A Man For all Seasons?

Question

What does this quote mean in reference to Roper, "now let him think he's going with the current and h**l turn around and start swimming in the opposite direction"?

Answer 1

Sir Thomas More speaks the line about which you ask in Act One, during a conversation with his daughter Margaret, shortly after Will Roper has asked for Margaret's hand in marriage; and More has said, "No!"  The line is sarcastic and critical of Roper.

BRIEF BACKGROUND:

Sir Thomas More is a reflective, pragmatic man who knows of King Henry's wish to divorce mainly in order to marry another and sire a male heir.  This is a plan for which the King seeks dispensation from the Pope.  Sit Thomas More is a Catholic. He is a man of conscience who regards the laws of the Catholic Church to be binding.  Further, he regards Lutherans to be heretics; and he does not like those who have left the Catholic Church to become Lutherans.

In contrast, Will Roper is a young man whose idealism is always fervent but seldom consistent.  Roper switches back and forth from Catholicism to Lutheranism, each time equally convinced of his own righteousness.  At the time that More speaks the line about which you ask, Roper is an idealistic Lutheran.

THE QUOTATION:

After Roper has left More's home without More's permission to marry his daughter Margaret, More speaks the line.  The entire quotation reads as follows:  "Old Roper was just the same. Now let him think he's going with the current and he'll turn round and start swimming in the opposite direction. What we want is a really substantial attack on the Church."

More is speaking of Will Roper and of Will Roper's father. He sarcastically yet earnestly points out to his daughter that the Ropers are not men of conscience, but rather that they are men whose ideals seem to switch back and forth without any hesitation or much thought.  He likens their views to a man swimming:  First with the tide (Catholicism); then in the opposite direction (Lutheranism).  And as Lutherans, he notes that the Ropers seek an attack on the Catholic Church.  An act that More regards as treason.

It is interesting to note that moments before More speaks the line about which you ask, and while Will Roper is still in More's presence, More says directly to Roper the following:  "Listen, Roper. Two years ago you were a passionate Churchman; now you're a passionate Lutheran. We must just pray that when your head's finished turning, your face is to the front again."