Man For All Seasons
The Common Man in the play A Man for All Seasons has a very important role. He is the link between the audience and the play itself. His purpose is to keep the audience from becoming too emotionally involved in the play, to destroy the idea of theatrical illusion, and to make the audience able to identify with him by portraying many different common characters. The Common Man introduces, and, in one ending, concludes the play, which makes him an important character. The Common Man wears normal commoners' clothes so that the audience can immediately identify with him. He represents common sense and morals, and provides the audience with humour, motivation, perspective, and irony (http://home.pacific.net.au/ ~greg.hub/commonman.html, PG. 3) . Because of this the Common Man is similar in purpose to the Chorus in ancient Greek drama: to review the action, to explore the play and its consequences, and to relate the action to everyday life for the audience. (http://home.pacific. net.au/~greg.hub/commonman.html, PG. 2) A Man For All Seasons begins with the Common Man standing in the middle of the stage holding and changing his costumes right in front of the audience. He then continues to question his own costumes, saying,
"The great thing's not to get out of your depth...What I can tell them's common knowledge! But now they've given me money for it and everyone wants value for his money. They'll make a secret of it now to prove they've not been bilked...Mm...Oh, when I can't touch the bottom I'll go deaf blind and dumb. (He holds out coins) And that's more than I earn in a fortnight!" (PG 24-25) "...From Richmond to Chelsea, a penny halfpenny...from Chelsea to Richmond, a penny halfpenny. From Richmond to Chelsea, it's a quiet float downstream, from Chelsea to Richmond, it's a hard pull upstream. And it's a penny halfpenny either way. Whoever makes the regulations doesn't row a boat..." (PG. 17) Later on in the play Matthew also decides that he would rather leave his position as Steward of Thomas More than take a pay cut. This is a natural thing that an ordinary person would do, if necessary, to survive. This, again, is something that the audience can identify with, and it helps to keep them involved, through the Common Man, in what is happening in the play. The Common Man comments on the action taking place during the play, sometimes inhibiting the audience from making their own decisions about what is going on. He stops the audience from becoming so emotionally attached to Thomas More that they would be unable to make their own decisions about him. His role is also to make the audience see the moral lessons in the play.
Some common words found in the essay are:
, Cromwell Cromwell, Punctuation Exercise, Common Pg, Cromwell Chapuys, Bolt Common, More's Steward, Chelsea Richmond, Thomas Lights, Century Common, ordinary person, pg 3, common plays, chelsea richmond, richmond chelsea, idea theatrical illusion, theatrical illusion, idea theatrical, destroy idea theatrical, common makes, common characters, play purpose, emotionally involved play, audience becoming emotionally,
Approximate Word count = 1574
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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