A Man For All Seasons Character Analysis

A Man For All Seasons, is a play by Robert Bolt. What would one expect a common man to expose the truth about A Man For All Seasons? It is a man- A common Man, who represents all the common people who are looked down upon. Bolt states in the preface of this play, that the Common Man had been planned to stipulate “that which is common to us all”(xix). The Common Man personifies the neutrality and entireness of the” Common people.” Bolt allows the reader to track which character the common man is playing by providing a different color hat for each character given. Although it seems that his role in the play is not significant, his roles increase in importance throughout the play to give the reader a better understanding of what Bolt is trying

to portray, about reality.
The Common Man is exposing the reader to, as mentioned earlier how the upper-class looks down upon those of lesser status. It’s exposing the reader to the reality of the classes and depending on which class one is in, that is how that person will be addressed. For example when More is talking to the boat man he shows great affection towards him and is respectful towards him. But later in that same passage Cromwell shows up and is not as kind to the boatman as More is. Cromwell comes to talk to More but instead of saying hello to the boat man he asks “Boat Man, have you a license?” (25), whereas More is joking with the boat man and showing affection towards him. This passage shAs mentioned before, The common as Bolt stated in the preface, is supposed to represent “all that is common to us all” (xix). The common Man was written to represent the people in society who are not known to be significant to the up-keeping of society. By the characters that the common man has to depict for instance the Boat man. Even though the common man is supposed to portray those who are of lesser status and of those who lack moral footing, it stills shows that even those of lower class can be as cruel as those of higher class. For example, when Matthew felt bad for ratting More out after More showed his affection for him instead of showing his guilty conscience he tries to conceal it. So what Bolt is exposing in this section of the book by using the common man as his pon is that you can always lose your moral footing no matter who you are. That even though you had great morals before, it does not mean that they will always be with you.
ows that the boat man (common man) is being looked down upon by Cromwell, and it is as if Cromwell does not trust the Boat man. Due to the fact, that the boat man is of lesser status than Cromwell is the reason behind why Cromwell does not respect the boat man.
The common man is also exposing the fact that the space between the upper-class and the lower class is significant, and that those of the lower status will be more willing to preserve all that they earn and use it wisely.

Self preservation is not always the big motivation for those with all the power and money. For example, we see the common man talk the role of publican/innkeeper who is providing a room for Sir Cromwell. In this scene, Cromwell gets frustrated with the publican because “he does not understand” what Cromwell is trying to instruct him. Cromwell is also made the innkeeper does not know who he is and it is surprising that he expects everybody to know who he is(70).
In conclusion, what Robert Bolt is exposing in A man for all seasons is that even though those of lesser status are looked down upon they are still the same as those who are of higher status. Even though those of higher status have sometimes lack a moral footing does not mean that those of the lower status will also lack moral footing. Bolt is exposing the fact that universally society treats everyone differently based on appearance or what their parents do for a living, when really he is trying to expose the fact that no one should be looked down upon, all though we differ in some things we are still the

same.