In A Man For All Seasons, Thomas More was found
guilty of treason because he refused to support King Henry VIII's decision to
divorce his wife, Catherine of Aragon.
The King sought this divorce because he wanted to marry his mistress,
Anne Boleyne. King Henry contended he
was entitled to the divorce because Catherine had been married to Arthur,
Henry's older brother. Upon Arthur's
death, Catherine was betrothed to Henry.
Although King Henry had received prior church approval to marry
Catherine, he pointed out to the Pope that according to the Bible, it was wrong
to marry your brother's wife.
More did not accept King Henry's argument. As More saw it, King Henry should not be
allowed the divorce because his marriage had been approved previously by the
Pope.
I believe that Thomas More was treated unfairly
in A Man For All Seasons for two reasons.
First, Henry promised to leave More out of the divorce proceedings, and
then he broke that promise. Second, More
was treated unjustly during his trials.
Early in the film, King Henry paid a visit to
More, his chancellor. During the visit,
it became apparent that the King thought of Thomas as more than a chancellor;
he viewed More as a friend. Henry
respected More's opinion, and became extremely frustrated with his many
attempts to persuade More to accept the divorce. Finally, when the King realized that More
could not accept the divorce, he promised to exempt More from any decisions
pertaining to the divorce.
The leader of the divorce campaign was Thomas
Cromwell, who was next in line for the chancellor's position. He framed More hoping that More would be
forced to resign as chancellor. Cromwell
then wrote an oath which forced people to prove they accepted King Henry's
divorce. Even though the King had
promised to keep More out of the proceedings, members of the King's council
tried to persuade More to take the oath.
More talked to his wife and daughter, and decided to take the oath only
if the wording were ambivalent enough to hide his true beliefs. Unfortunately, the wording left no
question. More decided on a new approach
-- silence. Even though More remained
silent and refused to take the oath, he was put on trial.
Soon after his refusal to take the oath, More
was sent to the Tower. Eventually, he
was brought to trial during which he was treated unjustly. More said that while he did not necessarily
object to the King's divorce, he did not
want to take the oath. More decided to
resort to silence because an old English law stated that when people are
silent, they are giving their approval.
However, the jury in refusal to follow this law, found More guilty of
treason, and sentenced him to death.
In Man
For All Seasons, although Thomas More was treated unfairly, he was the only person who stood up for what
he believed. Even when everyone else
ignored their morals, More did not.
Justice is defined as fairness and impartiality. I believe that Thomas More was treated
neither fairly nor impartially. It was
biased for the jury to ignore the English law which stated that silence gives
approval. The jury was prejudice towards
More because only More went against the King.
This discrimination caused an innocent man to die, and that is not why
the justice system was created. In being
willing to die for his convictions, Thomas More proved he was truly "a man for all seasons."
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