The Metaphoric Structure of A Man for All Seasons

THE METAPHORIC STRUCTURE OF A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS IN HIS PREFACE TO A Man For All Seasons1 Robert' Bolt relates that one of his intentions as a playwright is to construct a ""bold and beautiful verbal architecture'" (xvii), not unlike a poem in that metaphor and imagery are consciously employed (xv). In "Robert Bolt: Self, Shadow, and the Theatre of Recognition,"2 Anselm Atkins has already discussed Bolt's use of the structural dialectic that may be seen in considering the relationship between Sir Thomas More and the Common Man-which results in a synthesis of apposite and opposite points necessary to the success of any kind of "architecture." My purpose here is to examine another aspect of Bolt's craftsmanship: his use of metaphor to reinforce the theme of conflict between More's selfhood and the demands of Henry's England. Bolt discusses in his preface why he chooses to use the particular metaphors that he does and what effect he hopes to achieve: I know no other way to treat this subject. In the play I used a poetic image. As a figure for the superhuman context I took the largest, most alien, least formulated thing I know, the sea and water. The references to ships, rivers, currents, tides, navigation, and so on, are all used for this purpose. Society by contrast figures as dry land. I set out with no very well-formed idea of the kind of play it was to be, except that it was not to be naturalistic. The possibility of using imagery, that is of using metaphors not decoratively but with an intention, was a side effect of that. (xv) Bolt goes on to say that no one seemed to notice what he did, but he also notes that "it's the nature of imagery to work, in performance at any rate, unconsciously." (xv) Bolt does create in his play the atmosphere necessary for the audience's appreciation-conscious or unconscious-of the significant actions of the plot. But the "superhuman context" that Bolt creates through use of metaphor looms even larger when the significance of the land-water imagery is consciously perceived upon a more critical scrutiny than would be made in the theater. 1 Page references in the text of this paper will be to the Vintage Books edition (1962) of A Man For All Seasons. 2 Anselm Atkins, "Robert Bolt: Self, Shadow, and the Theatre of Recognition," Modern Drama, X (1967). 182-188. 84 1971 METAPHOR IN A Man for All Seasons 8& As a metaphor, water is used in three distinct ways in A Man For AII Seasons. First, as Bolt notes, varied references to it provide overall a cosmic background for More's adamant resolution to be true to his self in the conflict that he is engaged in. Working in conjunction with the characters of the play, who exhibit a less pronounced moral stature than More and thus serve the function of the foil, the indefinite and "least formulated" sea imagery assists in the magnification of More's stance as the hero; even if on the unconscious level, it is a dramatically successful device. The second way in which water is used as metaphor is much more definite and specifically meaningful to the theme of the play. For, as the land metaphor represents society-society being clearly defined and formulated by law, which is "the very pattern of society" (xiv)-in the play, the water's indefiniteness comes to be identified with the subjective quantity that More terms his self. More uses this metaphor for his selfhood when his daughter, Meg, pleads with him in prison to "say the words of the oath and in your he'art think otherwise." (81) More, performing an action which has the religious overtones of the sacramental consecration in the Roman Catholic Mass, answers Meg thus: When a man takes an oath, Meg, he's holding his own self in his 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. (81...