-

LTNIT 1 T.S. ELIOT'S ESSAYS AND OTHER

WORKS RELATED TO THE PLAY

Structure

1.0 Objectives
I

1.1 Introduction: Life and Works of T.S. Eliot

1.2 Dramatic Experiments : Sweeney Agonistes and The Rock

1.3 Eliot's essays relevant to his plays

1.4 Eliot's Poetic dramas

1.5 Exercises

1 . 0 OBJECTIVES

This Unit will familiarise you with T.S. Eliot's:

a. Life and works

b. Dramatic experiments : Sweeney Agonistes and The Rock
c. Essays relevant to his plays; and his
d. Poetic dramas

1.1 INTRODUCTION : LIFE AND WORKS OF

T.S. ELIOT

Thomas Stearns Eliot was born in St. Louis, Missouri, on 26'" September, 1888.
William GreenLeaf Eliot (Eliot's grandfather from his father's side) was one of the
earliest Eliot settlers in St. Louis. I-Ie was a Unitarian minister. Unitarianism arose in
America in the mid eighteenth century as a wave against Puritanism and its beliefs in
man's innate goodness and the doctrine of damnation. Unitarianism perceived God
as kind. In 1834 William GreenLeaf Eliot established a Unitarian cliurcli in St.
Louis. He was also instrumental in setting up Washington University there.

Of the fourteen children born to William GreenLeaf Eliot and his wife, only four
survived. Henry Ware Eliot, Eliot's father, was the second of the surviving children.
He graduated from Washington University and worked for a grocery business for a
short while. Later, he joined a brick making firm of which he eventually became the
chairperson.

In 1869 T.S. Eliot's father, Henry Ware Eliot, married Charlotte Champe Stearns
who was a school teacher in St. Louis. She was involved in social work and
advocated women's rights. T.S. Eliot was the youngest of the six children born to
Henry Ware Eliot and Charlotte Cl~ampeStearns. The first four were girls and nine
years separated Thomas and his brother, Henry. T.S. Eliot's mother was profo~~ndly
infuencecl by her father-in- law, W i I l iarn GreenLeaf Eliot. She raised her children
Murder in the accordilzg to his values. He was a strong believer in self denial and public service.
Catitedrnl W11en T.S. Eliot was sixteen his mother published a biography of William GreenLeaf
Eliot and dedicated it to her children, "Lest They Forget."

T.S. Eliot started school late - at the age of seven or eight - because he was a sickly
child suffering from "congenital hernia." Eliot went to a school in St. Louis until
1905. Later, he went to Miller Academy at Massachussetts f i r a year. He joined
Harvard at the age of eighteen. By the time Eliot was in Harvard lle had broken away
from the strong Unitarian influence at home and had become indifferent to the
church. While at Harvard from 1906-1910 Eliot began writing. In 1908 Eliot read
Arthur Symon's book, The ,~vrnbolistMovemefit in Literature which introduced him
to the poetry of La Forgue. From La Forgue Eliot learnt to confess tl~roughvoices
and to dramatise irrational thoughts. He was struck by Symon's call for a spiritual
vision to eclipse the realistic tradition,

It was in a student magazine, The Harvard Advocate that Eliot ~ u b l i s h e dhis first
poelns at the age of twenty. Later, Eliot said that the form he adopted in 1908 and
1909 was directly derived from his study of La Forgue as well as fi-om Elizabethan
drama in its later phase. Between 1909- 1912 Eliot wrote a group o f poems, later
published in the collection, Prufiock and Other Observations. These poems dealt
with the "New Boston" of Eliot's youth. Unlike the "old Boston" of Puritan values
%withwhich Henry James was associated, Eliot's Boston was decadent and corrupt. It
was very unhealthy, highly commercialised with an influx of immigrants. Failing to
find life among equals Eliot went into slum areas. He deliberately moved in squalid
places. His poeins pick up the images of "cigaretes butts," "broken glass" ''dirty
windows" etc. "Preludes" written about 1910 picks up several sordid images. St.
Louis had been a peaceful phase in Eliot's life. In a certain way, the move fiom St.
Louis to Boston had changed Eliot.

In his last year at Harvard Eliot wanted, to get away from his life there, and his
family's persistent questions about his career. He went to Paris. Through Syinons,
Eliot had already developed an interest in French poetry. While at Paris, Eliot
attended several lectures by the French philosopher Henri Bergson a t the College de
France. By Febn~ary1911, Eliot was disillusioned with Paris. He felt the city was
drab like London. Many of his poeins pick up the drab appearance of modern cities.

In 191 1, Eliot returned to Harvard and entered graduate school in Philosophy. I11
1 91 3 he had become the President of the Philosophy Club. A year later, in 1914,
while Eliot's doctoral thesis was still incomplete he went to Oxford on a travelling
fellowship to study Aristotle for a year under Harold Joachim, at Merton College.
The first world war broke out in 1914. Eliot took up a school teacher's job at I-Iigh
Wycornbe Gratnmar School at Oxford to supplement his income.

Eliot met several important literary personalities in England. An introdilction from

Conrad Aiken had ied him to meet Ezra Pound. In 1916, Eliot met Clive Bell and
through him the Bloomsbury group. Eliot's stay in London was important in his life
for another reason too. It was here that he met Vivienne Haigh-Wood whom he later
married. They were both twenty six when they met.

I11 19 17 Eliot gave up teaching and entered the foreign department o f Lloyd's Bank
where he worked u~itil1925. In 1921, Eliot wrote the draft of his most fmnous poem
The Waste Lar~d The poem was edited by Pound and published in The Crilevion in
1 922.

The year 1927 was a turning point in Eliot's life, in that, it was in this year that he
became a British citizen and also joined the Anglican Church of England. Cle was
drawn to the CIILI~CII of England because Anglicanism acknowledges that the trutll of
the scriptures is only dimly traced and must be verified by individual judgen~ent.Of
course, Eliot's growing attachment to the English past was yet another reason for
 T.S.Eliot Essays
joining the Churcb. At the time af Eliot's conversion he was 39 years of age. In his and other worlts
preface to For Lancelat Pndrewes Eliot stated that he was "a Classicist in literature, related to the play
Royalist in Politics and Anglo-Catholic in religion."

After 1927 Eliot's poetry was different. Altt~oughthe first phase of his poetry also
talked of the spiritual world implicitly, in the second phase - after his conversion -
his poetry became more religious. Poems like "Journey of the Magi," "A Song for
Silneon" and "As11 Wednesday" express this. In this same group of religious writings
also fall Murder in the Cathedral and The Rock. Much Later, in 1939, Eliot
his essay on the idea of a Christian Society to communicate his views on
the subject of religion.

Eliot returned to America in 1932 for the first lime (since a brief visit in 1915) to
lecture at Harvard and Virginia. These lectures were later published in The Use of
Poetry and The Use of Criticism and After Strange Gods. Around this time Eliot was
also developi!lg an interest in drama. Of course, he had earlier helped in publishing
11is mother's long dramatic poem, Savonarwla and in 1920 was persuaded by Pound
to translate the Agamentnon by Aeschylus.

The year 1933 was a difficult year for Eliot. He left his wife Vivienne Haigh-Wood.
Her neurotic, sickly condition which started a few months after their marriage made it
impossible for Eliot to contiilue with the marriage. Vivienne died in 1947 in an
asylum. Several years later in 1957, Eliot met Valerie Fletcher and married her.
Eliot v a s happy in this marriage.

1111936, three years after Eliot left Vivienne, his second collected poems appeared
containing the first of the Four Quartets "Burnt IVorton." With The Four Quartets
(1935-1942) Eliot reached the peak of his llistorical, spiritual works. Since then, he
seeins to have devoted himself above all to dramatic poems and to essays in Social
and Christian pl~ilosopl~y.

Five plays followkd Four Quqrqtets: Murder in the Cathedral (1 935), The Family
Reunion (1939), The Cocktail Party (1949), The ConJdential Clerk (1953) and The
Elder Statesnten (1957)

In 1948 Eliot was awarded the order of merit and the Nobel Prize for literature. He
died in London in 1965 and as desired by him ,his ashes were buried in the village or
East Coker in England from where his ancestor Andrew Eliot had emigrated to
America. On his grave is a plaque saying, "In my End is my Beginning."

1.2 ELIOT'$ EARLY DRAMATIC EXPERIMENTS :

SWEENEYAGONISTES AND THE ROCK

Sweeney Agonistes : Fragments of an Aristophanic Melodrama

Sweeney Agonistes is a long poem in dramatic form. It was first published as two
fragments. The first, "Fragments of a Prologue" was published in the New Criterion
of October 1926 and the "Fragment of at1 Agon" in January, 1927 under the general
litle of FVanna Go H o r ~ eBaby?. The title picks up the language of the English pubs
in Lhe 1920s. Sveeney Agonistes contained two epigraphs from Aesch~lus'
C'horphoroi and St. John of the Cross'pointing to the Greek and Christian focus of the
work. The first one dra~natisesthe hero's haunting by the furies. The second refers
to the soul's need to divest itself of the love of created beings. Both these themes
appear in Murder in the Cathedral. Whet1 the fragments were published in 1932 in a
book form, the two epigraphs were retained but the title had changed into, Sweeney
Agonistes : Fragments of an Aristophcmic Drama,
Murder in the By combining Sweeney with Agonistes Eliot w m trying to interface Milton's S ~ ~ ~ t s a t z
Carbeclrnl Agonistes with Sweeney 's situation in modern times. Samson Agonistes is in exile in
an alien world, who brings that world down around his own head to destroy evil.
Sweeney is also a spiritual exile in an alien world and he too destroys part of'himself
in attacking the world. Eliot's readers are familiar with Sweeney who has been used
in several contexts to suggest man at his most elemental level.

In a sense the play is a commentary on the postponement of religious awakening in

modern times. The world to which the audience of Samson Agonistes would retma to
was world war shocked London but seen through the eyes of the "sensational press."
The view of humanity is like reading News of the World, a Sunday weekly, which
catered to popular taste. In the early twenties, News of the World specialised in
graphic accounts of crimes in Britian at that time.

Sweeney Agonistes has been called "Aristoph~nic" in the sense that it combines
comic surface satire with the ritunlistic celebration of birth and death. It is
melodramatic in the sense that it uses music hall tradition and flat characters, inflated
emotioils and overdramatised situations,

Interestingly, although the Sweeney fragments had a title of their own, Eliot felt that
they could not really stand alone, When he gathered his poems together for the
Collected Poems volume 1936, he placed Samson Agonistes in a section called
"U~~finished Poems" and it still remains in that state today.

Sweeney Agonistes is based 011 life in modern times. Doris and Dusty are two lower
middle class London prostitutes. W11e1lthe dramatic poem begins Doris and Dusty
are debating about whether they should invite Pereira - the one who pays the rent for
the apartment - to the card party that they are giving that night. They decide not to
invite him, because he can't be trusted, When the phone rings Doris and Dusty panic
because they know who the caller is, Dusty informs the caller Pereira, that Doris is
sick and can't attend to the phone. Pereira insists, I-Iis iilsistence in meeting Doris
and Dusty suggests his identity as a spiritual pursuer. These people are viewed
negatively in Eliot's works because they can't accept the agony of purgation.

At the party two other characters show up "Cap" Horsfall and "Loot," Sam
Wauchope with their former war friends Klipstein and Krumpacker - Ainerican
business men visiting London. The party is fraught with doubt and distrust as the
card game continues. We get a foreboding of death and violence, The party guests
decide to go to a nearby pub. Sweeney Agonistes is the pub keeper. Ilnlike the other
characters, Sweeney is not a flat character, He introduces the dimension of tragic
horror into the world of Dusty and Doris and others. He heightens their feelings of
distrust by narrating a story about the murder of a girl. Slowly all leave the pub with
the exception of Doris and Sweeney asks her "Wanna Go Home Baby?" She goes
back home with him and is later found murdered in a baih fulfilling the forebodings
of the card game. Later, Sweeney too is discovered murdered.

Sweeney Agonistes may have been the first dramatic venture by Eliot but it is an
important experiment:

a. It is the first dramatic version of the theme of spiritual pilgrimage, a recurrent

theme in his plays,

b. It introduces contemporary rhythms and diction into poetic drama. Jazz and
telephonic conversations are used. This is in keeping with Eliot's beliefs that
the new drama should combine poetry with entertainment. In the 1920s in
England, a popular mode of entertainment was the vaudeville. It was here
that Jazz was heard. He also felt that Jazz was an important art because it
still kept a social unity in the relationship between the performers and the
audience that had disappeared in other forms of dramatic art. I

I
 Jazz had a special appeal to Eliot because it not only sy~nbolisedthe T.S.Eliot's Essays
and other works
superficial elements of a modern materialistic society but it also touched the
realted to the play
primitive side of man's nature in its throbbing rhythms,,

c. It stresses the agony of saints.

d. It introduces a chorus to voice communal feeling and deals with one of his
central themes -that of spiritual conflict; and growth in an exceptional l~iiinan
being and its relations and repercussions i n the lives of ordinary people.
Relationships are worked out in terms of spiritual awareness.

The Rock

This was a pageant play which opened on May 28'", 1934 at Saddler's Wells Theatre,
London, It was written to raise fi~ndsto build new Anglican churches for the
growing suburbs. The therne of the pageant is the building of the church. Eliot was
writing under the direction of E, Martin Browne whom he had already rnet in 1930
when he was staying with Bishop George Bell at Chichester. The play's versification
is nod el led on the medeival English play Everj)~won.For form he was indebted to
Greek tragedy.

The scenario for the pageant was outlined for Eliot by Browne and Webb-Odell. In
his essay, The Three Voices of Poetry Eliot states that he merely filled in the words.
When Eliot publislled his poetic collections, he included only the choral passages of
T/7e Rock.

The play opens with the Cllorus latnenting the temporal order gaining ascendancy
over the spiritual. I11 modern times, the church is seen as having a linlited value. A
group of workers enter and point out that building a church is a different experience
froin building a bank, There is sl. certain colnrnit~ne~~t
tltat is emotional which goes
with the former. Tlle Saxons enter at this point and explain the history of Christianity
and its introduction into Englaad. Tlle Chorus reminds the congregation of
conte~nporarytimes to keep the flag of Cllristianity up by building churches,

Soon we conle to know of the varioirs challenges facing the church. For one, the land
given for church building is not good. For another, a Marxist comes and creates an
uproar by stating that the funds given for Clt~~rch
building s h o ~ ~go
l d into building
homes for the needy. We are also reminded about the Danish invasion of England
and the persecution of early Christians. Hearing about all this the Chorus almost falls
into despair but the character, Rock, brings them out of it by pointing to the power of
the eternal over the tentporal.

In tlte final scene, the construction of the church is shown as completed, throwing
ligltt upon darkness.

Eliot was involved with some aspects ofthis play's production as he was witli all his
later plays.

Importance of Tlte Rock as a Dramatic Experiment

Although, in his Three Voices of Poetry, Eliot slated that the Chorus in The
Rock did not have any voice of its own, the Chorus in this work is important,

a. The Chorus consists of seven inen and ten women wearing half masks to
emphasize their "impersonality,"The "Rock" is a character. The Chorus was
trained and coordinated by Elsie Fogerty, principal of the Central School of
Speech arid Drama, and her colleague, Gwynneth Thurburn.
Mrrrtler in Ilre b. , The Chorus is both a vehicle of social com~nentaryand a dramatic instrument
Crtth edrml for piercing through the level of philosophic and theological implications of
the actions.

c. The idea of suffering of the person who acts, the need to perfect one's will,
and the conflict between eternal and te~nporalorders, are things seer1 in
Murder in the Cathedral which was written a year later in 1935.

1.3 ELIOT'S ESSAYS RELEVANT TO HIS PLAYS

T.S. Eliot's essays on drama can be divided into three parts: First, the Elizabetb~11
essays which discuss the criteria for drama. Second, his assess~nantsf the situqtio\~
in conte~nporarytheatre and third, Eliot's statenzents about his ideal of poetic d r ~ n i ~ .
It is important to remember that most of Eliot's essays were wrltten before tlie first
performance of his first play. Only a few were written after Ile had established a ,
reputation as a dramatist.

Shakespeare is a central focus in Eliot's essays on the Elizabethans. He I-ecognisecl

Shakespeare's genius and he found his use of the blank verse particularly innovative.
Shakespeare's verse rhythms picked up the colloqirial speech of his age. 11)The
Music of Poetry (Glasgow: Jackson, 1942), Eliot states that '"hakespeare dicl more
for English language than any other poet adapting drama to colloquia! s p e ~ ~ h . "
Shakepeare's verse rhythms, he argues, reflected a world in wbicl? 1-ea1it.ywas not
fragmented. But, Eliot remarks, that in tlie for~illessnature of rnoder~lage,
Shakespeare's verse rhytlims do not apply. In The Wmte L ~ n Eliot d had statsd t!iat
writers after Shakespeare should evolve their own verse styles instead of imitating
Shakespeare. The failure of verse draina in the nineteenth century, Eliot argues, GS
because their verse rhythms were not tied to colloquial speech of the time. His view8
on this subject are expressed in his book Poetry and Dra~?ze(Cambridge, MA : HUP,
195 1). About Eliot's own struggles to get away fro111 Sliakespeare he discusses in his
essay,."The Need for Poetic Drama." (Listener 16-41 1, 25 NOV.1936 : 994-995).

Apart from his comments about tlie Elizabetha~is,Eliot also wrote several essays
assessing the state of contemporary theatre. One of the major proble~nsin
ciontemporary theatre Eliot states in "A Dialoglie on Poetic Drama," (Eliot Selected
Essays 3 1-45) was tlie fact that unlike the Elizabethan and Restoration periods ( ~ r
even earlier), where there was a moral code that the dramatist shared with the
audience, in tlie modern age there was no such moral code. This distanced the
modern dramatists from their audience's sensibilities. Moreover, the fact that the
standard modern plays were made for the actors, Eliot felt, made it difficult for poetic
drama to be effective. In his essay on "The Duchess of Ma@ : and Poetic Drama,"
(Art and Letters 3.1 Winter 1919120 : 36-39), he says, "the si~ccessflilpresentation of
a poetic play like Webster's or Shakespeare's demands that the actor not try to
improve or interpret the script - rather, that he efface his personal vanity.

While advocating the need for a poetic drama in modern times, Eliot stated that "A
new dramatic literature cannot come about until audiences and producers cqn help
poets write for the theatre ("Audiences, Producers, Plays, Poets" New Verse 18 Dec.
1935 : 3-4). The actor, Eliot said, sliould be selected and trained early for the purpose
of speaking verse drama. Similarly, "Poets wlio write for the stage cannot simply
learn about tlie theatre and f i l l scripts with poetry: they must learn to write a different
kind of poetry, in wliich the implicit speaker is not the poet himself - as is the case
with ordinary poetry - but someone else" ("The Future,of Poetic Drama." [Journal of
British Drama League, London] 17, Oct. 1938 : 3-5). Eliot was at pains to point out
that poetry should not be merely ornamental in drama and that style and matter
should be suited to each other in poetic drama. He says : "Good poetic drama is not
 T.S.EliotYsEssays
S i ~ ~ ~applay
I y translated into verse but rather a play wholly conceived and coinposed and other works
in terms of poetry, embodying a pattern like that of music" (Poetry andDrama related to the play
Cambridge, MA : HUP, 195 1). For Eliot the highest aim of poetic drama is to bring
us to the border of those feelings which can be expressed only in music without
leaving the everyday world of dramatic action.

T]le reason why Eliot found poetic drama important was because he believed that
"Poetry is the natural medium for drama, providing the intense kxcitement that the
abstractioils of a prose play cannot offer" ("The Need for Poetic Drama," Listener 16-
41 1,25 Nov. 1936 : 994-995). Eliot credits Yeats and the Abbey Theatre for the
revival of the genre. In Eliot's view, Ibsen, Strindberg, and Chekov were good poets
who were coi~strainedby the limits of prose. He also believed that if modem
dramatists used verse for their works the mundane world would be transformed,
giving meaning and order to its chaos.

Eliot's Other Essays Relevant to his Plays

a. "Tradition and the It~dividualTalent"

This essay has raised great debate and controversy. In it, Eliot says, that the
contemporary reader praises "a poet, up011 those aspects of his work in which
he least resembles ally one else." Eliot protests against such an approach to
literature. He argues that it arises from a inisuilderstanding of the concept of
originality. For Eliot, the best part of a poet are those parts where his
predecessors "assert their immortality most vigorously." What Eliot means
here is that when a poet goes by a past tradition, his individuality is shown
more through the unique manner in which he incorporates sometlling which
is of the past tradition to his work which is of conteinporary value. Hence his
statement, "[a new work of art is not] merely valuable because it fits in; but
its fitting in is a test of its value.

b. "The Three Voices of Poetry"

Eliot describes the three voices of poetry as follows:

1. "The first voice is the voice of thepoet talking to hiinself - or to

nobody."

2. "The secoild voice is the voice of the poet addressing an audience,

whether large or small."

3. "The third voice is the voice of the poet when he attempts to create a
dramatic character speaking in verse; when he is saying, not what he
would say in his own person, but only what he can say within the
limits of one imaginary character addressing another imaginary
character.)'

Eliot adds that "Tile distinction between the first and the second voices . .. points to
the problem of poetic communication; the distinction between the poet addressing
other people in either his own voice or an assumed voice ... points to the problem of
the difference between dramatic, quasi-dramatic and non-dramatic verse."

1.4 ELIOT'S POETIC DRAMAS

a. The Family Reunion was published in 1939. This play is based on the Greek
inyth of Orestes, but transformed into a contemporary setting. Orestes was
pursued by the fiiries for the murder of his motiler. Here there is no real
 murder, only the suggestion that for the Christian to contemplate a curse was
to coln~nitit.

b. Tlie Cocktail Party published in 1949 was written for the Edinburgh
festival. The play ]nay appear to be a comedy but beneath its humour lies the
decadence of any large city in a disillusioned age, like the modern age.

c. The Confidential Clerk written in 1954 was inspired by Euripides' ION.

The story has a complicated plot and is set in inodern times.

d. The Elder Statesman (1958) In this some of the themes of Sophocles'

Oedipus a t Colonus are transformed into a modern setting. The play was
performed at the 1958 Edinburgh festival.

1.5 EXERCISES

a. . What were the important influences 011 Eliot's life that had an impact on his
worlts?

b. Give an account of Eliot's views on Poetic Drama.

C- , Understanding key concepts:

- What is Eliot's notion of Tradition and the Individual talent.

- What are the three voices of poetry that Eliot talks about in his essay by
the same i~ame?

d. What are the titles of the plays written by Eliot? What strikes you as
significant in these titles?

e. Write a note on the significance of Eliot's early dramatic experiments:

Sweeney Agonistes and The Rock.
 UNIT 2 BACKGROUND, PRODUCTION AND
ANCE HISTORY .

Structure

2.0 Objectives

2.1 Historical background to the play

I
2.2 General summary of the play

I 2.3 Production History of Murder in the Cnthedral

1I 2.4 Explanation and Critical cominents of the lines from the lStChoric entrance
upto Becket's arrival in Part I of the play.
I
2.5 Exercises

2.0 OBJECTIVES

The aim of this unit is to acquaint you with the

a) Historical background to the play,

b) Production History of the play : and to provide
c) Explanatoiy comments of the lines from the 1" Choric entrance upto Becket's
arrival in Part I of the play.
I
1
2.1 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND TO THE PLAY
I
George Bell, Bishop of Chichester saw The Rock-and admired it. He asked Eliot to
write a play for the Canterbury festival of 1935. Murder in the Cathedral was a
product thereof. The play premiered in 1935 and was directed by E. Martin Browne.

I
I I~lterestingly,it was the wife of Martin Browne who gave the play its present title.
Eliot had considered calling the play Fear in the Way.
i
I The play deals with the martyrdom of Thomas Becket-one of the greatest of English
i saints -who was the Archbiship of Canterbury from 1162-1170. He was murdered in
his own Cathedral by knights who claimed to be loyal to the king.
j
1
I
For his historical source, Eliot used the eye witness accounts of eleven monks who
wrote down their versions of the murder at Canterbury. Since Murder in the
I
Cathedral is not a chronicle play, Eliot offers little about the constitutions of
I
Clarendon or the corollation ceremony which created the rift between Henry I1 and
Becket.
I
I
The year of the compostion of the play (1935) is also important because in Europe
I
there was a lot of tension building up which finally erupted in World War 11,
I
Murder. iti tlte
Cntlr edrnl 2.2 GENERAL SUMMARY OF THE PLAY

CHARACTERS : A Chorus of Women of Canterbury

Three Priests of the Cathedral
A inessenger
Archbishop Thomas Becket
Four Tempters
Four Knights
Attendants

SETTING: The first scene is the Archbishop's Hall ,011 December 2, 1170. The
second scene is in the Cathedral, on Dec. 29,l 170.

GENERAL SUMMARY : The play begins i n early December,l170 with the

Chorus, which coinprises of the poor women of Canterbury. They fear something
terrible is going to happei~with the return of l'hon~asBecket - Archbishop of
Canterbury - from exile. The Archbishop was returning after seven years of exile in
France (1 164-1171). Disagreements with his friend and King, Henry I1 over the
authority of the church v i s - h i s the state had led Becket to his exile. Earlier, as
Chancellor, Becket was on the King's side. However, when he was also made into ail
Archbishop by King Henry I1 (in the hope that the church and state could functioi~
together under the king's control), Becket made it known to the king that his loyalties
were first to God and only then to the King.

The priests are confused about the way the state is run without the guidance of the
Archbishop's autl~ority.A messenger arrives and states that Becket is returning from
France. The priests get curious about the terms of his return. They feel that even if
Becket's return is a "patched up affair" with the king it is better for the people than his
absence for the past seven years.

Becket enters in a peaceful way yet aware of the dangers involved in his return to
Canterbury. Soon four tempters come to tempt him. The first tempter, tempts Becket
with the time in his past when he was friends with the king. He tells hiin to go back
to those days and forget about his spiritual intensity. Becket overcomes this
temptation, which he considers as no temptation because it comes " twenty years too
late." The second tempter comes and tempts Becket with the time when he was the
Chancellor to the king and enjoyed secular and political powers. He tells Becket that
real power is in this world and not in the next. Becket turns away from him too. The
third tempter is a little different. He tells Becket to team up with the Church and the
Barons against monarcy. Becket overcoines this temptation saying, "no one shall say
that I betrayed a King." Becket finds the temptation of the fourth tempter most
difficult to overcome. He is an uilexpected visitor.' He tempts Becket with his own
pride the pride of achieving martyrdom. Thomas tells him "who are you tempting
with my own desires?" It is after this last temptation that Becket allnost sinks into
despair: "Is there no way, in my soul's sickness,l Does not lead to damnation in
pride?"

The Chorus in part I reflects the sick nature of the state. The tempters talk about the
unreality of human kind and even the priests begin to fear Becket's strong position.
Part I ends with Becket rising above it all. He places himself in God's hands and
becomes more clear about the nature of his struggle and what he should do.

The Christmas sennon, is a prose interlude. In it Archbishop Becket talks of

Christian paradoxes relating to birth and death and sets the stage for his own
martyrdom.
Part I1 begins with the Chorus in a more optimistic mood. The priests are still '
Background,
miting For the eteinal pattern to emerge. The four knights come from France Production and
claiming that they have urgent business with the King. They accuse Becket of Performance History
ingratitude to King Henry I1 who made him the Archbishop. This ingratitude is
expressed in Becket insisting on the power of the church over the state. Becket
politely defends himself against these accusations arguing that loyalty to God does
not imply disloyalty to the King. The knights ask Becket to leave England but he
refuses saying that he has the sanction of the Pope in Rome.

Becket leaves and the Chorus talks about the church / state conflict and the tragedy
that will ensue. The priests request Becket to hide in the Cathedral in case the
knights return again. Becket refuses but the priests drag him in. The Chorus prays
for him. The knights return in a drunken state and accuse Becket of
treason,disobedience and embezzlement of funds among other issues. The priests try
to block their entrance but Becket states that God will protect him. The knights
murder Becket and the Chorus laments along with the priests. But they feel that the
church is strenghtened by Becket's martyrdom. The knights address the audience
arguiilg that their loyalty to the king made them implement their act. The priests
dismiss the knights as "lost souls'' and the Cl~oruspraises God for making them
understand the divine pattern of action through Becket's martyrdom. They ask for
forgiveness for not submitting their will to God earlier, They ask for the mercy of
God and Christ and for the prayers of Becket who is now Saint Thomas.

2.3 PRODUCTION HISTORY OF ELIOT'S MURDER IN

THE CATHEDRAL

The play premiered on 15 June, 1935 at Canterbury's fourteenth century Chapter

I-louse. This was about fifty yards fro111 the spot where Thomas Becket was killed in
1170. There were seven performances. The Canterbury productions were
community affairs, with local businesses, SC~IOO~S, and Cathedral personnel all taking
part.

Robert Speaight, who starred as Becket, describes the Chapter House : "The buidling
has a certain Gothic bleakness, which was suitable enough to the play but wl~icli
somehow forbade enjoyment" (Speaight, Robert. "Interpreting Becket and Other
Parts. " In T.S. Eliot : A Symposium for His Seventeenth Birthday. Ed.Nevi1le
Braybrooke. Freeport, NY: Books for Libraries P, 1958: 70-80. This book recounts
experiences of acting in Eliot's plays).

The play was directed by E. Martin Browne, who also played the fourth tempter and
one of the knights, Browne revised Eliot's text slightly to enable the four tempters to
double up as the four knights, for production reasons. George Bell, who had seen and
adinired The Rock comrnissioned the play for the Canterbury Festival of Music and
Drama. This festival also produces other versions of Becket's martyrdom: Laurence
Binyon's The Young King which depicts the reign of Henry I1 after Becket's death
and Tennyson's Becket.

Kenneth W. Pickering in Drama in the Cathedral examines the twenty year old
tradition of Canterbury plays. The chapter on Murder in the Cathedral presents a
basic overview of the play and details about its original performance. Other chapters
examine the history and context of the play's sponsor, the Canterbury Festival and
explores the background of Modern Christian drama.

Browne recalls decades later that to the theatre as it then was, the play was a non-
event. It was religious and so no scout or manager came. "The only English theatre
inan interested was Ashley Dukes, owner of the tiny Mercury in Notting Hillgate."
Murder in tile Stella Mary Pearce, who had also worked on The Rock designed the costumes. Since
Cntl~efIral the walls of the Canterbury Chapter House were painted in cold colours, strong
designs for the costumes were used. They were not always historically accurate. The
Chorus in sight for the whole play, was ''given garments which provided for as much
variety of appearance as possible. They had unshaped robes divided vertically into
two shades of green and decorated with strong patterns in deep red and blue, giving
the effect of figures of early stained glass." (E.Martin Browne The Making of
T.S,Eliot's Plays Cam bridge : CUP,1969).

The knights wore traditional medieval dress based on a reconstruction of the heraldry
on the Black Prince's tomb of the actual murderers. Priests wore Benedictine habits
and Becket wore a habit and a travelling dock. The tempters' costumes were
domirzated "by bright yellow colours and included a suggestion of a modern-day type
of each temptation, combined with the necessary medieval flavours." (Browne,1969).

The Canterbury production was an abridged version of the text Faber & Faber first
.published in 1935. This was so because the original performance had to be limited to
ninety minutes. The only stage property was a simple throne. The tempters entered
from screens on both sides of the stage and all other entrances were through the
audience from the large oak doors at the back of the Chapter House. After the
murder Becket's body was carried out in a procession through the audience.

During World War I1 the play was quite popular in England and was presented in
makeshift venues-- cathedrals and churches, schools and an air raid shelter. In 1959
Eliot stated that he wrote the play as "anti-nazi propaganda" expressive o f " the desire
to save the Christian world from the attacks of rival secular ideologies."

In 1970 Browne produced the play within the actual cathedral at Canterbury to mark
the 800 year anniversary of Becket's mai-tyrdom. Modern sound equiupments made
this possible.

Eliot wrote the screeilplay for George Hoellering's 1952 film version of Mzirder in
the Cathedral and spoke the role of the fourth tempter(as an off-screen presence).

The play's performance reviews were good. Conrad Aiken wrote about the
Canterbury premiere under the pseudomyn Samuel Jeake,_Jr.in The New Yorker : [It
is possibly] "a turning point in English drama-one felt that one was witnessing a play
which had the quality of greatness.. . one's feling was that here at last was the English
language literally being used, itself beconling the stuff of drama, turning alive with its
own natural poetry."

2.4 EXPLANATION AND CRITICAL COMMENTARY OF

THE LINES FROM THE IST CHORIC ENTRANCE
UPTO BECKET'S ARRIVAL IN PART I OF THE PLAY

PART I CHARACTERS
A Chorus of Women of Canterbury
Three Priests of the Cathedral
A Messenger
Archbishop Thomas Becket
Four Tempters
Attendants

SCENE ,

The Archbishop's Hall. December 2, 1170.

Chorus: The play begins with the Chorus standing near the Cathedral. They are very Background,
apprellensiveabout Becket's return from France. As poor women of Canterbury, Production arid
Performance History
tiley have already gone through a lot of suffering yet they don't feel safe. They feel
that soinething ominous is about to happen and they have been forced against their
will to bear witness.

Wit11 the passage of time from autumn to winter and the collecting and storing of
apples, the New Year waits, whispering about the destiny awaiting Becket. It is
allnost seven years since Becket left them. He was very kind to the people and yet
they feel that his return is not going to be a good sign. Whether the king rules, or the
Barons rule, these women have gone through a lot of oppression. But in general they
are left alone and they prefer it. They are content doing their domestic chores. Life
goes on with the merchant making his money, the labourer toiling on earth. All
prerer to be unobserved. With the arrival of Becltet they rear disaster. Everything is
going to be upset. They wait just as martyrs have also waited. God alone knows
their destiny. They claim to have seen all what they know about the future in a "shaft
of sunlight." All that they can do is to wait.

Critical Commentary on t h e First Choric Speech

The play opens at a critical moment with the unexpected arrival of Becket after seven
years of exile in France. The Chorus which co~nprisesa group of "poor women" of
Canterbury and who also represent humanity in general, expresses "fear." One of the
choric functions is to create the atmosphere of doom -akin to Greek tragedy. The
original title of the play was Fear in the Way. The "fear" that the Chorus expresses in
a sense also relates to the political moment of the play. Eliot wrote Murder in the
Cathedral in 1935 when the tensions leading to World War I1 and Nazism was
already strongly felt. ,I .

The Chorus who has gathered together like the congregatioil attending a Christian
nlass use the term "wait" in its opening speech in various ways, For example, the
New Year waits, Martyrs wait and the Poor Women of Canterbury wait "Waiting" is
an important concept in Christianity. The "Holy SpiritM-- which is part of the Holy
Trinity'of God the Father,the Son, and the Holy Spirit-- appears often in the form
of a breeze. If you are prepared and ready and waiting, this breeze will have an
impact on you. In a sense, these Women of Canterbury are waiting without
preparation like the five foolish virgins in the Bible (Refer to the parable of the ten
virgins in the Gospel of St. Matthew in the New Testament of the Bible). What
draws these "poor women" to the Cathedral is physical safety rather than any spiritual
ties.

Ironically, although these "poor women" of Canterbury keep saying that no one
bothers about them, Thomas, does bother. The reason why the Chorus is forced to
bear witness against its will is because it takes both parties to complete a sacrifice.
The saint and those he saves. Those whom the martyrdom benefits must accept the
fact. This is what the Chorus has to learn. They must not "deny their master." The
second verse of the Chorus speech picks this up. Christ died for the sins of humanity,
in order to save it. Unless human beings realize this, we are not saved and Christ's
sacrifice has' no meaning.

The reference to the seasons in verse 2 of the Chorus refers to the temporal dimension
in which human beings live a meaningless existence without any relation to the " still
point" that is God. The first draft of Murder in the Cathedral started wit!! :kir line ,
which paralleled the opening lines of The Waste Land("Apri1 is the cruellest
month... .")

When the Chorus talks about remembering the martyrs and saints who wait and
question as to who will acknowledge them, they are talking about the Feast of St. ,

Michael and All Angels (All Hallows).When these feasts were celebrated did the
 Murder it1 the people of Canterbury really reinember them?. Peter (One of Christ's twelve disciples)
C[rtltellrrrl too denied his master, Christ. In the Gospel of St. Mark-- in the New Testament of
the Bible-- we are told that Peter stretched out his hand on fire and denied Christ.

We are next given the historical background. The Archbishop is returning after seven
years of exile in France (1 164- I 170) The Chorus' statements about being left alone
to do its own things parallels The Waste Lurid where the characters do not want to be
disturbed from their inertia by spring. Later, the attitude of the Chorus changes. It
learns that spiritual regeneration involves sacrifice. It learns that the monotonous kind
of lire that they are living at the temporal level is going to be changed by Becket's
mai-tyrdom which will give their life a new meaning. Through out this choric speech
we get the feeling that the "poor women" are living at the temporal level only. They
follow the linear concept of time. Statements like "What shall we do in the heat of
summer" refer to their emptiness. Yet the Chorus knows that "Destiny waits in the
hand of God." It is God who controls everything and not the statesmen at the
temporal level. 'The Chorus is also very prophetic. They state that death will corne
from the sea. The knights who killed Becket did come from the sea across France.
Compare the intuition of the chorus of having seen things in a "shaft of sunligl~t"with
Becket's stateinent that they speak better than they know.

Towards the end of their speech when they mention Christ and the notion of
regeneration, they are comparing Becket with Christ. A Christ like figure has to
perish in every age to save humanity.

By the end of the pIay the Chorus progresses from fear in the opening passage to
glorifying God at the end. TheJuctuations of the Cl?orus are the true measure of
Thon~as ' spil-itual conquest.
Conversation among the Three Priests and the Messenger following thc Chorus'
first speech.

The first Priest says that it is seven years since the Archbishop left England, The
second Priest asks what the Archbishop and the Pope can do about the conflict and
intrigues between King I-Ienry I1 and the French King which have been discussed in
endless meelings and deferred conferences? The third Priest cornrnents on the state
of temporal government which is full of duplicity and thrives on appropriation of
wealth. The first Priest wonders why people cannot remember their God in heaven
and forget such violence and duplicity. Soon a messenger enters and states that the
Archbishop has arrived on the shores of England and that he had been sent to prepare
the Priests to welcome him. The first priest asks the messenger if the feud between
the King and Archbishop--two proud men, has ended. The third Priest wonders what
peace can be expected between "the haminer and the anvil." The second Priest wants
to know from the messenger if "old disputes" are at an end and whether it is "peace or
war?" The first Priest is still not clear whether the Archbishop is corning with the
consent of King Henry I1 or because of his spiritual support from the Pope in Rome
and t h e love of the people in England. The messenger states that the Priests are right
in asking these questions and that the Archbishop comes not with any consent from
the king of England but with support from both the Pope in Rome and the king of
France and most importantly, due to the "devotion of the people." Again, the first
Priest inquires "Is it war or Peace?" and the messenger says that it is not peace but a ,
"patched up affair." He also states that he has heard that when the Archbishop left
France he told the French King "I leave you as a man 1 whoin in this life I shall not
see again." This does not augur well. The lnesse~lgerexits after stating this.

The first Priest fears for the Archbishop and the Church. He says that he has seen the
Archbishop as Chancellor working closely with the king. People loved him but he
was "always isolated." His "pride" was "always feeding upon his own virtues." He
had contempt for earthly power and wanted to be subject to God alone. He ends his
18
 Background,
by saying that if King Henry I1 had been weaker or greater, perhaps things Productio~~
and
would have been different between him and Becket. Performance History
f
The second Priest states that whatever it is, the Archbishop has returned to his people
who have been waiting for a long time for 1iim.The Priest then goes on to say that the
Archbishop who is at one with the Pope and the King of France would give them
orders as to what sllould be done. He would give them all directions. Therefore, they
should welcome and rejoice his coming. The third Priest says whether the outcome is
good or bad it is better that the Archbishop is coming. At least the wlieel is now
turning.

Critical Commentary on the Passage Summarised Above.

I

I
The Priests are numbered and not named. This is significant in that they become
representatives of a class. Ironically, even though tlle Priests stand for the Church,
the they lack the vision of tlle Cllorus and discuss munda~lestate / church issues. Is
I
Eliot trying to associate tlietn with institutionalized religion? The speeches of the
Priests (especially the secoild Priest) expose us to tlle historical situation in tlie play
wliicl~is necessary for our understanding of the conflict between Henry I1 and
Becket. However, since Eliot's play--unlike Anouillh's--focuses on Becket's
martyrdom, the King does not appear in the play at all. Becket's "pride" is discussed
by the Priests. This is iinportant. One of tlle tlliligs that Becket has to shed in his
move towards martyrdom is "pride." Tl~oniaswas not born a saint. He has to get rid
of his pride. The last temptation is the most difficult one. Wlien tlie first Priest tallcs
about Becket's "isolation," we have to keep in mind Kierkegaard's category of the
individual as the comrnunicator of truth. The com~nunicatorof truth can only be an
individual and it can be addressed only to the individual. For truth consists precisely
in tliat conception on life which is expressed by the individual. Tlie crown is
"untruth." Truth is subjective. This could be one reason wliy Becket does not even
listen to institutionalized religion as symbolized by the Priests. Even when tlie
Priests shut the door against tlie Kniglits, Becket opens tl~em.I-Ie must bear witness.
He must validate his owl1 truth even if it pcrsonally destroys him.

The messenger's description of the welcolne that tlie Arcl~bisliopgets 011 arrival in
England echoes Christ's triu~nplialentry in Jerusalem when people hailed him saying
"alleluiah, Icing ofthe Jews," and 'strewed his path witli palm leaves.

The messenger's remark that Becket told the French King tliat lie would not meet him
in this life again is close to the historical statement. Eliot, like Shaw in SI. Joari is
careful to use words actually spoken bjl the historical character wherevc~+possible.
Becket's other remark, '!not if I were to be torn asunder, limb by limb would I
relinquish this jouniey . . . " makes us realize that tlie third telnptation is really no
temptation because Becket is already willing to die for the cause of tnartyrdo~nand
lie knows what he is doing.

The second Priest's remark that we slionld rejoice in tlie Archbishop's arrival since "I
am the Archbishop's man" echoes the four Knights, who murder Becket and claim to
be the King's men. The second Priest is a little too optimistic. He llas to learn that
peace and security come through suffering. Tlie third Priest is not so hopeful.
Neither attitude is correct. Reconciliation involves conflict between good and evil,

The third Priest is important because he is tlie one who states the epitaph on the
Knights, "Go, weak sad men, lost erring souls, homeless in earth or heaven." In tlle
third Priest's s ~ e e c hthe iinage of the wlieel is also used. Uilless man's will is in
harmony with God's will, can the wheel turn smoothly aroulid the still point. If this is
not the case then the. wheel is at a standstill. Eliot's theory of depersonalization in
poetry explained in his essay, " Tradition and tlie Individual Talent" fits in with the
process of martyrdom in w l ~ i c one l ~ surrenders one's will t o God.
 Murder irr the The last few lines of the third Priest before the second choric entrance is a quotation
Crlthedritl from the Ecclesiastes, (Chapter 12, verses 3-4, Bible) which talks about the end of
things.

Summary of the second Choric Speech

In this Choric speech, the Chorus tells Becket to return to France and leave it "to
perish in quiet." It fears cataclysmic changes if Becket continues to stay in England.
The time is not right as yet for Becket's return. The Chorus wai~tsto continue to live
the way it has in the past seven years. It has gone through ups and downs when crops
have failed and droughts have occurred. However, it carried on with life observing
the religious feasts and has seen "births, deaths and marriages." Even in these seven
years these woinen of Canterbury have had fears of various kinds but nothing like the
fear they now sense and can't face. It is a "final fear which none understands." They
tell Becket that he is not aware of the implications of his return to England and its
impact on their lives: "do you/realise what it means/To the small folk drawn into the
pattern of fate,/the slllall/folli who live alnong sinall things."

They plead with the Archbishop to leave and say that he will be their Archbishop
even in France.

I Critical Commentary on the Chorus's second Speech

The Chorus begins its' speech quoting fiom St. Paul's Epistle to the Hebrews in the
New Testament: Chapter 13, Verse 14. Their speech is full of morbid images and
colours "evil the wind," "grey the sky," "rotten the year' etc. In this speech the
Chorus emerges as very selfish. It fears for itself. Later on it grows and learns to
express concern for Thomas. The phrases " we do not wish anything to happen" and
"Living and Partly living" echo Eliot's The Waste Land. These poor women-- who
are so poor both econoillically and spiritually-- do not wish anything to happen. They
never come to grips with their lives which makes for greatness. They are also not in
communioi~with the still point which gives one identity. They live at the linear,
temporal level of time. Christ had said that "man can't liveby bread alone." This is
precisely what these wonlen are doing. The einpty routine of their lives is recaptured
as in "East Coker" of The Four Quartets. There is an inner emptiness, a death march: ,
"Silent funeral nobody's funeral for there is no one to bury." As in "East Coker" here
too the poor women of the Chorus have not lived at all. They have existed only on a
superficial tenlporal level.

To the women of Canterbury "death" is frightening. This can only be so if death is

not seen as part of a larger pattern. The Chorus has to learn the fact that Becket's
death through martyrdom is necessary for their birth. What the Chorus fears is
beyond their comprehension, In this second speech of the Chorus we see a change in
it. It recognises its ow11 guilt I' tarnished frame of existenie." When the Chorus
states: "Archbishop, secure and assured of your fate," they have fear and no
understanding of what is to befall them. It is important to note that the Chorus refers
to itself as small folk who live among small things at the temporal plaia and do not
want to be drawn into the eternal pattern of fate.

I
The Chorus here is like the Chorus in Greek drama. Like the Chorus in Sophocles'
Antigone which fears the conflict between state and the individual, act, inspired by
divinity, here too the Chorus fear the church /state conflict.
'
Summary of Second Priest's Speech

The second priest chides the "poor women" of Canterbury for babbling foolishly. He
tells them that the Arcllbishop is about to arrive at any moment and the crowds in the
streets will be cheering. He tells the chorus not to "croak" like frogs and to put up
20
 Background,
1 pleasallt faces whatever their "craven apprehension" may be and to give a hearty
I welco~neto the Archbishop.
Production and
Performance History
.

1
,I Critical Commentary on Second Priest's Speech

The second Priest uses a lot of anillla1 imagery when he scolds the "poor woment' of
i
I Canterbury represented by the Chorus. This is significant. These wornell are leading
an aniinal like existence away from the "still point" that is God. In the Christian
hierarchy animals are lower down in the scale. Human beings are at the top of God's
creation. Lower down are animals and still lower, is vegetation. The Chorus has -
to spiritually evolve into higher levels of existeilce to be'one with the "Still Point."

-
1 2.5 EXERCISES

1
1. Outline the historical background of the play.

2, Critically cornrneizt on the i~nportailceof the first two clloric speeches.

3. Discuss the significance of the conversation among the Priests between the first
two choric speeches.

4. Is there any development in tlie first two speeches of the Chorus?

I
 UNIT-3: CRITICAL APPROACHES TO THE PLAY
PART -1

Structure

3.0 Objectives

3.1 Explanatory and Critical Notes on Part I of the play from Becket's first
appearance upto the temptation scene in Part I

3.2 The Significance of 13ecket1ssilence after the temptations.

3.3 Explanatory and Critical Notes on Part I of the play from the Choric passage
following the exit of the fourth Tempter upto the end of Part I

3.4 Important aspects of Part 1

3,5 Exercises.

3.0 OBJECTIVES

The aim of this unit is to provide you with

a) Explanatory comments on Becket's first appearance in the play upto the end of
the temptations in Part I.
b) It also highlights the significance of Becket's silence after the temptations, and
provides
c) Explanatory comlnents from the Choric passage following the exit of the fourth
Tempter upto the end of Part I.

3.1 EXPLANATORY AND CRITICAL NOTES ON

BECKET'S FIRST APPEARANCE IN THE PLAY UPTO
THE END OF THE TEMPTATION SCENE IN PART I

Thomas7 Dialogues with the Priests before his Temptations

Thomas enters with the word "peace" and tells the Priest to let the Chorus alone
because it "speaks better than it knows," and what it says is beyond the
understanding of the Priests. He then goes on to say that the women o f Canterbury
do not know about action and suffering except the fact that "neither does the agent
suffer /nor the patient act" T l ~ ewomen are fixed in the wheel of eternal action in
which all must consent to the will of God for the wheel to move in harmony.

The second Priest apologises to Becket saying that he did not see him coming
b because he was hvolved with the chatter of the "poor women." He says that he
would have been better prepared otherwise. However, seven years of Becket's .
absence has already prepared him for his arrival which seven days in Canterbury
would not have done. He then tells Becket that he will light the fires in Becket's
room to ward off the December cold and that Becket will find his rooins as he lefi
them.
Thomas thanks the second Priest and says that 11e will leave the rooms the way he got Critical Approaches
tllem. But these are all "small matters," he says. He informs the Priests that there are to the play - Part-1
ellemiesall around. Eve11 his arrival in Englaild could hive been prevented by
l l ~ e b e l l i bishops,
o ~ ~ York, London, Salisbury." All of them had helped in the
corollation of Henry 11'ssuccessor without the permission of the Archbishop of
Canterbury. Warenne, and the Sheriff of Kent tired to oppose Becket's return and
B ~ O Cwas the one in whose ]louse the Knights stayed before and after the murder.
ljecket says that it was the Dean of Salisbury who helped him cross the sea
~~~mmolested."

To the first Priest's question whether the enelnies are still followi~~g,
Becket replies
that this peace is temporary and that they will attack at the first opportunity. The
"end will be simple, sudden, God-given, " he observes. Meanwhile, he says that one
has to overcome other probleins in preparing for thc event. ,

Critical Commentary on the abave passages

Becket's first word "Peace" as he enters is very significant. In the play all the
characters strive for "Peace" in different ways. The knights think that by killing
Becket they can obtain "pease", the Priests think that tiley can obtain it by escaping.
The Chorus feels that it can obtain "peace" by avoiding witnessing Becket's
martyrdom. Becket is the only sharacter who achieves true "peace" by conscious
submissioil to the "Still Point."

Becket's speecll about acting and suffering is very important in understai~diilgthe

Christiwl process of martyrdom:

They know apd do not know, what it is to act or suffer

They know and do not know, that action is suffering
And suffering is actian, Neither does the agent suffer
Nor the Patient act But both are fixed
111 a11eternal action, an eternal patience
To wllich all must consent that it may be willed
And which all must suffer that they inay will it,
TIwt the pattern {naysubsist, for the pattern is the action
And the suffering, that the wheel inay turn and still
Be forever still.

What Becket means by this is that in the long run there is no question of deciding to
either act or to suffer passively., There is no distinction between making a decision
and passivity. Becket's very passivity is action and even that does not belong to him
but is one with God's will. It is the divineputlern that is important not individual
acting and sufSeri~lgsince God is ultin~atslyin control. This control is not to be
cov&rses' with predestinption. Marl hcls thej-ec will to accept or to reject God's plan.
Becket is tempted t s do the latter but he overcomes the temptation. Human beings
must submit to God's plans for thern. Becket's role in this pattern is to accept
~nartyrdomwhile the role of lesser mortals as well as the Cliorus is to humbly
recog~iisethe need for that sacrifice. Only when man's will is in complete harmony
with the divine will can tlie wheel turn smoothly around the "Still Point." Suffering is
not silpply qndergoing misery and pain. It is also permitting, coiisenting and
subnlitting. He who consents to an actioli must suffer for it and accept responsibility.
The ~hor$, like the common man, understands no sucb responsibility. At the point
In the play the Chorus says, "for U S the poor, there i s no action." But during the
coilrse of the play it learns tn participate in the actian, "I have consented Lord
Arcllbishop.''

When Becket says, "Neither does the agent suffer/nor the patient act," he is the agent
in one sense. He sets the wheel rolling. In another sense he also suffers to be killed.
But yet at another level, he is neither the agent nor the patient since action and
Mzrrder ill tlrc suffering proceed from God's will and not his owti. This is again the reason why
Cntlrerlrnl Becket, referring to his enemies says, "For a little time the hungry l~awk/Willonly
soar and hover, circling lower,/Waiting excuse, pretence, c)pportunity./Endwill be
simple, sudden, Gocl-given." He refers to his murderers a; "hawlts" highlighting tlie
animal nature of this being. Becket is aware that no plotting can succeecl until God
wills his death. Becket's awareness parallels Christ's response, "My hour is not yet
come." Like Christ, Becket too must first face temptatior,. He says this is more
difficult than death. Meanwhile, "All things prepare the event. Watch."

Explanation of t h e Temptation Scene

The first Tempter calls Becket, "Old Tom, Gay Tom, Becket of London," and
reminds him of his past when he was friends with the King. Now tliat Becket has
again patched up with the Icing, he asks him whether the "Clergy and laity may
return to gaiety" of flirting in the meadows and enjoying life with all its pleasures.
Becket responds by saying that the Teinpter speaks of past seasons and that "in the
life of one man, never 1 The same time returns." The first Tempter insists that the
good times have come again with Beclcet's peace with the King. Becket chides him
saying, "look to your behaviour." The first Teinpter says that earlies Becket was
kinder on sinners and that he should take friendly advice Trom hiin and choose a
comfortable life and forget ~nartyrdoin.Becket tells him tliat he comes twenty years
too late. To this the first Tempter says that he will leave Thomas to his "higher vices"
and leaves. After the Tempter leaves, Becket comments that if one hoped 11iat the
past will return then one gets distracted from one's clilties in the present.

The second Telnpter enters suggesting a compromise with H e n 9 and reminds Becket
of their amity. He refers to the l~istoricalcontext when the constitutions were
presented to Becket at Clarendon and he faced the full force of the telnptation of
compl-omise with the Icing. In Northampton the King sum~nonedhim to account for
money spent during Becket's Chancellorship. Here too Becket could have done the
easier thing and submitted to the King. At Montinirail, another attempt was made to
coax Becket to surrendes to the King's point of view. The second Teinpter states that
if ohe weighs the balance between the "not too pleasant memories," and the "g~rod
memories" in his position as the ~haiicellokthe "late one's rise!" He states that
Becket, whom all acknowledged sl~ould"guide tlie state again." Becket is intrigued
by his meaning and asks the Tempter to clarify. The second Tempter continues t6
stress the point that Beclcet should regain his "Chancellorship" and tliat it was a big
mistake to liave given it LIP. AS a Chancellor, Becket will gain power and glory over
men. To this Becket states "To the man of God what gladness?" The Tempter states
that it is "sad" that the man who bad real power on earth should fight for spiritual
power in the next world by "giving love to God alone. " To this Becket enquires
"Who then?" and the second Tempter states if he take back his chancellorsl~iphe and
the King can work together. They can help the poor, strengthen the laws of the
country, dispense justice. What niore can man do on earth for God? Becket asks
"What Means?" The Tempter states that this could be achieved by compromise. This
is because "Real power1 is purchased at the price of a certain submission.' Becket
rejects it ard tlie Tempter tells him that by choosing the position of Archbishop and
serving God, Becket is a "realmless ruler" bound to a "powerless Pope." I-Ie carries
on by saying that men have to manipulate and manoeuvre. Even Kings need loyal
friends to work with at home.

Becket ;eplies by saying that he had excommunicated the Bishops for assisting King
Henry I1 in his son's coronation which was the prerogative of the Archbishop. To this
the second Tempter says that "Hungry hatred I Will not strive against intelligent self-
interest." Becket responds by asking, "What about tlie Barons?" The Teinpter
respo~ldsby saying that the King and chancellor have to work together against the
barons wlio are their enemies. Becket dismisses the second Tempter by saying that
why should he "Descend to desire a punier power" by serving the King over God.
The second Telnpter also leaves unsuccessfully. He recognises that Thonlas is
 from Pride in his own spii-itual position. He says to him, "Your sin soars, Critical Approaches.
sunward,covering King's falcons." After he leakes, Becket ponders over what he has to the play - Part-I
said and says that maintaining order at the temporal level is to arrest disorders and to
descend to the temporal level "would now only bc mean descent." At this point the
third Teinpter enters who is a representative of the Barons. He enters saying that he
is not a courtier or a politician but a "rough straightforward Englishman, "a" country
lord" who knows what the country needs." He even alleges that they are "the
backbone of the nation." Becket asks him to proceed with what he has to say and the
Tempter continues by saying that friendship should be convenient "unreal friendship
illay tiirn to real / But real friendship, once ended, cannot be mended." Becket replies
by saying that for a countryman lie speaks like a courtier. The third Tempter
continues by saying that since Becket's friendship with King Henry I1 cannot be
mended, he should now form new alliances. Becket who dearly loved the King, his
friend feels the loss of the friendship and exclaims : "0Henry, 0 my King!"

The Teinpter carries on by saying that the King in England is not at all powerf~il.His
Frellch link with his wife makes him susceptible to his sons stealing his kingdom,
We the barons, he says are for England. Both Becket and the Tempter are Normans,
~llllikethe King, who is froin,Anjou in France. "Let the Angevin I Destroy himself,
fighting in Aiijou." he suggests a "happy coalition/ of intelligent interest." For
llim,(who represent the Barons)Churcli favours is an advantage and Pope's blessing
"Powerful protection / In the fight for Liberty." The third Teinpter says that if Becket
joined their powers then they could put an end to "tyrannous jurisdiction" of the
King's court over the Bishop's and the Baron's court helping both England and Rome
in one stroke. Becket claims that he helped to form it. The Tempter states that it is a
new coalition that is needed now. Becket states that if he cannot trust tlie King then
why would he trust the King's undoers? The Tcinpter says that the King will trust
only his own power and no one else's. The church ancl those against him have every
right to come together to fight the king. In this case, Becket says that if he cannot
trust the Icing then it is better to trust God alone. Me recalls that when lie was a .
cl~ancellor,these very people waited on him even in the "tilt-yard,"(Becket was a
great horseman in llis early days ). Becket argues why lie who ruled like an "eagle
among doves" now rules as "wolf atnong wolves? I-Ie dismisses the third Tempter by
saying, "no one shall say that I betrayed a King."
I
The third Tempter leaves saying that he hopes the King will acknowledge Becket's
I
loyalty to hiin. After the third Tempter leaves, Becket says that the thought of
breaking the power of the King has crossed his mind before but he has rej,~ted it
because lie dearly loves the King and he trusts God. I-Fe further says, that to break the
, King's power at this point he would like what Samson achieved in Gaza when he .
pulled down the pillars of the house in which three thousand Philistines had gathered
to watch him perform feats of strength: and so pulled down the same destruction on
1
himself. If Becket were to act against tlie King now it would fall short of Samson's
triumph, and would only destroy liitnself.
I
I
i The foiourth Tempter enters. Becket does not expect him "Who are you? I expected 1
Three visitors, not four.'' The fourth Teinpter says that lie always "Precedes
expectation"'and that the King will never trust "twice" the man who was his friend
and betrayed him. He warns Becket about the offer made by the third Teinpter who
represents the Barons saying, "Kings have public policy / Barons private profit." He
. advises Becket to "fare forward to the end," because kingly power is more
pleasurable than power under a king. T11e kind of spiritual power that Becket strives
for is greater than temporal power "War, plague, and revolution, / New conspiracies,
broken pacts: / To be master or servant within an hour, / This is the course of
temporal power." He taunts Becket by saying that he has made a clever choice in
privileging the eternal over the temporal because "When King is dead, there's another
king" but "Saint and Martyr rule from the tomb." Unlike the political fears Kings
may have Becket will have long lines of pilgrims waiting to see his tomb. Becket
admits of these thoughts. The fourth Tempter says, that is why he is saying these
things. He lulows that Becket has thouglit about it all very carefully while praying or
early in the morning. Becket ltnows that nothing at the temporal level lasts and that
only the spiritual world triutnphs so he should go towards martyrdom. Becket
exclaims, "Who are you tempting with my own desires?' He feels trapped and says,
"Is there no way, in IVY soul's sickness, / Does not lead to damnation in pride?" Tlle
fourth Tempter leaves echoing Becket's first speech about actio~land suffering.

Critical Commentary on the Temptation Scene

Nevill Coghill provides a good note on this scene. He says that there is no stage
direction stating the exit of the Priests and the Chorus. This is because the Chapter
House where Eliot staged the play had only one exit, therefore, it was difficult for the
characters to enter the exit frequently. Becket's line, "All things prepare the event.
Watch" demonstrates this problem very effectively. Viewed from another
perspective, the characters presence on the stage is important because the Tempters
could be merely figments of Becket's imagination, an internal conflict. Eliot, in this
play, has brilliantly used his theory of "de-personalization" in poetry to his advantage.
He has used a character whose spiritual growth demands a surrendering of his will to
God--a depersolialization of the self. The Temptation scene is also important in that
it introduces the morality play pattern in M~rrderin the Cathedral. As in the Morality
plays there is personification. Eliot states that he was influenced by Everyman in his
use of metre for the play.

Becket's first temptation refers to his good times in the past. Becket was known for
his good living. At a more significant level the first Tempter is asking Becket to
move away from the still point, God. Technically, the first temptation is no
temptation for Becket. Christ's temptation, which came after he had fasted for forty
days and was alone in the wilderness, were genuinely difficult to overcome (See
Gospel of St. Matthew Ch. 4). In a sense Becket's first three Tempters are more akin
to Job's comforters in the Book of Job of the Old Testament in the Bible. lnfact,
Becket's remark to the Tempter proves that the first te~nptationis no temptation: "But
in the life o f one man, never / The sane time returns."

One of the problems that Eliot faces in his portrayal of Becket is to make a good
character attractive. Milton faced a similar problem in his creation of Christ in
Paradise Lost. Often these characters appear as a little priggish and stilted. The
essence of tlle first Tempter's speech is that he wants Becket to choose a comfo~.table
life on earth and forget martyrdom and its rewards pro~nisecfin the next world. The
Tempter exits saying "I leave you to the pleasures of your higher vices." This is
significant. Spiritual pride is a vice that Becket must fight.

The second Tempter provides a brief historical context for the central conflict
between the Icing and Becket--representing the State and the Church, respectively.
The Second Tempter appeals to Becket's love for power and cleverly tells Becket
about the good that he can do 011 earth far God with earthly power. Becket's response
"What Means?" points to the Key question in Christianity viz. that means and end are
important. Later, Becket refers to the danger of doing the right tiling for the wrong
reason. When the second Tempter tells Becket to join ]lands with tile King to unite
against England's enemies at horne and abroad, Becket says : "No! Shall I, Who keep
the keys 1 of heaven and hell, supreme alone in England / who bind and loose, with
power from the Pope I Descend to desire a punier power?" This response of Becket
shows that he is not free from spiritual pride. The second Tempter's reference to
"bind and loose" refers to Christ's saying to his disciple, Peter, in the Gospel of St.
Matthew Cli. 16 V. 19 "And I shall give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven:
and whosoever thou shalt bind on earth sllall be bound in heaven: and whosoever
thou shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."

The first two Tempters play upon Becket's love for power and pleasure: and his love
for the King. Becket overcomes both these weaknesses during the course of his
 Critical Approaches
temptatio1ls. It flzzcst be noted that although the Tempters are numbered they hal~e
to the play - Part-1
very distinct persorzalities.

-j-lle fourth Tempter is totally unexpected. He is the most kightening of the

Tempters. In a sense, the earlier three temptations were really no challenge to
Becket. The fourth Tempter taunts him about his spiritual pride. Becket overcomes
this lelnptatio~lbefore.us in the play. Becket says of the fourth Tempter, "Who are
you tempting me with lny own desires?" The fourth Tempter tempts Becket with the
glories of eternal sainthood as compared to the transient glories at the temporal level.
He tells Becket that his choice for the eternal over the temporal, is clever. The aim of
the fo~lrtl~ Tempter is to undermine Becket's faith. His goal is achieved if Becket
surrenders to despair or aspires to pride. Infact, Becket comes close to this when he
says, "Is there no way, in my soul's sickness, 1 Does not lead to damnation in pride."

It ,nust be noted that tbe fourth Tempter appears when Becket's rejection of time is
complete. He advocates perception from the vantage point of the foul-th dimension of
eternity. Becket now fee!s trapped. His "near despair" after the fourth Tempter
leaves, is reflected in the speech of the Chorus. Becket is almost in danger of being
&sorbed into the abyss of despair. He has to actively overcome this temptation. It
involves considerable internal conflict mirrored both in his Christmas sermon and the
second part of the play.

In 1934 Eliot said, "with the disappearance of the idea of intense moi-alstruggle, the
hllman being presented to us both in poetry and prose fiction today.. . tend to become
less real. It is iniact during moments of moral nndspiritilal struggle--that me11and
women come nearest to being real'' (After Strange ~ d d s ) The
. characters in Murder
in the Cathedral are real froin this point of view.
The fourth Tempter leaves echoing Becket's opeiling speech in the play about acting
and suffering.I1MartinBrowne states that when the foi~rthTempter talks of the turning
of the wheel: he is refering to it as sometl~ing~nechanicalwhich makes action and
suffering meqingless. Becket feels trapped af3er the fourth Teinpter tempts him and
tl~isis reflected in the ironical repetition of Becket's own speech by the Tempter.
Becket, the teacher, has now become the pupil. He has to learn the true meaning of
martyrdoin, Respair and pride are see11 only in relation to man's will not God's.
~ e c k eist forced to find a way out of his paradox. The stillness of the wheel is later
contrasted wit11 tlle "restlessness in the house" expressed by the chorus in'their
outburst following the temptations.

3.2 BECKET'S SILENCE AFTER THE FOURTH

TEMPTATION

After the fourtll Tempter leaves, Becket remains silent while all the other character
speak. This certainly dramatises the intense conflict in Becket. It is through this
silence that Becket overcor?zesthe fourth temptation viz. attack on his pride. This
silence is also significant because it makes us realize that Becket goes through
conflict anci suffering before he becomes a martyr. If this process had not taken place
his death would have been misread as the "self slaughter of a lunatic."

It is i~nportantto examine the nature of the dramatic strategies used by Eliot to show
how Becket overcomes his last temptation before lie is ready for martrydon]. In
doillg this one shoiild keep in mind the particular kind of audience the play was
catering to, Eliot's use of language and metre to create dramatic effects, and the"
constraints both religious and theatrical within which Eliot had to operate.

ASstated earlier, the play was written for the Canterbury Festival of June 1935 and it
catered to a specifically Christian audience. It was performed in the Chapter House
Murder it1 flze of the Cathedral. The architectural and acoustic peculiarities of the place inlposed
Cntlt erlral some dramatic constraints on Eliot. For instance, the al~nostponderous and heavy
effect of some of the speeches in i\hrder it/ ?he C~rtlzedralis deliberate, so that words
could be enunciated and not lost in transmission. The simultanous presence of
several characters on the stage is also a direct consequence ofthe architectural
peculiarity of tlle place. The Cliapter House as we know had only one door for the
characters to enter and exit frorn. Could this be one of the reasons for the
simultaneous presence of the Tempters, the Chorus and the Priests on the stage after
Becket's last temptation? Or, is Eliot not willing to present God, even for a religious
audience? In other words, rather than showing God Eliot chose the conlbined effect
of the Cllorus, Tempters and the Priests to dramatize the whirlwind whicli signifies
God's presence in the Book of Job.
4
The central problem which Eliot faced in dra~naticallyportraying the resolution of
Becket's conflict was to convincingly exteriorize Becket's interior conflict. As Helen
Gardner rightly says:". ..the last te~nptationis so subtle and interior that 110audience
cal? judge whether it is truly overcome or not." If we are to believe Becket when he
says "Temptation shall not come in this kind again," what are the dramatic strategies
used by Eliot to lead us to this belief?

I t may be noted that ~ l i owas

i working against a dramatic tradition which was
essentially naturalistic. Therefore, to put words of humility in Thomas'own mouth
would make him appear the opposite of humble. Perhaps this accounts for the long
silence between Becket's words after the last Tcmpter tempts hi~n,and his expression
of the resolution of his conilict ill his speech "now is my way clear, now is the
meaning plain."

Referring to the difficulty of judging whether the last temptation has been overcome
Helen Gardner says: "we have to take it for granted that Thomas dies with a pure will,
or else, more properly, ignore the whole problem of motives as beyond our
competence and accept the fact of his death" (The Art of T.S.EliotP.134).
, Interestingly, Eliot's essay on "Poetry and Drama" offers a possible interpretation to
the dramatic strategy used by him, in dramatising Becket's resolution of the conflict.
In the essay he says: "It seems to me that beyond the na~neableclassifiable e~notions
and motives of our conscious life when directed towards action, the part of life which
prose drama is wholly adequate to express there is a fringe of indefinite extent, of
feeling which one can only detect, so to speak, out of the corner of the eye and can
never conlpletely focus; of feeling of wliich we are only aware in a kind of temporary
detachment from action." Could Becket's silence after the fourth Tempter tempts him
be that "feeling of which we are only aware in a kind of temporary detachment from
act ion?"

3.3 EXPLANATION OF THE CHORIC PASSAGE

FOLLOWING THE EXIT OF THE FOURTH
TEMPTER UPTO THE E'ND OF PART 1

The c11oric outburst that follows after the fou~-th"'rern~ter

exits conveys the
restlessness of the people. There is restlessness, these "poor women" of Canterbury
say, in the "house" and in the "street." The air is oppressive and clarnmy; the sky
"thick and heavy." Images of the earth birthing "issue of hell" contribute to the
general sense of horror.

Following the choric outburst, the fo~ourTempters collectively talk about the unreality
o f all things. Any award or prize on earth in the ultimate analysis is not worth
winning not even the hope of martyrdoin. It is like "hankering for the cat in the
Parztomime, which isn't a cat at'all, but just ano.ther cheatN(NevilleCoghill). The
 Critical
Telnpters want the audience to adopt their point of view i n condemning Becket's Approaches to the
l n a r t y r d ~ nas~ an illusive and childish act that is "out of touch with reality." They play - part-I
refer to Becket as "obstinate, b l i ~ ~intentd, 1 On self-destruction," someone who is
l'lost in the wonder of his own greatness, 1 Tlle enemy of society, enenly of hin~self."

The three Priests--like the four Tempters--collectively tell Becket not to fight the
forces against him. They ask him to wait iiiltil things sitbside.

Following the collective plea of the Priests to Becket, the Chorus, Tempters and the
Priests alternately highlight "Prowling presences" like "rain that taps at the window, "
"wind that pokes at the door" and the "mastiff' prowling at the gate. Images of death
and violence are also picked lip by them. Phrases like "a sudden sllock on the skull,"
"(lrowned in a ditch" and "feel the cold in his groin" intensify and atmosphere of
anxiety.

The C~IOSLIS now enter and tell Beclcet that they are not happy about tlie present
situation. They state that they are not "ignorant women" and know "what to expect
and not expect." In life they have known surfering, "extortion and violence,"of "the
old without fire in winter" the "child without milk in summer,"young men
"mutiliatedMand"thc torn girl trern bling by the mil I-stream." Despite all these
problems, the "poor women" state that they have carried on with life by "picking
together the pieces."

'They s:iy that they carried 011"Living and parlly living" because they felt that God
gave them some rcason to hopc. But now with the new develop~i~c~its they feel very
frightened. They sense a terror enveloping them "which none can avert, none call /
avoid, flowing under our reet and over the sky / Under doors and down chimneys,
flowing in at tlie ear and / the mouth and the eye." These "poor women" express
despair which is encapsulated in their words, "God is leaving us, God is leaving us,
Inore pang, 11101.2 pain / than birth or death." 'Their despair is highlighted tlirough the
animal imagery that they use: "Puss-pun. of lcopard, footrall of padding bear, / Palm-
pat of nodding ape, square hynena waiting." They plead with their archbishop Beclcet
to save t1iem.b~saving himsclf. IShe destroys himself, they too will be destroyed.

After a long s/lence (in which he u~ldcrgoesintense conflict and struggle over the
temptations) Becltet speaks. I-lis internal struggle, as explained earlier, was
dl.amatized by Eliot through the collective presence and speeches of tlie Chorus,
,Tempters a ~ l dPriests on tile stage.

Beclcet is now clear about the meaning of his life. No longer will any temptation
upset the peace and u~~derstanding that lie now has. I4e admits that "The last
temptation is the greatest treason: / 'To do the right deed for the wrong reason."
Becket recalls his life in the last thirty years and says that he has '!semrched all the
ways 17'hat lead to pleasure, advancement ancl price" at the temporal level. To
become a "servant of God" was never his wish. It is difficult to serve God because
one can fall into spiritual arrogance by doing tlie "right deed for the wrong reasons."
111other words, by resisting sins you may open your heart to the pride of having
resisted it and clevelop contempt for those who are i~nilbleto do so. Becket says tliat
he can forsee how llistory will interp~.ethis death as tlie"sense1ess self-slaughter of a
lunatic, / Arrogant passion o f a fanatic." The fourth Knight's words at the en4 of the
play corroborates it, viz. tliat Becket conlrnitted "Suicide while of Ilnsouncl Mind."
Becket, continues by saying tliat all those who are implicated in evil will be punished.
As for himself, he says that he shall not "act or suffer" and surrender hi~nsclfto God.
This is reflected in the selmon that he gives soon afier.

Critical Commentat-y on tlie above passage

7 7

I he "rest'lessness" of tlie Chorus express the anguish of Becket after the fourth
Tempter leaves. Their "restlessness" is also in contrast to the stillness oftlie "still
point." Terrible images like that of the "withered tree" and "sickly smells" clo~ninate
Murder in the not only the tone of the passage but also the state of the country and its people..
Ccrtherlml
There is a general sense of decay. Eliot's contenlion that human nature shares in the
Evil which befell all nature after the Fall is seen in this speech. In a sense, the
dismal picture that emerges from this passage clearly points to the need for Beclcet's
martyrdom to save the world.

In the collective speech of the four Tempters there is a sudden shift from the 12"'
century to the 20"'. The Tempter-- like the Knights later--try to persuade the audience
to see things from their point of view. They deliberately use images from the 20"'
century to bridge the distance between them and the audience. This speech by the
four Tempters clearly points to their stand regarding Becltet 's mal-tyrdoin. However,
the irony lies in the fact that it is people like them who necessitate Becket's
~narlyrdornto cleanse the world from sins.

The three Priests in collectively persuading Becket to give up his battle demonstrate
their lack of religious strength. They too need to grow and understand the meaning
of manrydom. These lalnerltors fear death because they see it as sudden and
unprepared. Becket's attitude is different. He sees his death as being in God's hands.
It is never an accident but planned. 9

The speech alternately spoken by the Chorus, Priests and the Tempters resembles the
Liturgy during a Christian mass service. This technique of alternation is also akin to
"stichomytl~ia,"in Greek tragedy.

The choric speech that follows foregrounds the extent of the terror and disease that
has set in. They speak of terrible images of rape, violence, deprivation and death.
The oppression and torture" that the "poor women" speak of refer specifically to the
days of King Stephen ( whom King I-Ienry I1 succeeded) when Inally were tortured by
"brigand barons" for information regarding hidden wealth. It is important to note that
the Chorus too must learn that death is frightening only if one sees it as individual
annihilation and not as part of God's plan. The Chorus claim not to be "ignorant
women" yet they don't seem to realize that they are living at the te~nporallevel of
linear time. They do not have a totality of existence, "Living and partly living, 1
Picking together the pieces." They have to learn that "sleeping and eating and
drinking" is not adequate to realize the Full potential of one's being. In the Gospel of
St. Matthew, Christ had said that "man does not live by bread alone" to his tenlpter
who tempted him with food while he was hungry (see Matthew Ch 4).

The terror depicted by the Chorus in this speech is the kind of despair the Tempters
wanted Becltet to fall into. The Chorus can only understand private catastrophe and
personal loss. They cannot comprehend that which is out of time and yet they are not
at ease with the old dispensation (like the magi in Eliot's poem, "The Journey of the
Magi.") Rebirth is always painful. It may be noted that Becket's lines before he
surrenders to his death in Part I1 of the play, strike a contrast to the function of the
Chorus at the linear level of time. He says :

It is not in time that my death shall be known:

It is out of time that my decision is taken
If you call that a decision
To which my whole being gives entire consent.
I give my life
To the Law of God above the Law of Man.

Critical Commentary on Becket's Speech after his Temptations

Becket" opening words "now is my way clear, now is the ~neaningplain" tells us that
he has indeed overcolne the fourth temptation. The clarity of his belief that is
revealed here is later shown in Becket's sennon on Christmas day. The
process through which he overcornes, is seen in llis lorlg silence--discussed earlier.
 Becket admits that the last temptation was the toughest "To do the right deed for the Critical Approaches
-
to the play Part-I
I

I
wrong reason." His recapitulating his past thirty years cluring which he explored all
forlns of pleasure at the linear level and his distance from it all now, shows that the
I
fil-stthree temptations were no real challenge to him. He has now achieved a real
I sense of calm expressed in "I shall no longer act or suffer." He is ready to face death
when it comes. In this speech, Becket's address to the audience "you and you"
the Knights address to them later in the play.

3.4 IMPORTANT ASPECTS OF PART I

The Chorus is very timid and fearful, worse still, it is content to live lives of spiritual
stagnation. But there is hope for them because they know their own weaknesses.
Part 11 sl~owstheir growth.

The Tempters althougll individualized could be viewed as aspects of Becket's

personality.

We get the historical background of the play. Eliot never lets us lose our grip on
, historical facts. There are constant references to ~neetingsand treatises.

What the Chorus perceives as a sense of doom, Becket sees as peace before death,

The idea of martyrdom is developed. Man must subinit to God's will.

3.5 EXERCISES

1. Delineate the nature of the four temptations that Becket undergoes.

2. Critically coinnlent on the significance of Becket's silence after the fourth

temptation.
UNIT 4 CRITICAL APPROACHES TO THE PLAY -
PART II

Structure

4.0 Objectives

4.1 Eliot's Christian Perspective

4.2 Becket's Cllristrnas Sermon: Explanatory and Critical Notes.

4.3 Murder in the Carhedral as a Christian History Drama

4.4 Explanatory and Critical Notes on Part I1 of the play fro111the First Clloric
entrance in P a ~I1
t upto the entry of the Four Knights

4.5 Explanatory and Critical Notes on the section from the Entrance of the
Knights upto their exit

4.6 Exercises

4.0 OBJECTIVES

The aim of this unit is to make you aware of

a) Eliot's Christian Perspective

b) Explanatory comments on Thonlas Becltet's Christmas Sellno11
c) Murder in the Cathedral as a Christian History Drama
d) Explanatoiy Comments on the lives from the First Clioric entrance in part I1
upto the entry of the Four Knights Comments
e) Explanatory Comme~ltson the Section from the Entrance of the Knights upto
their Exit

4.1 ELIOT'S CHRISTIAN PERSPECTIVE

'As stated earlier T. S, Eliot was raised in a family which had very strong Unitarian
beliefs. However, he did not find Unitarianism sufficient for his own spiritual needs.
Contrary to the opinion of many critics, Eliot did not invent his own version of
Christianity. He was an c'IncarnabionalChristian," that is, he believed that the coining
of Christ was the most important evhnt in history and that "Sacramental Worship"
reaffirmed this.

Eliot coilverted to Anglican Catholicism in 1927-but it was only a year later that he
made this fact public. In his preface t o o r Sir Lancelot A n d r e ~ ~ (published
es in
1928) Eliot declared that he was "a Classicist in literature, Royalist in politics and
Anglo Catholic in religion."

The year of Eliot's conversion was also the year that he published "The Journey of
the Magi" (an-Ariel Christmas poem), The poem is based on a Christmas sernlon of
the seventeenth centary Anglican divine, Bishop Lancelot Andrews. Interestingly,
although the devotional prayers-of Bishop Andrews were published after he died, it
 I
: Eliot who showed tbe world that Bishop Andrews was also a significant Critical Approaches
to the play - Part-I1 .
I preacller.,Eli~t
was introduced to the works of Lancelot Andrews through William
I Force Stead whom he had met at a party in 1923. He was an American diplomat in
land but had resigned his job to get ordained in the Church of England. Both
Stead and Eliot shared a common interest in the study of seventeenth centuiy
i Anglicall Divines particularly Sir Lancelot Andrews.
1

i Eliot was particularly lured by Bishop Andrews' ability to temper his emotions with
I1 his intellect. He liked his "medieval temper" which was balanced as compared to the
flaslly brilliance of John Donne. It was through the worlts of Bisllop ~ n d r e w that
s
1 Eliot discovered not onlythe importance of "Orthodox Christianity" as a medium
1 between sltepticisnl and isolation, but also the doctrine of the incarnation of Christ. In
:
1
his essay, For Sir Larzcelot Andrews (1928), Eliot describes Andrews' appeal for him.
i He felt that Aildrews in his sermon was "alone with the alone." He was not like'
( Dollne who was combating a strong elnotional personality. Andrews became one
i wit11 the subject.

Ironically, it is while Eliot was getting acqiiainted with the doctrines of Lancelot
Andrewes that he wrote the poem, "The Hollow Men." This poem exposes the
spiritiral aridity of the modern age. But it also marks the turning point in Eliot's life.
Following this in 1930, Eliot publislled llis next major poem "Ash Wednesday"
written after his conversion in 1927. Tlle poem is seen as the story of Eliot's
conversion with all his skepticisn~and d o ~ ~ b tIts .is perceived as a poem which charts
Eliot's spiritual ascent from the ~neaninglessworld of "The Hollow Men," "Ash
Wednesday" was structurally built on a phrase about "Two Turnings" which Bishop
Andrewes had declared were necessary for conversion. The one looking to God and
the other to the sinfill past.

After his conversion, Eliot loved a life yl~iclchwas responsible to the doctrines of the
Church. Infact, when Eliot finally decided to separate from his first wife, Vivienne,
he did not have divorce in mind. Nor did he illtend tb remarry until she died since that
was the official position of the Church of England.

What established Eliot as a "Defendant" of the Church of England was the pageant
play, The Rock. He was colnmissioned to write this play. The scenario for .this
pageant was given to him by Brown and Webb Odell. However, the ten choric
passages that Eloit wrote were what made the pageant a success. In The Rock Eliot
was learning how to use a chorus for drainsltic exposition. Bisl~opBell of Chichester
came to see The Rock and was very pleased by it. It was the success of The Rock that
inade Bishop Bell co~n~nission Eliot to write a play for the Canterbury Festival. This
play was Murder in the Cathedral. Tllus Eliot's first two plays are both religious
verse dramas.

, Eliot Ielt that preserving Christianity was iinportant for civilization. In his essays,
"The Idea of a Christian Society" Eliot described the kind of Christian society needed
I to be built in "England's green and pleasant land." For llim the disappearance of
I Christianity was the end of wester11 civilization. Eliot believed that a Christian elite
would head an ideal co~nrnunitybecause for him a neutral society would not live
I long. He felt that the Church needed to intervene and point out what was right and
wrong. But, for the Church to be effective, he felt there must be a Christian
community studying and supporting these ideals. He also claimed that Christian
views could not be private because it is hard to be a Christian in a non-Christian
society. This is why he felt that Churches and Christian institutions were impoi-tant.
I

In 1948, Eliot's Notes Toward the Definitiorr of Culture was published. This was his
first book length study in which he spoke about his social and spiritl~alconcerns for
! "Christendom," in a post World War world. The maill aim of this book was to show
the relation between religion a ~ l dculture. For peace in the post World War age a
I co~n~noil faitli was needed. That faith for Eliot was Christianity.
Murder iri the
Cfltl~erlrcrl
4.2 BECKET'S CHRI
EXPLANATORY AND CRITICAL NOTES

The sermon begins with the 14"' verse of Ch. 2 of the Gospel of St. Luke. Becket
addresses the congregation which has gathered for the sermon in a vet?/ loving way as
"dear children of God." He tells them that his Christmas sermon is going to be a short
one and asks them to meditate upon the mystery of the Christmas mass. He says that
whenever mass is celebrated, Christ's death is celebrated. What he means by this is
since Christ died to save human beings from sins, his death becomes a celebration.
Becket then goes on to say that on Christmas day mass has a special meaning because
that was the day Christ was born. So when one celebrates mass on Christmas one
celebrates Christ's birth and death simultaneously. He then goes 011 to say that it was
on the night before Christmas that Angels appeared before the shepherd at
Bethlehem, saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good
will." The fact that the Christmas mass is both a celebration of Christ's birth and his
death on the cross, Becket points out, may appear strange to the world. This, he says,
is because no one mourns and rejoices in the same moment. In the Christian mystery,
however, to mourn and rejoice at the same time is possible. Becket then goes on to
ask the congregation whether it seems strange that the angels should have spoken of
"peace" considering the fact that the world has had ceaseless wars or the fear of war.
Becket presents the congregation with a rhetorical question. Could it be that the
angles were mistaken or was the promise "a disappointinellt and a cheat?"

Becket asks the congregation to reflect on how the Lord (Christ) spoke of "peace."
He said to his disciples "peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you." He
questions whether by peace Christ meant what we lnean by it? That is, England at
peace with its neighbours, the barons at peace with the king, the householder
counting over his peaceful gains etc. He further adds that Christ's disciple did not
know of these things. They gave up everything to spread God's words through land
and sea. They faced torture, imprisonment and disappointment to "suffer death by
martyrdom.'' What did Christ mean by peace? Christ had said "not as the world gives,
give I unto you." So the peace he gave his disciples is not the peace the world gives.

Becket asks the congregation to note the fact that on Christmas not only is Christ's
bilth and death celebrated together, but on the very next day we celebrate the
martyrdom of his first martyr, the blessed Stephen. Is it a coincidence that this should
happen? By no means. That is, Becket says, just as we celebrate the birth and death of
Christ, similarly we do the same for the martyrs. We inourn for the sins that led to
their lnartyrdo~nbut we also rejoice in these martyrs becolning saints in heaven "for
the glory of God and for the salvation of men."

Becket once again addresses the congregation with affection as "beloved" and says
that we do not view a martyr "simply as a good Christian because that would be only
to mourn. Nor do we see the martyr as only saint because that would be to only
rejoice." Neither our mourning nor our rejoicing is as the world sees. "A Christian
martyrdom is never an accident, for saints are not made by accident" nor is a
Christian martyrdom the will of a man to become a saint because this would lead him
to be a ruler of men. "A martyrdom is always the design of God," to lead Inen back to
God's ways. It is the ability of inan to surrender his will to God, to desire nothing for
himself, not even the glory of being a martyr. Just as on earth the church mourns and
rejoices at once which the world cannot understand, so in heaven the saints are
honoured for having made theinselves low on earth. They are seen not as we see them
but in "the light of the Godhead from which they draw there being."

Becket concludes his sermon by referring to the congregation as the "children of

God" saying, 1.1ehas asked them to remember the martyrs of the past especially the
 UNIT 5 GENERAL COMMENTS AND OTHER
READINGS

Structure

5.0 Objectives

5.1 Critical Explanation of the Choric Outburst after Becket Exits upto his
Murder.

5.2 Critical Explanation of the Knights, Prose Passages upto the end of the Play.

5.3 The Chorus in Developillent in Eliot's Play's.

5.4 plays by Other Dramatists on Thomas Becket.

5.5 Greek / Medieval Models for Eliot's Play, Murder in the Cathedral.

5.6 Different Readings of Eliot's Murder in the Cathedral.

5.7 Select Bibliography with Critical Comments

1 5.8 Exercises

5.0 OBJECTIVES

This Unit will:

!I a. Complete the critical explanatioi~ofthe play from the choric outburst upto
Becket's murder.
I b. Critically explain the section starting with the Knight's prose passages upto
!
the end of the play.
I c. Trace the development of the Chorus
I d. Discuss other dramatist's plays on Becket
e. Point out the Greek 1 Medieval model'
I f. Give an account of other Readings of Eliot's Murder in the Cathedral
g. Give a select bibliography with critical comments.
I

I 5.1 CRITICAL EXPLANATION OF THE CHORIC

I OUTBURST AFTER BECKET EXITS UPTO HIS
1 MURDER
i
I In this speech the Chorus perceives evil in the world through images like the "putrid
1 flesh" of lobsters and oysters living and spawning in the "bowels," of death in the

1I rose and the l~ollyl~ock. Animal iinages abound in their speech: rat, jackal, jackaw ,
jackdaw and ape. They see chaos in the universe. This is expressed througll tlie fact
that the order of time and creatures are abolished. The animal, food bird and sea
imagery in their speech point to the widespread corruption in the world. 111 short, evil
is contained not oilly in the knights. This is important because it points to the fact that
I Becket's nlartyrdom has cosmic dimensions. This is reinforced by their statement: "It
I
Murder in the was here, in the Kitchen, in the passages, / In the news in the barn in the lyre in the
Catl~erlral
market-place / In our veins our bowels our Skulls as well." The "Poor Women" of
Canterbury say that they have tasted death and now it is too late to repent and act.
Finally, these women state that they have coilsented ta their "animal powers" and
have been "dominated by the lust of self-demolition." They plead with Becket to
forgive them so that they can pray for him out of sense of their shcune, They now
acknowledge their collective guilt. This shows that they have grown. Before they had
blamed Becket for the chaos but now they blame themselves.

Critical Explanation of Becket's Speech

Becket's first word, "Peace" parallels his use of the word in his first entrance in the
play. But the word has a new dimension to it now. Peace now, no longer means
silence, but a calm that emanates froin being in touch with the "still point" which is
God. Becket's lines:

These things had to come to you and you accept thein,

This is your share of the eternal burden,
The perpetual glory.

Touches upon the basic Christian paradox. That is , it is through accepting suffering
and pain in this life that you get power and glory in the next. Becket further tells the
Chorus that all the suffering and pain that they go through will fall into a pattern
"When the figure of God's purpose is made complete." Once this happens, he tells
the "poor women" of Canterbury, that all the "toiling in the household" will appear
".unreal." He ends his speech by saying that "humankind cannot bear too much
reality." This is a line from "Burnt Norton" which is part of The Four Quartets.
What Becket means here is that human beings can only have a glimpse of the eternal
truth. "Reality" stands for truth. We are not able to sustain our vision of reality
because it is too overwhelining to us.

When the Priests tell Becket to hide near the altar because the Knights will be
returning armed to attack him, he tells them that he has been waiting all his life for
this moment. He tells the Priests that "Death will come" not when he wills it but
when God thiilks that he is "worthy." Since this is the case, Becket says, "there is no
danger. / I have therefore only to make perfect my will.?' The Priests in a panic tell
Becket that the Knights are coming and tell him to "make haste." They fear for
themselves saying, "if you are killed what shall become of us?" The lines spoken by
the Priests demonstrate that they have not understood the meaning of Becket's
martyrdom. Spiritual rebirth is individual. Becket has reached a stage of
individuality. The Priests still function collectively as is expressed in their line to
Becket: "What shall become of us?" In this context, the crowd represents "untruth"
and the individual represents "truth."

The Priests who represent institutionalized religion tell Becket to go Vespers which is
a Church Service in the evening. They are still very ritualistic. Unlike Becket they
have not understood Gad. Becket tells the Priests to go to Vespers and pray fur him.
He tells them that the Knights will find: the shepherd ( that is him) and will spare the
flock (that is the priests, Chorus etc) Becket says: "I have had a tremor of bliss, a
wink of heaven a whisper, / And I would no longer be denied; all things / Proceed to
a joyful consummation." It is important to like Becket's phrase "I would no longer be
denied" to the line in the first speech of the Chorus when they say, "Remember the
martyrs and saints who wait and who shall 1 stretch out his hand to the fire, and deny
his master?" Becket is saying that he will no longer be "denied" the role that he has to
play. He says "all things? Proceed to a joyful consummation" which is his death by
martyrdom. The Priests who are operating at a very different level, drag Becket away.
They see Becket's approaching death as murder, Becket however, views it
differently. At this point the Ci~orusspeaks and a Dies Irae (the day of wrath) a hymn
 is s~lngin the background. This hymn is one ofthe greatest masterpieces of Medieval Genera!
Comments and
lyric poetry.
other readings
The Choric speech at this point expresses the horror of the "poor women" which
results from their sin of living in the void in a itate of "emptiness, absence, separation
from God." In the cathedral,-lhe Priests tell each other to bar the door and that they
will be "safe." The Priests here are like the Chorus in their opening speech in the play
when they hide in the Cathedral for physical safety. What they have to learn is that
physical safety has no meaning unless they are protected by God. This is the reason
why Becket insists on the doors of the Church being left open. He tells the Priests
$at he does not want the Church to be turned into a "fortress." Becket, who has
understood the true meaning of God says that "The Church sl~allprotect her own, in
her own way. "The first Priest responds by saying that the Knights are not corning
like people who will "ltneel to the body of Christ / but like beasts." The beast image
iq important. It shows that the klights are far removed from the still point, that is
God. They have a long way to go to reach Becket's state of understanding. Infact, the
beastly nature of the Knights make us aware of the greater need of Becketyssacrifice
illrough martyrdom to redeem people. Becket tells the Priests to unbar the door. He
chides them saying that they may think that he's "reckless, desperate and mad" this is
because they apply earthly standards and argue by "results" as this world does. He
tells them:

It is not in time that my death shall be known;

It is out of time that my decision is taken
..............................................
To yl~icllmy whole being; gives cdnsent.
I give my life
To the law of God above the law of Man.

It requires a very special person to face a vision of nothingness on earth, Becket has
achieved this. He privileges God's order over man's. His entire body, and soul have
surrendered to God. Eliot believed that the values for which Becket gives his life are
in essence permanellt and therefore relevant to all times. Nevi11 Coghill gives a good
com~nentaryon these lines. He says ccTI~ornas's argument is that when ail act is
looked at time, it can be assessed relatively to its motives and consequences, that is, it
.is a human action that partakes of both good and evil, as the world judges. To murder
a man, not to say an Archbishop, is judged evil by the world, and therefore it would
. seem wrong for Becket to make such a murder possible by opening the doors. But if
' a martyrdom is "made by the design of God," it is an act made beyond Time, and

bears an eternal witness. It is absolute and cannot be judged relatively. Becket's will
is only involved in that he has identified it with or surrendered it to, the will of God."

Becket once again tells the Priests to "unbar" the doors of the Cathedral. He tells
them that "we are not here to triumph by fighting, by strategies, or by resistance, not
to fight with beasts as men." He then tells them that the beast in them has already
been conquered. I-Ie perhaps refers here to his own temptations. He says that death
which follows it is "the easier victory." It is perceived as the fruit of all the suffering
and pain.

The Knights enter humiliating Becket the way Christ was humiliated before his death.
I They refer to the "mark of the beast" on him and the "blood of the lamb." This is a
mockery of Revelation XIX, 20 and VII 14. Their line "Come down Daniel and Join
in the feast" is again a mocking allusion to Christ's last supper.

Becket does not argue with the Knights but tells them that he is ready to shed his
blood to pay for Christ's death. As the Knights tell Becket to make amends for the
wrongs that he has done to the Bishops and the King, Becket says that he is "ready to
I
die" for God, he tells them to do what they want with him but to spare his people.
The Knights now collectively call him a traitor. To which Becket says to one of the
i Knigl-lts,Reginald, that he is thrice traitor. That is, to Becket whose man he was, to
L
Murder in tlre God and to the Church. Becket's last words express a total s~irrenderof hitnself to
C(ltlt eclrol God. I-Ie says that he gives himself up to God, the Virgin mother and all the prophets
and saints. When the Knights kiIl Becket they do so by forming a circle with Becket
at the centre. This is sylnbolic of the wheel and the still point.

Tennyson in his play Becket, adopted the legend of a violent storm after the murder.
Eliot gave the storm a symbolic treatment by introducing the Chorus' cry, the Priests
speeches etc. The Chorus, in its speech, protests wildly at the pollution of the natural
order. All sense of time and place is lost, there is cosmic cacophony. They say that
they can no longer go on living quietly as they had done before. Although they have
gone through suffering, "the personal loss, the general misery" they have never seen
such chaos before. They say, this is out of life, this is out of time, 1 An instant eternity
of evil and wrong." They now state that the whole world is clouded in "filth."

5.2 CRITICAL EXPLANATION OF THE KNIGHT'S

PROSE PASSAGES UPTO THE END

After the Knights murder Becket, they address the audience in prose. Eliot follows
history upto the martyrdoin of Becket and then he makes a jump into the hventieth
century. He says that he deliberately did this to shock tl~eaudience out of their
complacency. In his prose passages, Eliot was influenced by Shaw's St. Joan. In a
sense, the Knights by addressing the audience politicise the murder of Becket.

The first Ibight, Reginald Fitz Urse, is the leader of the group. He tells the audience
that since they are English they will listen to both sides of the story which is in
keeping with their long established principle of trial by Jury. This was introduced by
Henry 11. Reginald asks Baron William de Traci the eldest member to speak first. We
are given various angles to the m ~ ~ r dthrough
er the Knights speeches. The third
Knight, who is the eldest, says that whatever they have done they have done so,
"disinterestedly." By this they do not mean surrendering of their will to God but
being "non;partisan." The second Knight, Sir Hugh de Morville, speaks next and tells
the audience that he agrees with William de Traci and that they did what they did for
the good of the country. He says, "Had Becket concurred with the King's wishes; we
should have had an almost ideal state: union of spiritual and temporal administration,
under the central government." He tells the people to ''appeal not to [their] emotions
but to [their] reason." He concludes his speech by saying that the Knights "have
served [the] interests" of the people. But it is important to note that Becket has also
served their interests in his death. He has died to save the people from sins. The
fourth Knight, Richard Brito, speaks next. His speech is important because he refers
to Becket's death as the senseless self slaughter of a lunatic, an egotistic man who
llad " deternlined upon a death by martyrdom." It is this Knight who renders the
verdict on Becket of "suicide while of Unsound Mind." Obviously, the Knights
perceive Becket as one conquering the last temptation of pride.

The closillg lines of tlle first Knight's speech which advises people to go home
quietly and not to "loiter in groups at street corners" point to their fear of public
outbreak against the Archbishop's murder. Perhaps this is why the Knights find the
need to give an explanation to the audience. The first Priest's lament after Becket's
murder about the church lying "bereft / Alone, desecrated, desolated," expresses the
fact that he has not ~~nderstood the meaning of Becket's death. The third Priest on the
other hand says "the Church is stronger for this action." He then tells the Knights:
"Go, weak sad men, lost' erring souls, 1 homeless in earth or 1heaven." It is this third
Priest who thanks God for giving them another "Saint it1 Canterbury."
 I

, The Last Choric Speech General Comments

and other readings
The last Cl~oricspeech celebrates the meaning life has obtained through Becket's
I
I martyrdom. We see a sea change in the Chorus from fear to glory recognising God's
i ways. Their earlier outburst which spbke about polluted images in the cosmos is now
: all cleansed through Becket's death. They see a comic pattern now:
I

"Thy creatures, botll the hunters and the hunted / For all things exist only as seen by
thee, only as known by / Thee, all things exist / Only in thy Light." The "poor

I
I womeny'of Canterbury have understood the meaning of the still point. They have
l~nderstoodthat human beings whom God has made "must co~isciouslypraise thee, in
( thought and in word and in deed." That is, they must surrender tl~emselvestotally to
I God. In the light of this understanding, the activities of cleaning the hearth" and
' "scrubbing" and "sweeping" all become meaningful. That the chorus has developed
is seen in their accepting responsibility for Becket's deatli. "We acknowledge our
trespass, our weakness, our fault; we acknowledge / That the sin of the world is upon
our heads: that the blood / of the martyrs and the agony of the saints / Is upon our
heads." They end their speech by asking God for mercy and Thoinas to pray for them.

I 5.3 THE CHORUS IN DEVELOPMENT IN ELIOT'S

I PLAYS
I
I

! It is necessary to note at the outset itself that Eliot's use of the choral passages were
I
linked with his own voice. That is, the first voice (See Eliot's Three Voices of Poetry)
I viz, the poet talking to himself.
i
I

Eliot's use of the C h o r ~ can

~ s be Traced back to "Fragment ofthe Agou" which was
published in 1927. It forms part of Eliot's Samson Agonistes now. But, it was his
eight choral speeches in The Rock - -which he was commissioned to write for the
Canterbury Festival-that demonstrated Eliot's talent in innovatively adapting the
Greek Chorus to modern times. About this Chorus, the critic of The Church Times
said "The great achievement of The Rock is the Chorus. Mr. Eliot is greater as a poet
then he is experienced as a dramatist, and he has put the best of his writing into the
poetry of the choric comments on religion and life." (1 June, 1934)

The Chorus in The Rock consisted of males and females. They wore masks and were
very stylised in their movements. Eliot relied entirely on Elsie Fogerty, Principal of
the Central Scl~oolof Speech and Drama, and her colleague Gwynneth Thurburn for
coordinating the Chorus. Thurburn, infact, succeeded Miss Forgerty as the principal
of t h e school. She was the person who did most of the voice work in the school. She
said, "It so happened that we had a particularly good set of girl speakers who had that
year done very well at the Oxford Verse-Speaking Festival. ...They responded well
and I think Eliot was impressed; anyway we decided that was what he wanted. ... ."
Thurburn further adds that in those days drama schools were not there. it was only
after world war I1 that formal training centres in drama sprang up. Due to the war
years men who joined these schools had a much shorter course, sometime as short as
two months as compared to the two year required course that women attended. The
results were obvious. Women were much better voice trained than the men.
Thurburnsays, "The girls had a longer and more secure background of training to
rely upon, and they therefore constituted a better team." Eliot's use of the all women
Chorus in Murder in the Cathedral is entirely due to the fact that in asking for girls
from Fogerty's school, he would get the best.

In The Family Reunion the chorus comprised of two sisters and two brothers-in-law.
Their role in general is static and they do not advance 'the action in the play.
a
Murder in tlre The Chorus, in Murder in the Cathedral, according to Pieter D.Williams "suggests
Cutlzctlrtrl the collectivity, the generality of mankind, as distinct from its outstanding individual
members --- Thomas Becket or Henry 11." He adds, "the stasis of the chorus,
compared with the movement, sometime violent, of other characters and groups of
characters, help to isolate them visually in the kaliedoscope of power politics and
reillforces another salient theme: the permanence of common humanity, the
impermanence of political systems .. . The Chorus has learned a stoical submjssion to
life,.,. . something which Thomas when the play begins has yet to learn." He has to be
submissive without the fear of the Chorus. Williams also talks of the impoi-tanceof
the vocal role played by the Chorus that it provides a symphony of female voices, a
balanced antithesis to male voices of the Priests, Messenger, Archbishop, Tempters,
and Knights. . .. The other functions of the Chorus is to give details of time, place,
action co~nplementingabstract situations. William says, the Chorus "is used to
telescope into ninety minutes the last twenty seven days of ~ e c k e t ' slife by
suggesting the passage of time."

About the C h o r ~ in
~ sM u r d e ~in the Cathedral, Mcgill says, "In staging of Murder. in
the Cathed'ralthere are interpretive problems of the presentation of the chpral
speeches. Textually they appear as odes with no specific instructions to itidicate
differentiation of voices. But the first starting of tlie play set the precedent for
assigning parts within the choral odes to individual voices or varying ensembles."

It is important to note that in the first part of the play, we the audience einpathise with
the Chorus in the Interlude we become one with them and in the second part they lead
us and guide us as to how we should respond to Becket's murder. They invite us to
join them in tlie Te Deuin.

5.4 PLAYS BY OTHER DRAMATISTS ON THOMAS

BECKET

Alfred Tennyson, T.S. Eliot, Jean Anouilh and Christopher Fry have all written on
Thomas Becket. All four writers use the same llistorical facts but write about them
from different perspectives. What all these writers exploit in their works is the
friendship that Becket 11ad with King I-Ienry IT when 11e was a Cilancellor. Anouilh
uses this perspective in his play, Becket (1959). 111this play , Henry I1 is h~irtby
Becket's behaviour after lie becomes the Archbishop. He emerges as strongly as
Becket for sy~npathy.He cannot understand why Becket has assumed a new
allegiance, the honour of God, which is also the subtitle of the play. Cliristopl~erFry,
in his play Cz~rfnzarztle( I 961) gives even greater prominence to King Henry 11. One
of tlie themes listed by Fry as treated in his play is "a progression toward a portrait of
Henry." King I-Ienry I1 is portrayed in this play as a Inan who is surrounded by
anarchy and chaos and wants order in his Kingdom. The "crown / and tlie croney" are
seen to be working together towards that end. In this play Becket is not as militant in
his approacl~to the King as in Anouilh's play. In fact, he works for the King humbly
acknowledging the fact that "there would be no Becket, without the King" and that he
is "the King's representative." The King too, in appointing Becket as Archbishop is
not influenced by his friendship with him but by the fact that he will be able to
stabilize the realm. When Becket after becoming the Archbishop cliooses God over
the King, Henry is hurt not so much by personal betrayal but for the cause of the
nation. 111mailitailling the stability of the nation he feels that eve11 powers that
traditionally belonged to the church should be used which the Archbishop does not
accept. Eleanor, King Me~~ry's wife says tliat issues and personalities have got
intertwined. Eleanor's role in Fry's Curt~llantleis interesting. She is the former
French Queen now ~nlarriedto a British King. She has respect for Becket at a personal
level alid as a statesman. She is different from Tennyson's Eleanor who is directly
responsible for the murder of Becket. Tennyson's play Becket was written in 1879
but was staged only in 1893.
 General
In Tennyson's Becket the conflict between Henry's I1 and Becket is given focus. Comments and
Becket's insistence on privileging God before King becomes almost an obsession. other readings
Tennyson's plot is complicated by a sub plot involving Henry's mistress Rosamund.
Tliis sub plot intersects with the main plot in the animosity that Eleanor, tlie Queen,
shows to Rosarnund and also by Rosamund's own spurning of the attention she gets
from the four Knight's who later murder Becket. However, Rosamund's role in
prompting the King to declare what he says about Becket whicli brings on the
murder is clearly seen in Tennyson's play. The Rosamund sub plot confuses the main
issue between the Icing and Becket unlike in the otlier plays by Fry, Anouilh and
Eliot.

Eliot's handling of the Becket issue is different. He focuses on the events that took
place in Decelilber. Tliis enables him to focus on an issue rather than have a
panoramic view of history. Eliot's handling of the Cho~usand llis theme of
maltrydom are also noteworthy.

Again, it is important to note that all these four writers go to different models for their
work. Eliot, for instance, uses Classical Greek and Medieval Morality plays. These
plays were very ritualistic. Fry is Shavian in his panoramic and historical view.
Anouilh says that Pira~idello'sSix Characters in Search of an Author had an impact
on his work. His work is more musical. Interestingly, both Eliot and Fry are
Christians and do not appear as existentialist as Anouilh whose Becket refuses to
accept any standard other than his own: "I was a man without honour" he says, and
"suddenly I found it." If Eliot's play ends with the Chorus understanding the meaning
of Becket's martyrdom, Fry's Ctrrtmantle ends with the terror of destruction of
Henry's realm and family. Anouilh's Becket ends with the ironic comprotnies, the
union of King's and God's Ilonour. Abouilh is more secular, and more radicaI in his
treatment of Becket than Eliot and Fry.

5.5 GREEK AND MEDIEVAL MODELS FOR ELIOT'S

MURDER IN THE CATHEDRAL

Eliot was acutely aware of the fact that his play was to be performed like Greek
tragedy. His play was celebrating a cultic event near tlie site of the murder of Becket.
Eliot aimed at writing a "neutral" verse like the kind used in Everyrilan but he also
made modernist use of an abrupt transition to modern dialogue like G.B. Shaw's last
scene in St. Joan when Eliot's four Knights defend themselves to the audience.

Tliougl~Eliot did not conscio~islydevelop this play of a Greek dramatic model (as he
did each of his subsequent plays), Leoaylen calls the play "most near in spirit to
Greek tragedy, of all the plays written in English or French this century. It is for~nally
similar; it uses a myth in the s a n e way as the Greek tragedies did, and the myth bears
tlie same relation to the religion of Eliot's audience as the myths of the Greek poets
did to their audience's religion. It is based 011ritual, and tlie action is carried out
principally by the Chorus, not by an actor. It was performed at a festival, not before a
theatre going public."

Eliot has openly stated that for the versificatioli of his play lie used the medieval play,
Eve~j)mar?. Nevill Coghill says:

Everyn~anis a version, from the late fifteenth century, of a Dutch original

called Elckerlijc. It tells of how God, perceiving that 'all people be to me
unkind,' sends death to surnmon.Every~nanbefore him: he is to bring his
Book of Accoui~tswith him, Eve~ymanbegs for a respite and tries to '
persuade his friends his Kinsmen and his Goods to go with him, but they all
refuse. His Good-Deeds, however, are willing to stand by him, through death
Murder in B e and after. Everyman confesses his sins, takes the last Sacrament, and creeps
Cailt edrd into the grave to die. Thereupon a Angel announces 'great joy and melody'
above in Heaven, 'where Everyman's soul received shall be.'

Its versification is extremely irregular, at least in comparison with that of the

earlier Miracle and Morality plays which, nevertheless, it partly imitates.

The lines are of varying length and have a varying number of stresses; there is a good
deal of rhyme and there are touches of alliteration.

Coghill goes on to say that a typical Everyman like passage in Murder in the
Cathedral might be:

Your thoughts have more power than Kings to compel you. (4)

You have also thought sometimes slat your prayers, (4) Sometimes hesitating
sat the angles of Stairs, (4) etc.

The "total effect" Coghill states, "is one of living movement and emphatic speech,
that tumbles as if by accident on to the happy rhythmical phrase and compulsive
rhyme, unforeseeably, and yet with gratification of a certain indefinable expectancy.
These effects of verse are greatly enhanced by the intercalation of the two great prose
scenes of the Sermon and the Knights' apology, which provide their reasoned
contrasts to the rest of the dialogue, where feeling predominates."

5.6 DIFFERENT READINGS OF ELIOT'S M U . IN

THE CATHEDRAL

Murder i.n the Cathedral as:

a) Poetic Drama
b) Christian Play
c) Integration of Eliot's Dramatic Theories
d) Biographical Play
e) Feminist Reading

(a) Murder in the Catlzedral as a POETIC DRAMA

Poetic form, Eliot felt, is the most apt form of expression in the theatre. In his vie
Ibsen, Strindberg, and Chekov were true poets who felt hatnpered with the limits o
prose. In contrst to them are Yeats and Hofn~annsthal,who kept alive the ancient a
traditional affinity between drama and poetry.

In "The Music of Poetry" (1942) Eliot acknowledges his bias in favour of the poet
to which he was indebted as a poet, and says that the music of poetry is not
independent of the meaning. The meaning of poetiy is sometimes beyond the poet'
intentions. He saw possibilities of theme recurrence and transitions in poetry as in
music, and thought the concert hall more likely to quicken poetry than the opera
house. He said that without poets of unusual sensibility and command of language,
culture will deteriorate. "Poetry and Drama" is notable for the retrospective attentio
Eliot gives to his own developme~ltas a playwright, he fincls that he has been writin
variations on the theme of poetic drarna.tl~rougl~ont his career. For Eliot the l~ighest
aim of poetic drama is to bring us to the border of those feelings which ore
expressible only in music, without leaving the everyday world of dramatic action
 1

Murder in the Catltedral as a CHRISTIAN PLAY General

(b) Comments and
other readings
Stephen Spender's "Martyrdom and Motive" states that "The true theme of Eliot's
plays written after his conversion is the discovery by heroes .... of their religious
vocation. It is required of the hero that he perfect his will so as to make it conform
colnpletely with the will of God." In Murder in the Cathedral, according to Spender,
these aims are revealed in a very pure state."

Stevie Smith finds the play "a remarkable evocation of Christian fears." He adds that,
it should not be forgotten that Eliot had initially considered calling the play, Fear in
the Way. Smith argues that Murder in the Cathedral in "remarkable for the strength
of these fears and the horrible beauty in which they are dressed." According to
Smith, Eliot perceived inodern times as shallow and meaningless. The play with its
religious direction was perhaps written as an antidote to the times.

The entire play can be seen as based on the Christian notion of history, Unlike
I traditional history, Christian history is not linear. It can be described as
I
providentially oriented history of salvation. It stai-ts with the creation and nloves
towards the last day ofjudgeinent when God will come in all his power and glory to
sift the good from the bad. In Christ the eternal enters the temporal intersecting the
timeless with time, creating a paradox in time. This paradox will only be resolved in
God. The preference of Christian dramatists for paradoxical imagery draws its
justification froin this fact. Saints and martyrs are also like Christ, but on a different
scale. In this sense the History of Salvation confronts everyman with the sainc
religious duties to fulfill. Everyman becomes every man whose soul becomes a
battlefield for Good and Evil to gain supremacy. It is in the history of the salvation
of the world and the soul that Christian history unfolds itself.
I

The play has also been read as following the structure of a Catholic mass:

a. Introductory rites
b. Preparation for the gifts to the Eucharist
c. Eucharistic Prayer
d. Communion rite
e. Concluding rite

(c) Murder in the Cathedral as Eliot's most successful integration of his

DRAMATIC THEORIES.

I11 Poetry and Drama Eliot states that the subject matter of Murder in the Cathedral
was well suited for verse drama. Interestingly, though he states that a verse drama
should be entirely in verse, he justifies the two prose sections by saying that Becket's
sermon would not be convincing if it had been in verse. The Knights he said, were
made to speak prose to shock the audience out of their complacency.

Marianne Moore states: "one may merely mention the appropriateness of verse to
subject matter.. .. Mr. Eliot steps so reverently as the solemn ground he has essayed,
that austerity assumes the dignity of philosophy and the didacticism of the verities
incorporated in the play becomes impersonal and persuasive." Carol Y. Smith is also
of the opinion that Murder in the Cathedrnl integrates very effectively Eliot's
dramatic theories. She says, "the levels of the play are intrii~sicallyunified by the
skillf~llinterweaving of Thomas' story with the imagery of Christ's Temptation and
Passion and with the prototype formula of all religion and drama. 'The hierarchy of
characters within the play who perceive the meaning of Thomas' death on their
various levels helps to tighten the unity of the drama and to give it the stylized
quality Eliot admires . ... .. from a fear of spiritual realities and a disavowal of
respo~lsibilitiesto acceptance of and participation in both the sin and glory of
mai-tyrdom, Eliot has provided a highly effective vehicle for commentary on the
i action and participation in it."
t-
Murder in the
Cat11edral (4 Murder in the ~ d e d r aas
l BIOGRAPHICAL

In The Making of T.S. Eliot's Plays Martin Browne states that Eliot found in the
Becket story something eternal: "at the moment when he was called upon to write his
play, he found that the basic conflict of the twentieth centuly came very near to
. repeating that of the twelfth." Browne also sees the rise of fascism in the 1930s as a
serious form of social threat that Becket fights in his play. Such an approacll is also
corroborated by Ashley Dukes in "T.S. Eliot in the Theatre." He says, "Other things
conspired to remind us of the play's actuality; indeed it was never allowed to become
historical drama for a moment. Hitler had been Iong enough in power to ensure that
the four knightly murderess of Beckets would be recognized as figures of the day,
four perfect Nazis defending their act on the most orthodox totalitarian grounds.
Echoes of one war and forebodings of another resounded through the sultry
afternoon."

Interestingly, King Edward the VIII abdicated his throne during the play's West End
production which according to Dukes refer to the lines about the King's transient
power. .

Peter Ackroyd argues that the hero of Murder in the Cathedral, Becket, shares the
writers first name. This is not a mere coincidence. Lyndall Gordon, in his book
Eliot's New Life, focuses on the biographical study ofEliot from the late 1920s to the
end of Eliot's life, notes several autobiographical overtones in Murder in the
Cathedral. He says that Eliot found in Becket "a model who was not so different
from himself. Here was a man to all appearances not born for sainthood, a man of the
world ... . Who moved from wordly success into spiritual danger.. . Eliot said that a
bit of the author may by the germ of a character, but that, too, a certain character may
call out latent potentialities in the author. Murder in the Cathedral was a
biographical play that had its impact on Eliot in shifting the balance of his new life
from the shared course of love to the course of religious trial."

(e) A FEMINIST READING of Murder on the Cathedral

Such a reading would focus on Eliot's all women Chorus which comprises of the
"poor women" of Canterbury. Guilt and submissiveness which mark the growth of
the Chorus in the Christian framework of the play, are viewed as negative qualities
according to the feminist perspective. Feminists argue that women under patriarchy
have always suffered from a deep sense of guilt and it is this guilt that has stood in
the way of their having a sense of "self-worth." Similarly, with "submissiveness."
Under partriarchy, submissiveness implies surrendering to male domination which
feminists perceive as being inherently destructive to women. For another feminist
reading of the play, see Feminist theory and Modern Drama edited by Taisha
Abraham (Delhi: Pencrafi International, 1997)

In giving a feminist reading of Murder in the Cathedral, however, one should

remember that Eliot chose an all women Chorus for his play not keeping the gender
issu,e in mind, but because he wanted the best trained voices form Ms. Fogerty's
Central School of Speech and Drama.

5.7 SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY WITH CRITICAL

COMMENTS

Abraham, Taisha. ed. Feminist theory andModern Drama. New Delhi: Pencraft
International, 1997.
 General Comments
(The essay on Murder in the Cathedral entitled, "Writing in Ourselves" by Zakia
and other readings
pathak discusses the pedagogical practice of teaching a text from the west in our
India11 universities. It highlights, in particular, the churchlstate conflict in the
~yodhyancontext and critically examines the position of women in this debate.)

Brooker, Spears Jewel. Ed. Approaches to Teaching Eliot's Poetry and Plays. NY:
MLA of America, 1988.

(The principle objective of this book is to put together different poiilts of view on
teaching a particular literary work. Eliot's Murder in the Cathedral is discussed in
some detail pointing out to different philosophies and approaches to the text.)

--. The Placing of T.S. Eliot. Columbia and London: University of Missouri Press,
1991.

(The essays in the volume originated as invited lectures for the T.S. Eliot society
' which has its headquarters in St. Louis, the poet's birthplace. Some essays in the
collection are historical while others focus on language. A few of the essays deal with
Eliot's eastward move from the slums of the turn-of-.the century river town in the
heart of the American midwest to the inore metropolitan river town of Boston and
then to river based urban capitals like London and Paris.)

Browne, E. Martin. The Making of T.S. Eliot's Plays. Cambridge: CUP, 1969.

(This book is very important in showing how Eliot's plays came to be written and of
their first stage appearance. Much of the contents are from Eliot's ow11 writings.)

Chiari, Joseph. T.S. Eliot Poet and Dramatist NY: Harper and Row, 1972.

(Eliot's artistic,and social background are traced in this book which also studies his
poeins and plays.)
I

Clark, R. David. Ed. Twentieth Century Interpretation of Murder in ilze Catlzerlml.

N.J,: Prentice-Hall; Inc. 1971.

(Divided, into two sections, the book deals with various aspects of Eliot's play,
Murder in the Cathedral. Written by well known scholars, the essays cover the notioil
of action and suffering in Christian terms, the notion of the stillpoint and Becket as
[he biblical character, Job.)

! Malamud, Randy. T.S. Eliot's Drama: A Research and Productio~zSource Book.

Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1992.

(The book provides a good background to his dramas. The introduction surveys
Eliot's literary works and maps his move from poetry to drama.)

Seed, David. "Eliot's use of Tennyson in Murder in the Cathedral." Yeats/Eliot

Review 7. 1-2 (1 982): 42-49.

(Does a coinparative study of Tennyson's Becket and Eliot's Murder in the

Cathedral,)

Sochaloff, A. Fred. "Four Variations on the Becket theme in Modren Drama" Modern
Drama 12,l * May 1969): 83-97-1.

(Compared to dramatizations of the same historical event by Fry, Anouilh and

Tennyson, Murder in the Cathedrul is the most austere and unified; Eliot
tollcentrates on Becket's state of mind and his martyrdom by excluding characters
such as King Henry 11.)
Murder ill the Williams, Pieter D. "The Function of the Chorus in T.S. Eliot's Murder in the
CathetZral Cathedral." American Benediction Review 23-4 (1972): 499-511.

(This book exhaustively explores the role of the Chorus in terms of its dramatic,
structural, visual and vocal contribution to Murder in the Cathedral, and the formal
and thematic contrast of its stasis compared to Becket's change and action.)

5.8 EXERCISES

I. Do you think that the development in the Chorus reflects the growth in
Becket?

2. Critically analyse the importance of the Knights speeches.

3. Briefly co~nmeilton Eliot's use of Greek and Medieval sources for his play,
Murder in the Cathedral.

4. Attempt a fenlinist reading of the play.

5. Discuss Murder in the Cathedral as a Christian play.

6 Trace the development of Becket's mai-tyrdom in the play.