With the battle raging between the Little Sisters of the Poor and the Federal government on the HHS Mandate, some writers have likened their case to the trial of St. Thomas More as seen in Robert Bolt’s play A Man for All Seasons or Fred Zinnemann’s famous film adaption. Zinnemann’s film and Bolt’s play, however, inaccurately convey Thomas More’s idea of conscience.
In the play’s preface, Bolt decries the loss of the “individual Man,” an archetypal figure to whom one can compare him or herself and Zinnemann’s film adaptation reinforces Thomas More as an “individual man,” a man of great selfhood to whom one can compare his own way of life, and to whom one can aspire to become. First, Bolt states, “A man takes an oath…when he wants to make an identity between the truth of it and his own virtue; he offers himself as a guarantee.” This “guarantee to offer,” necessitates a strong idea of the self. For Bolt and Zinnemann, More can resist the many temptations of court because he has a strong sense of selfhood, a selfhood that is uncompromising.
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