Elements of political and social protest writing: sample question commentary
How a question taken from the sample assessment material addresses the assessment objectives, with some suggestions of how the task might be approached.
This is not intended to be an exhaustive list of every point that could be made but it gives teachers and students some guidance that will support their work on this paper. This resource is designed to support you in teaching the 'Political and social protest writing' component of A-level English Literature B.
Paper 2B, Section A
Sample question, unseen text, A man for all seasons
Question 1
Explore the significance of the elements of political protest in this extract. Remember to include in your answer relevant detailed analysis of the ways Bolt has shaped meanings.
How the question meets the assessment objectives
In this question, as throughout the paper, all the assessment objectives are assessed. The key words and terms in the question are: explore, significance, elements of political protest, analysis, ways and shaped meanings, and these are clearly connected to the assessment objectives.
AO1 will be tested through the ways the students organise their writing and express their ideas as they are exploring significance and analysing dramatic method. AO2 is set up in the requirement for students to analyse 'the ways Bolt has shaped meanings' (specifically his dramatic methods) and to show how the ways open up meanings about political protest writing. The word 'significance' is an invitation for students to target AO3 and AO5, to show what is signified in terms of contexts and interpretations that arise about political protest writing as revealed in the extract. AO3 will be addressed through the students' showing their understanding of both the political writing and modern dramatic contexts of A Man for All Seasons; and in the way they will elicit from the extract contextual ideas about when the text was written and how it might be received. AO5 will be addressed when students consider meanings that arise about political writing in the extract. Finally, in writing about and engaging with elements of political writing, AO4 will be hit as students will be connecting implicitly with concepts of the political and social protest writing genre (and other political and social protest texts) through the 'elements' which they are exploring.
Possible content
It may be helpful for students to begin by briefly giving an overview of the extract in terms of the political situation that is set up. Students can then focus on specific political elements and what significances arise. They should always be mindful that this is a play and that Bolt heightens the political ideas by the dramatic methods he uses.
The contextual information given at the start of the extract offers a possible structure for students' responses in that it points to a series of political conflicts that can be explored. These conflicts include that between Henry VIII and the pope and those between court representatives and the ordinary man. The conflicts might be seen as especially intense and therefore dramatically powerful, in that they take place in the adversarial setting of the courtroom, which pits More and Cromwell against each other. There is also a sense that the country at large will be affected by the outcomes in the court, not least of all because 'the country greatly respects More' and because More directly addresses the Common Man. The political conflicts and power struggles set up in the extract are clearly key to the drama and central to political writing.
Some ideas students might write about are:
- power struggles.
Religious conflict: Pope vs King
The conflict between the pope and the king, which is only alluded to in this passage, overarches and informs the other power struggles that Bolt dramatises. Of course neither the king nor the pope is present (as they would not have been historically), but Bolt makes it clear to his audience that the authority in the court is the king. The trial after all is based on Henry's decision to set himself up as the Head of the Church of England breaking with the pope's authority in Rome. Candidates might choose to explore the language used to refer to King Henry; the number of titles that he is given suggests Henry's power and the need of his court officials to make capital of that power. Candidates might see More as a representative of the pope and More's eloquent and self-evident suggestion that kings die is a clear challenge to Henry's authority. More certainly is an ambassador for the authority of God in whom he has an unshakeable faith. When Norfolk suggests that More's life lies in his own hands (thereby suggesting an easeful life and natural death), More replies: 'For our own deaths, my lord, yours and mine, dare we for shame desire to enter the Kingdom with ease, when Our Lord Himself entered with so much pain?' More's religious faith is dramatically contrasted to the self seeking attitudes of the court officials who seem to worship the king as opposed to God.
The State against the Individual: More vs Cromwell (and the king)
At the centre of the extract an ordinary man is being tried by the state. Within the grand and formal setting of a courtroom, More is in the clutches of a corrupt and powerful state machine. Yet Bolt gives to him a dignified and impressive stage presence and a voice that cuts through state power. When Cromwell implies that More will be punished by death, More impressively retorts: 'Death ...comes for us all, my lords. Yes, even for Kings he comes'. The contrast between More's and Cromwell's behaviour is also strong: Cromwell prowls around the courtroom, approaching his adversary from behind, suggesting the drawing of a dagger (candidates should notice the threat implied here). More, meanwhile, is static – suggesting both his controlled manner and his metaphorically being tied to the stake. Cromwell is very well aware of the importance of theatricality in achieving his political ends (an ironic point sharpened by the specific dramatic context of Bolt's play). In pointing up the contrasts, it is very clear whose side Bolt is on. The emptiness of Cromwell's argument about silence, emphasised by the own overblown rhetoric, contrasts with the stage directions indicating More's academic 'impatience for a shoddy line of reasoning'. Cromwell's attempt to impress with his verbal trickery is starkly contrasted by More's crisp answer in Latin 'qui tacet consentire' which he translates for the Common Man ('Silence Gives Consent').
In this extract, the audience is placed in the position of the Common Man alongside More. From the start the audience knows that the state has power to sentence its citizens to death. The news of Bishop Fisher's execution, which is a surprise to More, is used by Cromwell to terrorise More as part of his bullying strategy. But it is also a reminder of what could happen to More, making More a tragic figure. Although this extract ends with More triumphant, the references to death and Fisher's execution suggest what More's end will be. Perhaps his outcome is also suggested by the way he contrasts with the court officials. Where they are devious, More speaks truth, emphasised by his relative stillness. What is also made clear is that state power will also destroy personal bonds. Norfolk seems to feel some affection for More (he calls him Thomas) but the extract makes it clear that the court is corrupt and that political expediency will lead to the destruction of any friendship. There is no place for personal sentiment at all. We are told in the introduction that the king also 'likes More personally' but this has to be sacrificed. Although Cromwell is the front man here, the king is the real antagonist, an antagonist that will win at all costs. The ordinary man with right on his side, is helpless when the power of the state turns on him. The audience, like More, has a growing sense that the trial is 'in some way rigged'.
The importance of the law
Central to political protest writing – and all societies which political writing represents – is the law of the land. The law ought to be fair but political texts often show that the law is unjust. Part of More's tragedy is that he puts his faith in the law - this court must construe according to the law, he says. But the law is increasingly slippery.
Bolt sets this scene in a court of law and the focus on what is 'legal' directly connects A Man for all seasons to other political and social protest texts, like I Henry IV and The Handmaid's Tale. Here there is an imposing setting of a 16th century courtroom with powerful and intimidating court officials. A man is on trial for his life accused of high treason. What is interesting is the nature of his supposed crime: that he 'did conspire traitorously and maliciously to deny and deprive our liege lord Henry of his undoubted certain title, Supreme Head of the Church in England', a charge (embellished with emotive adverbs) which More denies. More's understanding of the law and ability to reason gives him a seeming advantage. Although Cromwell castigates him for his silence, More points out that silence technically 'gives consent'. However, while More seems to have the advantage in terms of the strength of his academic arguments, his sense that the trial is rigged casts a dark shadow over the events, which the audience, with a deep sense of foreboding and perhaps knowledge of the historical facts, share. Although More is superior in intellectual reasoning, Bolt focuses on his growing anxiety revealed in the stage directions (More's face registers 'shock', 'grief', 'indignation', 'suspicion').
However, although More is clearly trapped (obvious in a visual sense), Bolt gives him a personal integrity in which he shows that the moral laws for which More stands are of greater worth than the laws of the king.
- This resource is part of the Elements of political and social protest writing resource package.