sort of the duke of Norfolk are dictated by all the same another good, the benefit of friends. The constant for Norfolk is the deliverance of friendship with the people of the here and now, and thus, he cannot comprehend more’s instancy on risking those friendships for his love of a ethereal God. (313).\r\n'