Symbolism and Religious Drama: T.S. Eliot’s Murder in the Cathedral

In 1163, a quarrel began between the British reality-beater enthalpy II and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Becket. The men had been good friends, but apiece felt that his interests should be of primary concern to the nation and that the other should agree to his demands. Becket fled to France in 1164 in hostelry to rally support from the Catholic cut for his cause and in like manner sought an audience with the Pope. After being officially (although non personally) reconciled with the King, Becket returned to England in 1170, simply to be murdered as he prayed in Canterbury duomo by four of Henrys Knights.Three geezerhood later, he was lotonized and pilgrimsHenry among themhave made their centering to his grave ever since. The allure of such(prenominal) a story for a childs playtist is obvious there is a great conflict between forgiving and divine power, a strong central character and a add of complicated eldritch issues to be found in his death. In 1935, T. S . Eliot answered this vocation to compose a play for that years Canterbury Festival the result was a bunk that revitalized verse dramaa form that had not been astray employed for almost three hundred years.Critics praised Eliots use of verse and faculty to invest a past historical horizontalt with modern issues and bags, such as the ways in which lay persons react to the intrusion of the preternatural in their daily lives. In part because it is a religious drama which appe bed long afterwards such plays were popular, Murder in the Cathedral is dumb performed, studied, and regarded as one of Eliots major works, a testament to his skill as a poet and dramatist.In its assessment of Eliots importance to modern English literature, A Literary History of England argues that a shift from desperation to hope-a change from the unbiased resignation of those who breathe the small, dry air of modern unearthly emptiness to something to a greater extent positive and potentially transce ndent- back end early be detected in Eliots Ash-Wednesday (1930), of which the theme is the search for peace found in humble and quiet meekness to immortals Will.This theme, clearly an expression of the Anglo-Catholicism Eliot embraced during his life, appears again throughout Murder in the Cathedral. It informs and breathes through the entire schoolbook of the play, as the commentary higher up has demonstrated. In Murder in the Cathedral, the inert resignation of modern life manifests itself in the let out refusal to embrace superiority the women of Canterbury are content to go on animated and partly living. As they state, even imploringly to Becket, on several occasions, they do not wish anything to happen. They do not want the wander of Gods soma to begin turning. As do all moderns in Eliots estimation, they fear the unfairness of men less than the justice of God. They are not ready to live, as Becket was, out of time. Yet, through Becket as he portrays him, Eliot f orcefully argues that such transcendence must be achieved. In finding with biblical testimony round the genius of spiritual power versus temporal power, however, Eliot posits that transcendence cannot be achieved by force.It arises, not through utilitarian machinations (such as those the Four Tempters propose to Becket in Part I), but by, in the Literary Historys words, humble and quiet patience to Gods Will. As Becket himself declares, I give my life / To the uprightness of God above the Law of Man. His triumphant affirmation of faith echoes the words of the New testament Whether it is full in Gods sight to listen to you rather than to God, you must say for we cannot keep from spea force about what we have seen and heard (Acts 419-20) or again, Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? (James 44). Only by valuing friendship-i. e. , a total junction of mind and soul and get out-with the spiritual, with God, over such friendship with the world or the temporal order of the status quo, can peace-that elusive refinement referred to throughout the play in Beckets fragile relationship with King Henry as Beckets salutation to the Chorus in Parts I and II as the turning of Gods motor rhythm method of birth control of providence-be found. In this way, the themes of Murder in the Cathedral aptly crystallize the themes of Eliots own life-long work.The wheel was a symbol, in chivalrous times, of the wheel of life or the wheel of fortune, which never stands still, being constantly subject to the turns of fate (Dictionary of Symbolism, p. 379). No doubt Eliot draws on these ancient associations in his texts multiple references to the wheel, but he excessively subverts them by stating that, in fact, the wheel of fate-or, in Eliots Anglo-Catholic worldview, of Gods providence and plan for history-has in fact been rest still during Beckets vii-year absence seizure from Canterbury. As discussed earlier, the length of Beckets exile is itself of metaphorical importance, since seven symbolizes totality and completeness. ) Beckets task is to set the wheel turning again to expect his part, willingly and completely, in Gods conventionality (another word-image that occurs frequently in the text) so that the wheel can resume turning and that peace can replace the classical existence of living and partly living. The eras also carry symbolic committal in Eliots play.The most notable example is the Chorus invocations of the passage of the seasons at the first-class honours degree of Part I and then at the end of Part II. At the beginning of the play, the passing seasons are in actuality one long season of waiting, one endless Advent. But by the plays end, after Beckets calvary, the seasons in their cycle have become part of human beings Even in us the voices of seasons . praise Thee. Eliots use of seasonal imagery will no doubt remind readers of his work in The Waste Land (1922).That epic poems first line, April i s the cruelest month, reinforces the poems dominant mood of pessimism in the face of what Eliot sees as the moral and spiritual bankruptcy of the then still-young twentieth century. As in Murder in the Cathedral, the passage of the seasons in The Waste Land is not a flushed cycle of life, death, and rebirth. Life has become stuck in living and partly living. Still, even The Waste Land was not entirely a poem of despair of the present but of hope and promise for the future, since at the close the flavour speaks, foretelling the coming of the life-giving rain (Baugh, p. 586). In a corresponding way, Murder in the Cathedral ends in hope-although more tempered by a realization of humanitys reluctance and inability to, in Beckets words, hold alike much humanity. Still, the redemption of the seasons is an important symbolic motif in the play, as it was in Eliots earlier work. Beckets return to Canterbury is clearly framed in name that allude to rescuer bay wreath sunlight ent rance into Jerusalem.For example, the Messengers description of how the crowds are greeting the returning Becket-with scenes of frenzied enthusiasm, / Lining the road and throwing down their capes, / Strewing the way with leaves and late flowers of the season-is surely intended to remind Eliots audience of Jesus questionable triumphal entry into the holy city of Jerusalem on plow Sunday Many people spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread fan-leafed branches that they had cut in the fields (Mark 118 see also parallels in Matthew 21 and Luke 19).In some Christian liturgical traditions, Palm Sunday is also called Passion Sunday, to indicate that it is the beginning of Jesus sufferings. Thus, Eliot strongly associates Beckets triumphal entry into Canterbury with Jesus triumphal entry into Jerusalem-a seeming victory procession that leads to martyrdom and death, and can therefore be considered victorious completely in hindsight, through the eyes of faith, on the far side of resurrection. (A further allusion to the Palm Sunday narrative, incidentally, occurs when the second priest tells the women to keep silent, earning himself a rebuke from Becket.In a similar way, Jesus rebuked the religious authorities of his day for ordering the crowds who welcomed him to keep silence Jesus told them, I tell you, if these were silent, the s gradations would shout out Luke 1940. ) Overall, these parallels are meant to establish Becket as a salvific Christ-figure whose death will bring the blessing of transcendence to humanity. As Eliot wrote in Beckets Christmas sermon, mourning and jubilant (note the repeated refrain, Rejoice we all, keeping holy day) commingle at Christmas birth and death jostle for worshipers attention martyrdom-witness-takes precedence in the churchs patsy of the time.Understanding the significance of these three festival days increases our appreciation of the martyrs purpose, as exemplified in Beckets own death to make transcendence availab le to human. The titulary hero of the biblical book of Daniel, who remains steadfast to God (in the stage setting of Eliots dichotomy, read spiritual) in the face of pressures to assimilate to a pagan (read temporal) culture. Ezekiel 1414, 20 also praise Daniel as an exemplar of righteousness, even as Becket is as he faces death.Ironically, of course, Daniel, according to the Bible, was salveed from the lions den as a instant of his faithfulness to God. No such physical deliverance awaits Becket. The archbishop does, however, seem to mirror the attitude of Daniels three friends Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who, faced with death in a untrained furnace for refusing to worship an idol, declared, If our God whom we serve is able to deliver us. let him deliver us.But if not, be it known to you, O king that we will not serve your gods. (Daniel 317-18). Becket, like Daniels friends, is ready to die for God (the spiritual) Do with me as you will (p. 76). Thus, the knights invocatio n of Daniel at this point in the text creates a wealth of allusive value that illuminates Eliots themes. The impending moment of Beckets martyrdom takes on an empiric significance as the Chorus reflects upon what awaits humanity after death. The Chorus identifies Death s Gods silent servant, and acknowledges, in orthodox fashion, that understanding awaits mortals behind the face of Death. The Chorus then, however, strikes a decidedly unorthodox tone in affirming that behind Judgment is the Void, more dreadful than active shapes of sin (p. 71). In terms that again echo Eliots earlier work, The Waste Land, the Chorus describes this Void as Emptiness, absence, separation from God / The horror of the effortless journey, to the abandon land / Which is no land, only emptiness, absence, the Void. (p. 71).Ironically, however, it is this very Void, free of distraction, with no probability to avoid a truthful gazing upon oneself, that Becket is embracing in choosing to die a martyrs d eath. This speech of the Chorus thus seems to emphasize, once more, a distinction in Eliots mind between men like Becket-the saints who cause the wheel of Gods pattern in time to turn-and ordinary mortals, who are content-even though they deny it -to merely exist, to be only and always in Advent, only and always waiting, only and always living and partly living. Truly, we cannot bear too much realityWe do not wish to stare into the void, the abyss. But Eliot, like other existential thinkers of the twentieth century, understand that peering into that abyss is fundamentally a salvific, liberating act, stand for in Eliots play by the saving consequences of Beckets death for a world that would rather not be saved. Character profilesThe Chorus is an unspecified tote up of Canterburys women, is a corporate character serving the same purposes as does the emit in Greek drama to develop and, more importantly, to comment on the action of the play.The womens initial speech fairly defines t heir dramaturgic role We are forced to bear witness. And yet this chorus, like its ancient Greek predecessors, is no mere, dispassionate, objective eyewitness rather, it is a witness bearing testimony to truth-almost as in a legal proceeding, but that analogy fails to capture the nature of the testimony the chorus offers. In commenting upon the action of Thomas Beckets murder, the women are verbalize insights into, reflections on, and conclusions about time, destiny, and life and death.In the end, they emerge as representatives of ordinary people-such as those who make up the audience of the play, or its readership-people who, mired in and having colonized for an existence of living and partly living, are unable to greet transcendence when it is offered to them. As they state in the plays final moments, not everyone can bear the loneliness, surrender, deprivation necessary to become a saint. Not all can be saints-but all can pray for their intercession.Thomas Becket is the Archbis hop of Canterbury, former premier to King Henry II, now estranged from the monarch because he insists upon the right of the Church to rule in spiritual matters-a rule that, in practice, has ramifications for how the king ought to rule in temporal matters. Unlike the Chorus, Becket is able to stare into the existential abyss-that Void behind death and judgment, mentioned in Part II, that is more horrid than active shapes of hell. Becket is often accused of pride in the play, but he is actually humble in submitting himself completely to the will of God as he comprehends it. His death offers a glimpse of how transcendence can be achieved the only question that remains is whether the rest of humanity is able to string the same path, to give its life / To the Law of God above the Law of Man. The Four Tempters present Becket, in Part I of the drama, with various ways of avoiding his impending death as a martyr.Their temptations correlate, to one degree or another, with the justifications of Beckets assassination offered to the audience by The Four Knights at the end of the play. In a prefatory note to the plays third edition (1937), Eliot indicated that the roles of the Tempters had been intended to be doubled-that is, played by the same actors-as the roles of the Knights, thus underscoring the connection between the 2 quartets in an even stronger fashion.The Three priests serve the (admittedly little) dramatic action of Eliots play, in particular in Part II, when they urge Becket to bar the doors of the Cathedral against the knights-although they characterize them as savage beasts-who seek his life. They could thus be seen as representing the temporal order indeed, Becket at one point accuses them of thinking only as the world does-You argue by results, as this world does. On the other hand, the Priests also are capable of offering insight into the spiritual order.For example, the Third Priest affirms the Churchs endurance in the face of world built on the rui ns of the presumed absence of God and earlier, he offers a key interpretive insight by stating, Even now, in sordid particulars / The eternal design may appear. deal so many of us, then, the priests have one foot, so to speak, in the spiritual and the other in the temporal and they struggle to balance the two orders as best they can, as do we all.Unfortunately, according to the argument of Eliots drama, there can ultimately be no balancing peace-that is to say, transcendence-is to be found only in the complete submission to Gods design, Gods pattern, Gods wheel of providence. Mortals, say both Jesus and Eliot, cannot serve two masters-and so the Priests are fundamentally impotent, unable to do anything but to pray to God with heavy reliance upon the intercession of ideal Becket, as they, in their own way but like the Chorus, go on living and partly living.