English update

Unit 1 English – A Man for All Seasons

Our Year 11 students are beginning the year with a study of the enduringly significant play A Man for All Seasons by Robert Bolt. Based on the life of Thomas More – a true ‘Renaissance Man’ – the play tells the story of More’s refusal to accede to the wishes of Henry VIII to support the King’s divorce from Catherine of Aragon.

Bolt, famous for his screenplays for Lawrence of Arabia and Dr Zhivago, was fascinated by stories about characters who choose to go against prevailing opinion, and who suffer the consequences of doing so. His writing explores identity, freedom of thought, and the meaning of society, including the nature and purpose of the law. While many, thinking of the 1966 film adaptation of A Man for All Seasons, remember the Tudor-Era setting, the play is perhaps even more concerned with modern society. 

Published in 1960, the play responds to the aftermath of World War II, the rise of the Cold War, the arrival of a new Elizabethan Age, and the many social changes underway in the 1950s. For many years, Bolt worked as a secondary teacher of English and History, and his enthusiasm for education, wit, and culture is clear in A Man for All Seasons. Indeed, in Act I, Thomas More admonishes the ambitious Richard Rich to ‘Be a teacher!’, thus calling upon Rich to choose social service over social status. Studying A Man for All Seasons in VCE English provides students with opportunities to learn about Literature, History, Philosophy, and Politics while engaging with fundamental values, including those upheld at Shelford: respect, integrity, passion, and creativity.

Madeleine Coulombe

Head of English