Morality is often overpowered by materialistic pursuits. In “A Man for All Seasons”,Robert Bolt shows the corruption of those who put self interest above all other values. His use of such characters as Thomas Cromwell, Richard Rich, Chapuys and Wolsey help convey this corruption. There is yet another character who is a pragmatist that Bolt successfully represents. Thomas More is an idealist as well as a pragmatist, for he is prepared to give up everything for his beliefs and takes all precautions possible to make his case “watertight”. It is through this pragmatism and idealism that Robert Bolt shows the corruption of the times.
Thomas More believed in his ideals to such an extent that he was prepared to sacrifice his life for them, if the need arrived. He was a firm believer in the separation of Church and State. When the King tried to start the reformation of England and the Church by a simple Act of Parliament called the Act of Supremacy, Thomas refused to sign it. He believed that the indictment of the King was “grounded in an Act of Parliament which is directly repugnant to law of God. The King in Parliament cannot bestow he Supremacy of the Church because it is a Spiritual Supremacy! And more to this the immunity of the Church is promised both in Magna Carta and the Kings own Coronation Oath!”(Bolt, p. 92) The marriage was yet another reason why More refused to sign the Act. He knew that if he signed it then he would accept the King as the Supreme Head of Church and thus give the King the power to “dispense with the dispensation” which to him was against his morals and religion. Of course the marriage was associated with other things -attack on the abbeys, the whole Reformation policy-to which More was violently opposed. When told by Norfolk that his parish attire is a disrespect to the King and his office. More replies that “the service of God is not a dishonor to any office”(Bolt, p.26) Even though he loves the King to death as proved by Mores loyalty towards him, he values his morality and religion more. For his conscience is a “little area where I must rule myself”(Bolt,p.34). His position is perfectly described in his belief that “when statesmen forsake their own private conscience for the sake of their public duties... they lead their country by a short route to chaos.
Using several other quotes, he illustrates the belief that the nation is torn between personal morals and extreme conservative notions. He then states his belief that these sentiments are complete nonsense,
Thomas More hates war, as do most people. But you must have an army constantly training to avoid war. Having a well-trained army will scare enemies and keep people from attacking them. This is yet another corporate vocation. Everyone in the army has a private vocation to protect the city and the people within so this creates another corporate vocation. The army protects the farmers and religious and the farmers provide food for the soldiers and the religious pray for the army as well as the farmers. So it all comes together into one large corporate vocation. Regarding the book itself, it ends with worship because it is the way to live.
In Martin Luther King Jr’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” he cites conscience as a guide to obeying just laws and disobeying unjust laws. In the same way, Henry David Thoreau wrote in his famous essay, “Civil Disobedience,” that people should do what their conscience tells them and refuse to follow unjust laws. The positions of the two writers are very close; they both use a common theme of conscience, and they use a similar rhetorical appeal to ethos.
In the book, A Man For All Seasons by Robert Bolt there are a few people that can’t be trusted by Sir Thomas More, the main character in the book. Richard Rich is definitely one of those men who can’t be trusted and along with Thomas Cromwell the two destroy More’s life slowly but surely and to the point of death. In the end of the book More is executed for high treason and his family goes from being very well off to having to start over. So this book shows that through deceitfulness of two, one can fall.
in a trance or sleep state where you at times may not be able to tell
Truth and idealism can lead individuals onto an enlightened path, however, with questionable ideals an individuals life can be persuaded inaccurately. In the Shakespearean Drama, Macbeth, the main characters experience misguidance from their own mislead ideals, which created significant disorder among themselves and the country of Scotland. Ambition combined with the unrighteous forces of Macbeth and Lady led them predominantly to deadly consequences. Macbeth and his wife are engrossed by the witches prophecies which directed them both to irrational thinking and absurd actions. These actions defined both characters throughout the play and impacted their demise tremendously. The ideals of the powerful couple, along with their overbearing ambition, lead their reality into an unconscionable future and their eventual death.
Owing to the denial from the Pope created one of the most radically conceived events in English History (Banting, 2002). Consequently, Henry enlisted the help of Cardinal Wolsey to convince the Pope to consider Henry’s annulment. Wolsey went unsuccessful, causing Henry to break away from Rome. Henry had Parliament pass the Act of Supremacy in 1534. This Act allowed him to take on the role as the head of the Church of England (Kivlen, 1927). He created a new title for himself “Protector and Supreme Head of the Church and Clergy of England” (Delderfield, 1978). Henry was no Protestant; he just wanted a Catholic church without the Pope (Mullett, 2003). The Church of England remained Catholic, but gradually strayed away becoming more different from the Church of Rome, in doctrine. In 1539 Henry issued the Six Articles, which insisted on the
Compare and Contrast Human Idealism Between two readings, Analects and the Basic Writings of Mo Tzu, Hsün Tzu, and Han Fei Tzu. Both have a different perspective, but both strive to make humankind the best they can. Forming a personality that we as humans need to shape ourselves to develop the ideal person. The Analects contain fragments and random sequences of Confucius sayings that reflect upon notes that contain discipline from collective teachings. Han Feizi was part of the Han royal family, he was taught by a Confucian teacher Xunzi.
What exactly is “truth”? And how do we arrive at the truth? Over these past weeks I have successfully be able to study two different but very closely linked methods of arriving at what we human beings know as truth. Introduced to the method of pragmatism by William James, I have concluded that pragmatism uses an approach in which reason is used to find what is true but what also has to be considered is that the truth is subject to change. Which distinguishes it from Rene Descartes' method of pursuing what is true. Essentially they follow the same procedures. Although at the final moments of my research, I began to find myself pro-pragmatism. I disbelieve Descartes claim that the mind believes everything that is perceived through the human eye which leaves no room for an imagination. Both James and Descartes differ in some areas while maintaing similarities in others. Whether its concerning the way their visions are presented, their interpretations of the truth, or how applicable the idea of it is to our lives.
William Penn Warren’s All the King’s Men is novel that explores the political society and its influences. Like several politicians in modern society, several characters have qualities that seem unsuitable to the impression that have made. These ironies in All the King’s Men reveal how the characters have flaws, which can result in critical consequences. Jack Burden, Adam Stanton, Judge Irwin and Willie Stark are characters that with ironic traits.
There are many ideas about the way things are suppose to be, they guide people in the way humans approach life and how people go about achieving our goals. Unfortunately people do not always accomplish these ideas they have for ourselves but the truth often times is what we really need. In the Shakespearean drama, Macbeth, he writes of a once cherished leader, Macbeth who is approached by supernatural being and acts out erratically to fulfill what prophesies he desires which lead to his eventual demise. Macbeth has difficulty perceiving idealism from the truth, in other words what he thinks should happen and what actually happens. The prophecies are the catalyst for his irrational thinking and from then on Macbeth becomes addicted to knowing what his future could be and taking it to the extreme of needing to create it then and there. Down this path he also has his wife Lady Macbeth who pushes him further to act on these prophecies to achieve the ultimate goal of the crown. She too has an obsession with doing whatever it takes to be Queen and have that authority to her name. These two characters take to the extreme what it means to need truth but desire their idealism and how this leads to their eventual demise.
When More died it sent a message to the public that the Kin was wrong in what he was doing. As More died in front of a lot of people, it certainly showed to the public that it was honorable and he put his point across in the clear way. “….but because I would not bend to the marriage” (pg. 78) More is simply stating that he wouldn’t agree with the King for the clear intention of staying alive.
Sir Thomas More wrote this story exactly in the time when Europe was religiously being torn apart by conflicts and revolutions such as the reformation, that caused “the separation of the Christians of western Europe into Catholics and Protestant” (khanacademy). Religion as a whole was as a consequence, an important and hot topic to discuss at the time considering all that is going on. I wonder why Hythloday spent so much time and effort discussing that matter with the narrator. It was rather dangerous to talk too controversially about religion during that period. The Author, by expressing himself through a fictional monotheist but laic polity in which the inhabitants all believe in a single Power, God and governed by specific moral code laws
“In the place where idealism and realism meet, that is where there is the greatest evolutionary tension.” Idealism prioritizes ideals, social reforms and morals, by wanting to benefit not just yourself, but the world around you, believing people are generally good. On the contrary, realism gives priority to national interest and security with emphasis on promoting one’s own power and influence by assuming that people are egocentric by nature. Based on the definitions stated above, idealism and realism are significantly different from each other and their divergence of thought is more apparent when various proponents of each such as Woodrow Wilson, Henry Lodge, Barack Obama and George W. Bush have varied outlooks on comparable issues in politics. Subsequently, an idealist’s reaction to a particular issue would be a lot different than a realist’s response. Therefore, idealism deals with normative ideas and allows for improvements in the progress of not only a single state, but the whole world, however realism solely focuses on the benefits of one’s own nation.
Set in the ever changing world of the Industrial Revolution, Charles Dickens’ novel Hard Times begins with a description of a utilitarian paradise, a world that follows a prescribed set of logically laid-out facts, created by the illustrious and "eminently practical" Mr. Gradgrind. However, one soon realizes that Gradgrind's utopia is only a simulacrum, belied by the devastation of lives devoid of elements that "feed the heart and soul," as well as the mind. As the years fly by, the weaknesses of Gradgrind's carefully constructed system become painfully apparent, especially in the lives of his children Louisa and Tom, as well as in the poor workers employed by one Mr. Josiah Bounderby, a wealthy factory owner and a subscriber to Gradgrind's system. Dickens, through the shattering of Gradgrind's utilitarian world, tells us that no methods, not even constant oppression and abuse, can defeat and overcome two basic needs of humans, our fundamental needs for emotion and imagination.