‘Murder in the Cathedral’ (a brilliant example of a poetic drama by T.S. Eliot) was written for the Canterbury festival in 1935. The play follows the event in Canterbury after Becket’s return in 1170. A chorus of women laments the absence of their archbishop and the people’s helplessness. In the schism between the Church and the State, it is announced that Becket is returning, the news is welcome but all, save the second priest, are fearful of King Henry II’s reconciliation with Becket and wonder if it is to be trusted. Becket enters determined to resolve the crisis, though he knows that it may cost him his life. In the long scene, in the play, the Four Tempters illustrate the conflict. His decision provokes within himself, the temptation to seek martyrdom is powerful. Becket realizes that the only course he has to follow is to offer his life to the law of God above the law of man. The Christmas morning sermon of 1170 makes the position clear. Four days later, four knights of the King arrived and charged him with rebellion, he is ordered to depart from England but he refuses and the abusive Knights warn him that they would come again. The Priest try to persuade Becket barricade himself in the Church but he refuses and orders them to open the door. They open it. The Knights return half-drunk and murder him. Then they address the audience in turns, with their justifications for their deed. After they withdraw the stage is left to the Priest to offer thanks to God for having given another saint to the Cathedral of Canterbury.
The basic plot concerns the death and martyrdom of Becket. The story of his life seems to hold great dramatic and tragic potentialities. The horrible deed which culminated is life involves persons who, though not directly related by blood ties, were suddenly bound by old ties of friendship and humour. Thus, the central theme of the play is martyrdom in the strictest sense of the word. From the long scene which follows the speech of Becket, we can hardly say he was to be tempted by the tempters “for a little time the hungry hawk/ will soar and hover circling lower/ waiting excuse pretence, opportunity/ end will be simple, sudden, God-given.” The last temptation is so subtle that it is a really impossible to judge whether or not, Thomas succumbs to it. Though he actually says at the conclusion of the scene:
Now is my way clear, now is the meaning plain
Temptation shall not come in this kind again.
it may be assumed that Thomas died with pure will.
The second act of this poetic drama has no play at all. The martyr’s sermon plainly states: “A martyrdom is never the design of man” and martyrdom cannot be “the effect of a man’s will to become a saint.” Thus, Eliot is concerned with the quest for vision and despair of attaining it. This quest has been pointed in various contexts in the notes concerning every poem. The protagonist seeks a way to live up to his great mission, that is, martyrdom by divorcing it from his own ambition for fame and canonization. So he is less a man that an embodiment of an attitude. He is aware of what is happening to him. But if there is no action in the normal sense of the world, if the centre of the play is a state of mind, then the protagonist can be only self aware. This is exactly, the situation in the play as the protagonist is only self aware what the playwright attempts to accomplish the play with “Message”.
The chorus that represents ordinary people consists of onlookers or persons who are only passively concerned with futility of time and change. Becket is not related to them in any way; that he is in some physical changes, is apparent to them. But the idea that he might be on the verge of martyrdom or even death, is an idea that has no reality for them. In spite of the deficiencies the play is successful because of its emotional power. The real drama is formed where its greatest poetry lies, that is in the choruses. The fluctuations of the chorus, temporal changes which refer to the theme are real measure of Thomas’ spiritual conquest. While Thomas is the chief protagonist of the play, the chorus is the hero but an unconventional hero – one who does not physically participate in the action, one who is only an observer, isolated from the action.
The basic plot concerns the death and martyrdom of Becket. The story of his life seems to hold great dramatic and tragic potentialities. The horrible deed which culminated is life involves persons who, though not directly related by blood ties, were suddenly bound by old ties of friendship and humour. Thus, the central theme of the play is martyrdom in the strictest sense of the word. From the long scene which follows the speech of Becket, we can hardly say he was to be tempted by the tempters “for a little time the hungry hawk/ will soar and hover circling lower/ waiting excuse pretence, opportunity/ end will be simple, sudden, God-given.” The last temptation is so subtle that it is a really impossible to judge whether or not, Thomas succumbs to it. Though he actually says at the conclusion of the scene:
Now is my way clear, now is the meaning plain
Temptation shall not come in this kind again.
it may be assumed that Thomas died with pure will.
The second act of this poetic drama has no play at all. The martyr’s sermon plainly states: “A martyrdom is never the design of man” and martyrdom cannot be “the effect of a man’s will to become a saint.” Thus, Eliot is concerned with the quest for vision and despair of attaining it. This quest has been pointed in various contexts in the notes concerning every poem. The protagonist seeks a way to live up to his great mission, that is, martyrdom by divorcing it from his own ambition for fame and canonization. So he is less a man that an embodiment of an attitude. He is aware of what is happening to him. But if there is no action in the normal sense of the world, if the centre of the play is a state of mind, then the protagonist can be only self aware. This is exactly, the situation in the play as the protagonist is only self aware what the playwright attempts to accomplish the play with “Message”.
The chorus that represents ordinary people consists of onlookers or persons who are only passively concerned with futility of time and change. Becket is not related to them in any way; that he is in some physical changes, is apparent to them. But the idea that he might be on the verge of martyrdom or even death, is an idea that has no reality for them. In spite of the deficiencies the play is successful because of its emotional power. The real drama is formed where its greatest poetry lies, that is in the choruses. The fluctuations of the chorus, temporal changes which refer to the theme are real measure of Thomas’ spiritual conquest. While Thomas is the chief protagonist of the play, the chorus is the hero but an unconventional hero – one who does not physically participate in the action, one who is only an observer, isolated from the action.
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