A Man For All Seasons- help with essay

[bubbles]

"The individual has no hope in an authoritarian state." Discuss

Plan
My interpretation: You cannot be your true self in a state ruled by a King.
Character base essay
3 paragraphs
* More- died because he couldn't go against his conscience (no hope)
* Richard - conniving and survived because he could easily sell his soul (hope)
* Norfolk - pragmatic (hope)

Am I heading in the right direction? Coming up with a good plan is where I have the most difficulty with in essay writing so please if you have any suggestions or ideas please share.

[costargh]

I think you should defininitly talk about the other side.... so to a certain extend you agree with this statement, but the Common Man displays actions that go against this idea. ie. the Common Man does what HE needs to do to survive and 'hope' in this interpretation could mean survivial.

[bubbles]

Should I interpret the essay topic in more than one angle i.e say no hope means survival as well as individuality, or would i end up being all over the place? 'the individual' should i discuss the issue of identity or would this be irrelevant?

I think you should definitely talk about the other side

isn't it best not to sit on the fence?

[costargh]

It's not so much sitting on the fence, but more achknowleging that there are other views. You don't have to agree with a topic fully, but you should do so to a certain extent.

Hope is really ambigious, you should defineitly explore how 'hope' differs for the differnt characters. Its interpretation would change with differnt charcters

[Dr Whom]

Isn't that one section of the criteria in the text responses this year, reader interpretation?

[perfectscore]

anyone else doin this txt?

[bubbles]

Do you think Cromwell has hope or no hope of survival in an authoritarian state? Initially I was thinking yes he has hope because throughout the play he was able to do what the King asked of him and importantly he was able to destroy his biggest threat- More. He is ruthless and has no conscience and these attributes are necessary for survival. But this argument could appear weak since we are told by the Common Man that Cromwell died of high treason. So one could argue that no matter how devious he is, "death...comes for us all."
What are your thoughts?

[costargh]

Having "hope" for survival and the reality of survivial are totally differnt things. There is nothing that would lead us to suggest that Cromwell did not have hope for survival. Just because he was executed by King Henry doesn't mean that he knew it was going to happen or had no "hope" for survival.

[Amnesiac]

i'd also recommend not basing paragraphs around characters, but the specific theme/issue you want to discuss. perhaps mention this, and then use two characters of similary (or polarity to convey contrast) to act as evidence. This is just the advice i get from my english teacher a lot.