A Man for All Seasons

Rating:
Summary: A Terrific Story
Review: This is among my favorite dramas...ever. It is the story of Sir Thomas More who is against the divorce of Henry VIII from his first wife, since she cannot have children (here is the mnemonic I learned from my british lit teacher for remembering the fates of all 6 of his wives...divorced, beheaded, died; divorced, beheaded, survived). It is wonderfully written, probably will be enjoyed by those of a more philosophical, witty nature. I read this play for the first time six years ago, and still like to go back to it, and remember certain lines.

Rating:
Summary: Moving and powerful
Review: This is one case where the book and the movie compliment each other. The dialog is deep, witty and thought provoking. One should be outraged at the injustice of More's death, but his sense of peace as one going so "blithely" to God is oddly uplifting. I showed the movie to my community college students and they were stunned at its power. I'll have them read the play the next time I teach that particular class (western history).....contrary to the high school student's comments, I think they'll enjoy it.

Rating:
Summary: Fabulous
Review: This is one of my favourite books.
I have read a few of the 'bad' reviews of the book - one that commented on its historical 'correctness'. The story of Moore was just one aspect to the play (I felt anyway), the common man who appears throughout the play is supposed to remind us of ourselves. The common man is quite confronting as the character reminds us of our own need for self-preservation above all else. Reading the book made me a little less critical of other people of present times and past, as I am no longer certain that I wouldn't act the same way if given the same circumstances.

Rating:
Summary: Nine years after I read it, I still remember it!
Review: This is such a memorable play. The honor portrayed in the protagonist is a rare commodity today. I read it as a twenty year old, somewhat rebellious young man and to this day I recommend it to all who will hear me.

Rating:
Summary: "The unexamined life is not worth living"
Review: This play is not about Thomas More the man, as much as it is about Thomas More as an archetype. Bolt has taken More and idealized him into almost mythical proportions. This is not difficult given that the historical reality was larger than life to start with, but those looking for insights into the real More won't find them here. The playwright was not striving for a biography. He wanted to use More as a launching point for a reflection on Being. This is in some ways a Platonic work, and in this sense, Bolt's idealization of More is entirely acceptable, and the play, entirely successful.

In a way, the play, idealized as it is, does not do the man justice. It presents Thomas More as little more than an ideologue. There is a reference to his friendship with Erasmus, but the real More was accounted one of the foremost philosophers of his time and enjoyed a moral prerogative throughout the western world that is difficult to credit in our own cynical age. The closest modern equivalent might be Martin Luther King or Mohandas Gandhi.

The play presents him primarily as a unique man of the world. However, as a true Renaissance man, More was of considerably broader genius. He gave us the word "Utopia" and formalized the concept within western thought through his writings on this namesake perfect society. His essays may seem dated and naïve today, but this is unfair, viewing them as we do through the filter of the intervening centuries. In addition to being a lawyer, judge and Chancellor, More was a scholar, author, essayist, philosopher and minister.

But the play is concerned with none of this. It focuses on one aspect of More's character: his acute sense of Self. The person of Thomas More commands our respect, because he possesses a strength of character that we all admire, some envy, and a few hate.

But where does this strength of character come from? Strangely enough, it's not faith, in the traditional sense of the word. The playwright uses faith as More's particular moral centre because it happens to be true in More's case. But we are allowed to generalize from More's case to our own, and Bolt argues that for every man, even the nonreligious, an unshakeable sense of Self is necessary for life to be worth living. More would not cross the line drawn by his faith because, in his case, his faith defined his Being. Is there a line we would not cross? A line defined by our own core values and beliefs? Contrast More's character to that of his foil, Cromwell, who embodies his antithesis, a life hired out to considerations of 'administrative convenience'.

In the end, we are our principles. Nothing less and nothing more. If we destroy our principles, we destroy our Being. You don't have to believe in the divine or in an immortal soul to understand the thesis at the heart of A Man For All Seasons.

This is an easy play to read and just as easy to understand. For all its literary beauty and thematic potency, it achieves a level of clarity that is missing in even the great classics. For this reason, some erstwhile intellectuals dismiss it as superficial. Ignore such snobs. This play is made the more wonderful by its accessibility, even to children, and certainly to intelligent youth who could do far worse than to start out on life's journey following the example set by such a man for all seasons.

Rating:
Summary: proficiency in english test.
Review: to pass my proficiency english test for the university of cambrigde i was foirced to read this book, well, it not as boring as shakespeare but i'd rather read something else.