A Man For All Seasons by Robert Bolt PDF
Preview A Man For All Seasons by Robert Bolt
MACMILLAN MASTER GUIDES MASTERGUIDES GENERALEDITOR:JAMES GIBSON JANE AUSTEN Emma NonnanPage SenseandSensibility JudySimons Persuasion JudySimons PrideandPrejudice RaymondWilson MansfieldPark Richard Wirdnam SAMUELBECKETT WaitingforGodot JenniferBirkett WILLIAMBLAKE Songs ofInnocenceandSongsofExperience AlanTomlinson ROBERTBOLT AManforAllSeasons LeonardSmith CHARLOTTEBRONTE Jane Eyre Robert Miles EMILYBRONTE WlllheringHeights HildaD.Spear JOHN BUNYAN ThePilgrim'sProgress BeatriceBatson GEOFFREYCHAUCER TheMiller'sTale Michael Alexander ThePardoner'sTale GeoffreyLester TheWifeofBath'sTale NicholasMarsh TheKnight'sTale AnneSamson TheProloguetotheCanterburyTales NigelThomasandRichard Swan JOSEPHCONRAD TheSecretAgent AndrewMayne CHARLESDICKENS BleakHouse Dennis Butts GreatExpectations Dennis Butts HardTimes NonnanPage GEORGEELIOT Middlemarch GrahamHandley Silas Marlier GrahamHandley TheMillontheFloss HelenWheeler T.S.ELIOT MurderintheCathedral PaulLapworth SelectedPoems Andrew Swarbrick HENRYFIELDING JosephAndrews TrevorJohnson E.M.FORSTER APassagetoIndia HildaD.Spear HowardsEnd IanMilligan WILLIAMGOLDING TheSpire RosemarySumner LordoftheFlies RaymondWilson OLIVERGOLDSMITH SheStoopstoConquer PaulRanger THOMASHARDY TheMayorofCasterbridge Ray Evans Tessofthed'Urbervilles JamesGibson FarfromtheMaddingCrowd ColinTembleu-Wood BENJONSON Volpone Michael Stout JOHN KEATS SelectedPoems JohnGarrell RUDYARDKIPLING Kim LeoneeOrmond PHILIPLARKIN TheLessDeceivedandThe Whitsun Weddings Andrew Swarbrick MACMILLAN MASTER GUIDES D.H.LAWRENCE SOliSandLovas R.P.Draper HARPER LEE ToKillaMockingbird JeanArmstrong LAURIE LEE CiderwithRosie BrianTarbitt GERARDMANLEYHOPKINS SelectedPoems R.J.C.Watt CHRISTOPHERMARLOWE DoctorFaustusDavidA.Male THE METAPHYSICALPOETS JoanvanEmden THOMASMIDDLETONand TheChangeling TonyBromham WILLIAM ROWLEY ARTHURMILLER TheCrucible LeonardSmith Death ofaSalesman PeterSpalding GEORGEORWELL Allima/Farm JeanArmstrong WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE RichardII CharlesBarber Othello TonyBromham Hamlet JeanBrooks KingLear FrancisCasey HenryV PeterDavison TheWimer'sTale DianaDevlin JuliusCaesar DavidElloway Macbeth DavidElloway TheMerchantofVenice A.M.Kinghorn MeasureforMeasure MarkLilly Henry IVPartI HelenMorris RomeoandJuliet HelenMorris AMidsummerNight'sDream Kenneth Pickering TheTempest Kenneth Pickering Coriolanus GordonWilliams AmonyandCleopatra MartinWine TwelfthNight R.P.Draper GEORGEBERNARDSHAW StJoan LeoneeOrmond RICHARDSHERIDAN TheSchoolforScandal PaulRanger TheRivals JeremyRowe ALFREDTENNYSON InMemoriam RichardGill EDWARDTHOMAS SelectedPoems GeraldRoberts ANTHONYTROLLOPE BarchesterTowers K.M.Newton JOHN WEBSTER TheWhile DevilandTheDuchessofMalfi DavidA.Male VIRGINIAWOOLF TotheLighthouse John Mepham MrsDalloway Julian Pattison WILLIAM WORDSWORTH The PreludeBooksIandII HelenWheeler MACMILLAN MASTER GUIDES AMAN FOR ALL SEASONS BY ROBERT BOLT LEONARD SMITH M MACMILLAN © Leonard Smith 1985 Ali rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted sa ve with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting 1imited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W 1P 9HE. Any person who does any unauthorised act in re1ation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. First published 1985 by THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG2l 2XS andLondon Companies and representatives throughout the world ISBN 978-0-333-37435-1 ISBN 978-1-349-07490-7 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-07490-7 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Reprinted 1992 CONTENTS Generaleditor'spreface vii 1 Introduction 1 2 Robert Boltand the 2.1 From Methodist to Communist 3 backgroundto the play 2.2 Rejection of Communism 4 2.3 Conflict with the state over the Bomb 5 2.4 Development asplaywright 6 2.5 Subsequent work 8 3 Summary and critical 9 commentary 4 Thehistorical sourcesof 4.1 Bolt's historical sources 47 the play 4.2 The main characters 48 4.3 The adaptations 50 4.4 The modernslant 51 4.5 Historicalauthenticity 52 4.6 The shapeof the play 53 4.7 The tone and style 54 4.8 Conclusion 56 5 Themes 5.1 The contemporaryscene 57 5.2 Aparallelwith Arthur Miller's The Crucible 58 5.3 Theindividualand the state 60 5.4 The radio play 61 5.5 The 'self and its counter-theme 62 5.6 ConscienceversusMachiavelli 63 5.7 Integrity,honestyand loyalty versuscorruptionand betrayal 64 5.8 Thelaw 64 5.9 The family 65 5.10 Friendship 65 5.11 Power 65 5.12 Conclusion 66 6 Technical features 6.1 Development from the radio play 67 6.2 The useof the Common Man 69 vi 6.3 The useofstagemachinery 70 6.4 The useoflanguage 71 6.5 Theuseofimagery 72 7 Examinationofaspecimen passage 75 8 Critical reception 83 Revisionquestions 86 Furtherreading 88 vii GENERAL EDITOR'S PREFACE The aim of the MacmillanMaster Guides isto help you to appreciate the book you arestudying byprovidinginformationabout it and bysuggesting ways of reading and thinking about it which will lead to a fuller under standing. The section on thewriter'slifeand backgroundhasbeen designed to illustrate those aspects of the writer's life which haveinfluenced the work, and to place it in its personal and literary context. The summaries and critical commentary are of special importance in that each brief summary of the action is followed by an examination of the significant critical points. The spacewhichmighthavebeengivento repetitive explana tory notes has been devoted to a detailed analysis of the kind of passage which might confront you in an examination. Literary criticism is con cerned with both the broader aspects of the work being studiedand with itsdetail. The ideaswhichmeetusinreadingagreat work ofliterature,and their relevance to us today, are an essential part of our study, and our Guides look at the thought of their subject in some detail. But just as essential is the craft with which the writer hasconstructedhiswork ofart, and this is considered under severaltechnical headings - characterisation, language,style and stagecraft. The authors of these Guides are all teachers and writers of wide ex perience, and they have chosen to write about books they admire and know well in the belief that they can communicate their admiration to you. But you yourself must read and know intimately the book you are studying. No one can dothatfor you. You should seethis book asalamp post. Useit to shed light, not to lean against. Ifyou know your textand know what it is saying about life, and how it says it, then you willenjoy it, and there isno betterway ofpassinganexaminationin literature. JAMES GIBSON viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The editor and publishers wish to thank the following who have kindly given permission for the useofcopyrightmaterial: BasilBlackwellLimited for an extract from ThomasMore,History andProvidence by Alistair Fox; Jonathan Cape Ltd on behalf of the Executors of the R. W. Chambers Estate for an extract from Thomas More;Heinemann Educational Books Ltd for extracts from Vivat, Vivat Regina! by Robert Bolt; Heinemann Educational Books Ltd and Random House Inc. for extracts from A Man for AllSeasons by Robert Bolt; Margaret Ramsey Ltd on behalfofRobert Bolt for an extract from the radio playA Manfor AllSeasons. Cover illustration: Portrait ofSir Thomas More, after Holbein, courtesy ofthe NationalPortraitGallery. 1 INTRODUCTION Whenstudying A Manfor AllSeasons you must constantly keep inmind that it isawork ofart written for performance on the stage.Ifyou arenot lucky enough to seeaperformance, you must imaginehowit wouldappear onastage.Thedramatic impact ofthe play depends not only onthe words spoken by the actors, but also onthe effect ofcostumes, stageproperties, sounds on and off stage, lighting, and many other theatrical devices,in cludingthe reactions of the audience. Before Robert Bolt wrote the stage versionofA Manfor AllSeasons, he had been involvedin the production ofhis first successfulstage play, FloweringCherry, so he knew allthe possibilitiesprovidedby the modern professional theatre, and heusedthem extensivelyinthis play.Onereason for the world-widesuccessof thisplayisthat itissodramatically effective in the theatre; not only the producer and actors, but also the costume designers, the 'props' men, the sound effects and lighting engineers, all have a rewarding time when this play isstaged,and this co-operativecrea tiveachievement makesitsimpact onthe audience. So don't study A Man for All Seasons as you would a novel, short story orpoem. Youmustreadnot onlythewordsspoken by the characters, but also imaginehow they would bedeliveredon the stage;you must read all the stagedirections carefully,and imaginewhat effect they wouldhave, not only the visual effects of costumes, props, changesof scene and the useoflighting,butalsothe sounds. It is possible that you have seen the film ofA Manfor AllSeasons, or a video ofthe film, and not the stage production. Although the script for the filmwaswritten by Bolthimself,and hewascloselyinvolvedinits production, the filmis in many ways different from the play.Thecentral themes, and many ofthe wordsspoken by the charactersarethe same;but
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