NON-AFRICAN DRAMA ROBERT BOLT: A Man For All Seasons Discuss the decline of values in the play

Answer Details

Robert Bolt's A Man for All Seasons dramatises the trial and death of Sir Thomas More, and around More's steadfast integrity Bolt sets a society in which values are steadily decaying. The play shows a world where principle is sacrificed to ambition, self-interest and survival, so that More's constancy shines out against a general moral collapse.

Corruption of the state and the law. The central sign of decline is the perversion of justice to serve the king's will. Henry VIII wants his divorce and his supremacy over the Church, and the machinery of the law is bent to obtain them. Thomas Cromwell manufactures evidence, and More is finally condemned on the perjured testimony of Richard Rich. Law, which should protect the innocent, becomes a weapon against them.

Perjury and false witness. Richard Rich embodies the decay of personal values. Hungry for advancement, he sells his conscience for the office of Attorney-General for Wales, giving false evidence that sends More to the block. More's rebuke, that Rich has lost his soul "for Wales," crystallises the play's judgment on those who trade integrity for gain.

Expediency and self-preservation. The Common Man, who takes on many roles, steward, boatman, jailer, juror, executioner, represents ordinary humanity's readiness to go along with wrong in order to stay safe and comfortable. He harms More not from hatred but from self-interest, showing how the erosion of values thrives on ordinary cowardice and indifference.

Pragmatism against conscience. Even reasonable men decline. The Duke of Norfolk urges More to swear the oath for friendship's sake; Cranmer and the court value convenience over truth; Cardinal Wolsey judges by results rather than right. Against all these, More refuses to sign against his conscience and pays with his life.

Conclusion. Bolt presents a world sliding from principle into expediency, where oaths, friendship and justice are all bent to power and profit. More alone holds firm, and his martyrdom measures the extent of the decline around him. The play warns that a society which abandons conscience for advantage destroys its best men and corrupts itself.