Discussing the role of the common man in Robert Bolt's A Man for All Seasons

Dear Greg,
Although I found your web site useful, it lacked information on the role and the roles of the common man. I feel as though it would be beneficial to other people quite significantly if there was more information on this topic. It is a rather common question. Cheers
 
 
03 May 2000
G'day greg,
I was wondering whether you would be able to help me with the following essay topic and give me a sense of direction if possible. The question is: Discuss the role of the Common Man (and his roles) in "A Man For All Seasons"
It's a bit of a tough one. The teacher I believe would like us to see similarities between the characters he plays.
Thanks a lot
 
 
Greg supplies replies
 

The Methuen Notes (London 1982) say: "The use of the Common Man as Presenter puts the play into a kind of framework distancing us somewhat from the action and in this way helping us to judge what is going on. This is especially so if the original ending to the play is retained. At the same time, he helps to draw us into the play by addressing us directly and involving us in his own comments on the action, for we have to make up our own minds whether to accept, reject or modify what he says. (page 16).

 
The Letts Notes (London: 1987:63) say "the Common Man provides narrative linkage between scenes in the play. . . He provides comic relief and occasionally shows some measure of self-awareness throughout the play. . . If More's 'self' is unchangeable. . the Common Man's weakness is in his readiness to adapt and change into almost anything as a means to survive ... the succession of characters he portrays provides an image of that fluidity."
 
As the link between the audience and the play, the Common man is perhaps the most consistently modern in his speech, and after his exotically decorated opening lines, he speaks colloquially, in naturalistic broken phrases, though not without some imagination. (Play references see pp. 57, 74, 100) especially in his last speech in the Alternative Ending. His modernity suits with his reading from the rather ironically and satirically stilted prose of the 'history books' (p. 88).
 
Question: Is the Common Man a help or a hindrance to our understanding of the play?
 
I would have thought the answer is obvious: Yes, the Common Man is an effective device to maintain interest, interpret the action and convey the themes. He is like the Chorus in ancient Greek drama: their role was to review the action, explore motivations and issues, foretell what might happen and explore any consequences. They related the action to everyday life and the audience's own frame of reference in today's time. The Common Man does this too. Like them, he is the continuing link with the audience.
 
Bolt describes him as "a device to draw the audience into the play, not thrust them off it. In this respect he largely fails and for a reason I had not foreseen.. . . He is intended to be that myth, The Man in the Street.... I had meant him to be attractive and his philosophy impregnable.. . . But he was harder to find than a unicorn. He was not in the Stalls . . . but I thought I recognised him in the laughter he drew from the Gallery." (Preface pp. xviii-xix).
 
In other words, Bolt wanted to evoke a common chord at crucial points in the play, to reach the ordinary bloke (and his wife) in the theatre watching the play (and in London's streets by implication) to reflect their everyday twentieth century values and their pragmatic approach to life so as to contrast it with More and his Enlightenment world view. This device of the commonman character in front of the proscenium arch was intended both to interpret More and to locate him among common people's concerns. The commonman's role does not alienate us from More; it merely contextualises him in that society of that time. To talk of him as a Brechtian Alienation Effect, I believe, is to overstate and misunderstand its use.
 
© G. Smith May 2000
 
Table lists and describes roles of the Common Man.
Page numbers Heinemann Educational Australia 1982

Presenter pages 1, 47.

offers humour, motivation, access, perspective, irony

Matthew, More's steward, 23, 56-7, 61.

loyal if it suits, not always impartial, dramatises effects of the fall, displays how loyalty and secrets can be bought

boatman 13

to reflect the changing tides of public opinion; favour/disfavour and the temper/distemper of the common people; focuses only on earning a living

publican 41

philosopher, commentator, deliberate ignorance, avoids taking sides, avoids offending; ironic accommodation with events

Jailer 74, 80, 84, 87, executioner 99

victim of circumstances; cannot take up any opinion or offer help; has a job to do: "I feel my deafness coming on!"

John Dauncey Foreman of the Jury 89

Can be bought; fickle; cornered

Common man in Alternative ending 101

basic self interest; invites us to readjust to our own everyday world
© G. Smith May 2000

Hi, just a couple of questions:
 
How does Thomas More regard God, the Law and the Church?
 
God is centrally important to life and not as important to society as He should be. The Law is our protection against the ambiguities and hurts of life; More defends the law when he grants Satan protection under the law to Roper.
He sees the Church (see the final Trial) as God's kingdom on earth and our link with Jesus the manGod. Although corrupted by men the Lord's promise to guard her from error is a certainty More holds with certainty.
What are More's views on the church, especially? Clearly the church was corrupt at the time, and More knows this too, so why does he stay firm with their man-made rules--why does he dislike heretics (like Luther)?
As above it is man's duty to ensure the Church responds to the guiding spirit so it can endure and remain the soul of society humanising and transcending it. Rem,ember this is the medieval synthesis.
 
Why does the Common Man read out historical sections ahead of the play? To what purpose does it serve the drama; how does it affect the audience?
This is a costume drama and a difficult one to make relevant (today then 1960) as the cm says all kings and cardinals. The audience even though English would generally know the historical facts but just to remind them as a good teacher does Bolt reviews the historical facts anyway. Is this a sign of the education sloppiness of modern times?
 
As I haven't seen the play in a production myself, what is the overall effect the play has on its audience? How does he feel throughout the play. How does he feel at the end of it when More dies?
 
The play is strong and interest rises progressively; the drama and the inevitable death rivet our attention. Of course Paul Scofield made this part his own in the West End before the film so how the central actor does it will affect our enjoyment/involvement and no one has done it better. (Have you seen the Charlton Heston version?)
 
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