Murder in the Cathedral

by T. S. Eliot

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Examining the historical, modern, medieval, and religious influences in T. S. Eliot's "Murder in the Cathedral."

Summary:

T. S. Eliot's "Murder in the Cathedral" blends historical, modern, medieval, and religious influences. The historical context centers on the martyrdom of Thomas Becket, reflecting medieval power struggles. Modern elements include existential themes and contemporary political parallels. Medieval influences appear in the play's structure and language, while religious aspects are prominent in its exploration of faith, martyrdom, and divine will.

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What modern drama aspects are portrayed in T. S. Eliot's Murder in the Cathedral?

Technically, Murder in the Cathedral by T. S. Eliot, does not portray modern drama, as it is not a play about the making of modern plays, but instead it is a modern drama, and can be said to "exemplify" some of the features of modernism.

In some ways, Murder in the Cathedral is just as much a rejection of the earlier "modern" drama of the nineteenth century and a return to pre-modern dramatic forms as it is something distinctly new. The key feature of the play that is both modern and radically traditional in its rejection of realism, both in its language and its narrative.

The most distinctive feature of the language is the return to verse (and heightened language in general), which had been the dominant medium of drama from antiquity through the Renaissance, but was abandoned with the rise of realism. In terms of narrative, Eliot...

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moves away from the realistic portrayal of the everyday events in the lives of ordinary people to a highly stylized narrative that externalizes the inner and symbolic conflicts in religious faith Returning to the medievalmorality play for inspiration, Eliot presents speakers without names, who make present on stage ideas or types of moral nature, rather than characters. It is this rejection of realism that makes the play "modern."

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What prompted T. S. Eliot to write Murder in the Cathedral?

Murder in the Cathedral by T.S. Eliot is a drama based on real-life assassination of Archbishop Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral. The play is derived from the eyewitness account provided by Edward Grim.

Eliot wrote this play for the yearly Canterbury Festival in Kent. When Eliot wrote this play, Europe was dealing with the growing tensions brought about by fascism.

The play talks about the conflict between duty and conscience. Thomas Becket was appointed by King Henry II as the Archbishop of Canterbury so he could help quell the growing opposition to his reign. However, Becket took the side of the opposition.

Conflicts erupted between him and his former friend, King Henry II. Facing the possibility of death, Becket deals with the four tempters.

The first tempter offers him safety: “Take a friend’s advice. Leave well alone.”

The second tempter offers him power: “To set down the great, protect the poor, Beneath the throne of God can man do more?”

The third tempter offers alliance with the powerful to overcome the king: “ In fight for liberty. You, my Lord, in being with us, would fight a good stroke.”

Lastly, the fourth tempter who advises him to become a martyr: “You hold the keys to heaven and hell. Power to bind and loose: bind, Thomas, bind.”

Becket answers the tempters by saying, “The last temptation is the greatest treason: To do the right deed for the wrong reason.”

After eight years of conflict, Becket is killed by four of Henry’s knights in the church.

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What is the historical plot of T. S. Eliot's "Murder in the Cathedral"?


The historical events behind Eliot's verse drama pertain to an on-going quarrel between King Henry II--who is reported to have shouted, "Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?"--and Thomas Beckett, who changed his extravagant life for one of ecclesiastical devotion once he was made Archbishop of Canterbury. The quarrel centered around a disagreement over what law had authority over clergy who committed secular (non-religious) crimes.

King Henry said that even clergy were subject to the law of the land of England, especially since longstanding custom in England supported the practice of secular law and courts ruling over clergy's secular crimes. This sounds reasonable to a modern reader, but in the 1100s, religion and the Church had great and powerful authority--and seemingly desired more.

Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Beckett was newly appointed by King Henry II to be his representative and advocate in the Church of England, a decision that garnered much disfavor because Becket, a military leader, had never been in Holy Orders. Becket's position was that clergymen, even those who had taken lower orders of the clerical hierarchy, were exempt from secular law and could only be tried and punished within ecclesiastical, or Church, courts.

This disagreement, a serious one since approximately one-fifth of the male population of England was in clerical orders (and occasionally given to secular crime ...), was escalated because the crime rate had increased and criminals were going unpunished because, when clergymen, they claimed the right to be tried in Church courts.

This was compounded by Becket's determination to reclaim previously confiscated Church lands and by the complaints this land reclamation effort engendered from the present occupants of the land. Becket and his family were finally exiled after long and complicated disputes over the authority to rule in criminal offenses, a dispute that finally fell to Henry's victory, and the restoration of the customs from his grandfather's day and the recognized authority of the Crown's courts over all secular crime, even that committed by clergymen.  

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Discuss the fusion of Medieval and Modern elements in T. S. Eliot's Murder in The Cathedral.

It is very important to remember that Eliot wrote the play to be performed as part of the 1935 Canterbury Festival, and it was actually performed only a very short distance from the actual place where Thomas Becket was assassinated. Eliot therefore used such close proximity to history in order to create a link between past and present, between the medieval and the modern, which was only enhanced by the tangible closeness between history and present highlighted in the play. Because of the setting, therefore, the years between 1170 and 1935 evaporate, and the audience are made to recognise that the issues that haunt Becket and the Chorus are just as relevant in their modern world as they were for him in his medieval world. For example, note how Becket responds to the Second Tempter, who encourages him to become Chancellor again:

Real power
Is purchased at price of a certain submission.
Your spiritual power is earthly perdition.
Power is present, for him who will wield.

Becket realises that true and authentic power is something that can only be taken on alongside "submission," and he also indicates that to possess spiritual power is to condemn yourself to a very difficult life on earth indeed, as captured in the phrase "earthly perdition." Throughout the play, issues of power and how such power should be wielded dominate, and these issues are of course just as relevant for 1935 as they were for 1170, and indeed for our day and age. Medieval and modern therefore fuse in terms of the universal themes that are raised in this play.

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What is the religious context of T. S. Eliot's Murder in the Cathedral?

T. S. Eliot's play Murder in the Cathedral is based on an actual historical event, the murder of Thomas Beckett, Archbishop of Canterbury, on December 29, 1170, in Canterbury Cathedral, probably at the instigation of King Henry II.

In the twelfth century, Roman Catholicism was the official religion of England. In the events of Murder in the Cathedral, we see the beginnings of the tension that would eventually lead King Henry VIII in 1534 to separate the Church of England from that of Rome. In the twelfth century, however, there was no talk of spiritual independence from Rome, but rather a dispute over power within the structure of Roman Catholicism.

The dispute originates in the problem of "church temporalities," the properties owned by the church. Under the feudal system, all land belongs to the king and is assigned to vassals (the various noblemen who in practice own and run estates) in return for their service. The Roman Catholic monasteries and cathedrals owned vast tracts of land and enjoyed considerable wealth. This leads to a conflict. Even though the Pope as head of the church has ultimate say in spiritual matters, in temporal matters, the king had absolute authority. Thus, Henry II felt that he should be able to select bishops and have some control of the revenue deriving from church property on English soil; Thomas Beckett supported the Papal position that church temporalities should be controlled by Rome.

Further complicating this issue was that the Pope, as well as being a religious authority, also was the temporal ruler of the Papal States (a small territory in Italy) and as such acted as a secular head of state as well as a religious figure. In this dual identity, the Pope tended to ally with enemies of England, leading Henry II to have additional qualms about bishops selected by the Pope.

Thus even though Eliot's play focuses on the moral dilemma's of Thomas Beckett, the background involves practical conflicts over church power and property.

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