{"id":1278,"date":"2023-12-12T18:06:43","date_gmt":"2023-12-13T02:06:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.scholarsonline.org\/Blog\/?p=1278"},"modified":"2023-12-13T18:06:53","modified_gmt":"2023-12-14T02:06:53","slug":"december-12-a-man-for-all-seasons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scholarsonline.org\/Blog\/?p=1278","title":{"rendered":"December 12: A Man for All Seasons"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On December 12, 1966, Columbia Pictures released a movie based on a long-running British play about the Lord Chancellor of England under Henry VIII, a gentleman named Thomas More. While there is plenty to learn about the historical More as scholar and teacher, philosopher and politician, Robert Bolt\u2019s play A Man for All Seasons <\/em>focuses on More\u2019s refusal to sign a letter asking the Pope to annul Henry\u2019s marriage to Catherine, and to take the Oath of Supremacy recognizing Henry as head of the Church of England. The play, like most really good historical literature, ignores some events and invents others. It is not history, but it is challenging theatre: it tells us some hard truths about human nature and human integrity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I first saw it, I knew a bit about Henry and the period: Elizabeth I fascinated me as a child, so the characters and setting of Tudor England were not entirely foreign. But More\u2019s story was new, and Bolt\u2019s play complicated: as More encounters his pupil Richard Rich, his friend Thomas Howard, his enemy Thomas Cranmer, and his King Henry VIII, we discover a man who acts as honestly as he can with each one, realizing that he will not be able to avoid his own downfall without betraying himself. The play shaped my own understanding of what it means to act with conviction, and to accept the consequences.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’ve talked with people who have seen the movie and don\u2019t get it. \u201cWhy,\u201d they ask, \u201cdidn\u2019t he just sign the oath and avoid execution?\u201d More answers that in a crucial scene with daughter, Meg:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

When a man takes an oath, Meg, he’s holding his own self in his own hands. Like water (he cups his hands) and if he opens his fingers then, he needn’t hope to find himself again. Some men aren’t capable of this, but I’d be loath to think your father one of them.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Oaths are important. Keeping promises is essential. It\u2019s a theme that repeats throughout the literature that shaped Western Civilization from Homer to Harry Potter. We are not defined by our birth or wealth or intelligence. Our identity is rooted in the choices and promises we make: to stay and fight at Troy and be a hero, or to go home to the quiet life; to remain on Circe\u2019s island or keep faith with Penelope; to accept one\u2019s duty to the gods to found the Latin nation, or stay in Dido\u2019s Carthage; to sign a piece of paper and stay alive, or to keep faith with one\u2019s convictions and accept the consequences.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On December 12, 1966, Columbia Pictures released a movie based on a long-running British play about the Lord Chancellor of England under Henry VIII, a gentleman named Thomas More. While there is plenty to learn about the historical More as scholar and teacher, philosopher and politician, Robert Bolt\u2019s play A Man for All Seasons focuses […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1280,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-character-formation","category-hist"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scholarsonline.org\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scholarsonline.org\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scholarsonline.org\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scholarsonline.org\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scholarsonline.org\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1278"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.scholarsonline.org\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1278\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1284,"href":"https:\/\/www.scholarsonline.org\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1278\/revisions\/1284"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scholarsonline.org\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scholarsonline.org\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scholarsonline.org\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scholarsonline.org\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}