What is The Common Man's role in A Man Of All Seasons?

The Common Man in this play is meant to be taken as a character that everyone can identify with. The Common Man in this play is both universal and base in his character, identifying one of the key themes of the play - that man is base and immoral at heart. The Common Man acts out many roles in the play to establish his universal nature, but actually develops into his own character as the play progresses. He starts off by acting out Matthew and the boatman, who are lowerclass characters who poke fun at upperclass characters. Yet this theme of immorality even penetrates these characters, as we see that Matthew tries to ignore his guilt at having sold Moore out.

The Common Man as the play develops becomes more aware of their own immorality. The Jailer for example directly addresses the audience as he agonises over whether to set Moore free. At the end of the play it is the Common Man that states that being alive is the only thing that counts. By using the character of the Common Man and establishing his involvement in the persecution of Moore, Bolt wishes to draw us all in to the moral dilemma that is at the heart of the play.

Bolt's character of the Common Man in A Man for All Seasons is in modern drama both something new and old: New, because he acts in many different roles to establish his credentials as a mouthpiece for humanity; old, because he functions rather in the manner of the Chorus found in much classical Greek theatre. What distinguishes the Common Man from the Chorus is the kind of judgment on human experience. Where the Chorus provided the heroes and heroines with the insights they needed to choose the good, the Common Man in his various manifestations tends toward moral turpitude. For example, when the jailer muses about whether to set free the imprisoned More, he addresses the audience on the theme of the futility of trying to do the right thing. Overall, the Common Man is complicit in the legal and political malice visited upon More, and thus acts as a foil to the noble conscience of the saint.

Robert Bolt's play, A Man for All Seasons, is about the conflict that erupts when the pope, Sir Thomas More, refuses to grant King Henry VIII a divorce from Catherine of Aragon. More remains obstinate in his refusal, despite enormous pressure from the king and cajoling from the Duke of Norfolk to bend his principles and comply. But More will not do so, for he steadfastly believes that the law of God trumps the law of Man.

Bolt's re-visioning of the events that transpire between More and King Henry VIII includes a character called the "Common Man." The Common Man serves a role much like that of a Greek Chorus, in that through his asides about the action, the audience gets a more nuanced understanding of the tensions that exist and the rarity of a man of More's outstanding character.

The Common Man is quite different in appearance and action, however, than a traditional Chorus. He is, indeed, quite common. He is hardly a great physical speciman. He is overweight, middle-aged, and serves in many "common" working capacities, including acting as More's steward, as the boatman, as the jury foreman, and as the "headsman" (executioner).

He is symbolic of the common man because he takes the common path, that is, the easy way out. There were few men of More's integrity in his day, and indeed, there are few in modern times. Bolt's deft execution of how little things change makes the A Man for All Seasons timelessly relevant.

What traits does the Common Man portray in A Man for All Seasons?

In act 1, the Common Man wonders why he is addressing the audience, as he is not a king or a cardinal or anyone of importance. He finally says,

The Sixteenth Century is the Century of the Common Man. Like all other centuries. And that’s my proposition.

The statement shows the universal quality of the Common Man. He represents the common person in any period of history. The common person is the ordinary guy with very little power. He works in one of the everyday jobs that keep society running, even if these jobs never bring fame or fortune. In the play, the Common Man plays, for example, the boatsman, the jailer, Thomas More's steward, the foreman, and the innkeeper. There is also a character called the Common Man, who represents the combined voices of all the ordinary people in society and offers observations on what he sees. Bolt said of the Common Man that he represents “what is common in us all.”

Other qualities of the Common Man beyond universality include pragmatism. The Common Man is trying to survive, make some money, and get by in life, not be a saint or change the world. Being morally perfect is not this character's goal, which makes him a good foil, or opposite, to Thomas More. The Common Man, unlike More, takes the path of least, not most, resistance, because he knows that resistance to authority is futile.

This leads to a second quality of the Common Man: keeping a low profile. In act 2, the Common Man says,

It isn't difficult to keep alive, friends—just don't make trouble.

The Common Man also acts as More's executioner. This highlights a third characteristic of this character: he does the dirty work the high and mighty want done but don't want to do themselves.

The pragmatic, survivalist morality of the Common Man highlights how uncommon Thomas More's speaking truth to power is: most of us are not going to step under the spotlight of behaving with moral grandeur and taking on a king.

Who or what is the Common Man in the prologue of A Man for All Seasons?

The Common Man serves a similar role to the classical Greek Chorus in Robert Bolt's play A Man for All Seasons, in that through his observations, the audience's reactions are influenced and they begin to understand the tensions between characters and the scarcity of a man of More's outstanding character. From the very first lines, we come to understand the character of the Common Man--self-deprecating, self-aware, and common.

It is perverse! To start a play with Kings and Cardinals in speaking costumes and intellectuals with embroidered mouths, with me.
If a King, or a Cardinal had done the Prologue, he'd have the right materials. And an intellectual would have shown enough majestic meanings, colourful propositions, and closely woven liturgical stuff to dress the House of Lords! But this!

He goes on to point out the simplicity of his dress and question how much a man's outward appearance has to do with who he is at heart; the upper class may look good and right, but is that who they are? He may look simple and disheveled, but is his appearance a fair representation of who he is?

He goes on to assume the guise of a steward who makes asides about the action, directing the audience's impressions of the characters on stage, a function he serves throughout the play.

He says that "The Sixteenth Century is the Century of the Common Man," and as such, the Common Man acts out numerous roles in the play to establish his universal nature--a steward, a boatman, etc. In each role, he demonstrates a commonality of character, a baseness that is one of the themes of the play--that man is generally immoral. The Common Man is a foil for More's moral behavior.

What role does the common man play in "A Man for All Seasons"?

The role of the common man is an attempt by Robert Bolt to make the play, which set in the 16th century, more contemporary. He inserts an audience, the Common Man, whose asides to the audience are designed to remind the viewer of More's relevance today. He makes it clear that More was an uncommon hero who exhibited the kind of courage that is as rare today as it was in More's time. In an age where one's beliefs can waver from one moment to another, the Common Man makes it clear that, even though it may be costly to stand up for one's moral values, to do otherwise may be more costly to society as a whole. In the end, Henry VII did break away from the Catholic church and marry Anne Bolyn but that ushered in an age of religious violence and intrigue that has plagued the English monarchy to this day.