A Man For All Seasons Characters

Attendant

Chapuys' assistant

Duke Of Norfolk

Large and simple-minded man who feels his opinion matters because of his position as a nobleman; close friend of Thomas More who's asked by Cromwell to betray that friendship

Thomas Cromwell

Main antagonist of the story; crafty lawyer who strives for the downfall of Thomas More with little guilt to show for it

Alice

(Quietly) I neither could nor would rule my King. (Pleasantly) But there's a little . . . little, area . . . where I must rule myself. It's very little—less to him than a tennis court.

Common Man

Plays the roles of Matthew, the boatman, the innkeeper, etc.; narrates certain parts of the play to the audience

Thomas More

Refuses to object against the King's divorce or swear to the Parliament's Act of Supremacy; stays true to his conscience and to God even to his death

Sigñor Chapuys

Spanish ambassador to England; loyal to his country and does not want the king to divorce Catherine

More

The currents and eddies of right and wrong, which you find such plain-sailing, I can't navigate

Cardinal Wolsey

The first Lord Chancellor of England in the play; Thomas More takes his position after he dies

Henry

There are those that like Norfolk who follow me because I wear the crown, ans there are those like Master Cromwell who follow me because they are jackals with sharp teeth and i am their lion, and there is a mass that follows me because it follows anything that moves -- and there is you

1950s- September 1960

what century was the man for all seasons set in

More

All right, so he's down on his luck! I'm sorry. I don't mind saying that: I'm sorry! Bad luck! If I'd any good luck to spare he could have some. I wish we could all have good luck, all the time! I wish we had wings! I wish rainwater was beer! But it isn't! . . . And what with not having wings but walking-on two flat feet; and good luck and bad luck being just exactly even stevens; and rain being water—don't you complicate the job by putting things in me for me to miss!

More

And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned round on you—where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? (He leaves him) This country's planted thick with laws from coast to coast—man's laws, not God's—and if you cut them down—and you're just the man to do it—d'you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then?

Jailer

Better a live rat than a dead lion

William Roper

Boyfriend and later husband of Margaret More; zealous and fickle with his opinions

Rich

Every man has his price!

Margaret Roper

Falls in love with and marries Will Roper; seems to understand her father's motives the most throughout the play

Richard Rich

Foil to Thomas More; wants to be employed and sacrifices his conscience by perjuring himself at More's trial in exchange for a post as attorney general for Wales

henry

For we artists, though we love praise, yet we love truth better

Common Man

It is perverse! To start a play made up of Kings and Cardinals in speaking costumes and intellectuals with embroidered mouths, with me

Matthew (common man)

My Master Thomas More would give anything to anyone. Some say that's good and some say that's bad, but I say he can't help it—and that's bad . . . because some day someone's going to ask him for something that he wants to keep; and he'll be out of practice.

Alice More

Thomas' wife. Tries to convince him to give in to the kings wishes and does not understand his refusal to the kings wishes

Woman

Tries to bribe Thomas More

Henry VIII

Tries to gain a good moral reputation by sympathizing with Thomas More; believes he can force anyone to validating his desires such as being able to sanction his divorce from Catherine

Archbishop Cranmer

Visits Thomas More in the tower and tries to convince him to swear to the king's oath

More

Well . . . I believe, when statesmen forsake their own private conscience for the sake of their public duties . . . they lead their country by a short route to chaos

cromwell

What Englishman can behold without Awe. The Canvas and the Rigging of the Law!

King Henry VIII married his brother's widow, Catherine, cementing his alliance with Spain. The pope granted Henry an exemption from Catholic law to allow this illegal union between a man and his brother's widow. The couple then attempted to produce an heir. Unfortunately, the couple had no success producing a male offspring, and in any case, the king had become enamored of the lusty and presumably more fertile Anne Boleyn. Henry therefore sought to overturn the pope's previous dispensation in order to annul his marriage to Catherine and enable him to marry Anne.

what was the problem of the catholic church?

he represents humanity because he is a universal character who falls to his immoral ways; moreover, his main symbol is guilt because he attaches us to the guilt of his many characters as well as those who surround him. He can never escape his conscience.

what was the symbol of the common man?