Conclusion: For All Seasons—The Particulars and the Universals of Man in Bolt’s A Man for All Seasons

Abstract

The Conclusion examines how the post–WWII play, A Man for All Seasons, is both similar and departs from the other plays discussed in this book. Like the Common Man in Bolt’s play, who missed an opportunity to continue to serve under More and give a not guilty verdict to save an innocent life, A Man for All Seasons plays upon the feelings of missed opportunities, guilt, and wishing that we (the Common Men, Common Women, and all of humanity) had chosen different paths, slightly more honorable and slightly more self-sacrificing, in order to save even just one more life. A Man for All Seasons is not a call to action in the narrative shape of the telos (like the pre-WWII plays, Danton’s Death, Salome, and Galileo), but it is, instead, a narrative that is meant to haunt us and make us rue the choices of the Common Man.