The Death Of The Cathedral By Eliot - 1544 Words

In the play Murder in the Cathedral, Eliot depicts the controversial return of Thomas Becket to Canterbury and his subsequent murder. However, the Chorus conveys most of the play’s drama in their speeches. The Chorus narrates Becket’s journey in Part I of the play and comments on their concern his return will likely have on their own lives. After Becket declares he is prepared to be a martyr as willed by God at the end of Part I, his murder in Part II loses the element of surprise. Instead, Eliot pursues the dynamic development of the Chorus in Part II. When the Chorus bears witness to Becket’s murder, they come to terms with their involvement in his sacrifice and are tasked with validating his martyrdom. Although Becket’s journey is essentially complete with his murder, Eliot’s Part II follows the transformation of the Chorus and their acceptance of the spiritual order in response to Becket’s martyrdom; they recognize their limited gratifica tion in life, assume their responsibility in confronting the world, and elicit Becket’s help to make themselves instruments of God. To begin with, the Chorus recognizes the threat Becket’s looming martyrdom poses to their limited gratification in life. In Part I, the Chorus expresses their preference for a life that is â€Å"living and partly living†, a life of concern only for their earthly survival. However, Becket’s readiness to for self-sacrifice threatens to destroy their complacency. Elliot opens Part II with the Chorus’s speech inShow MoreRelatedRelationship Between The Church And The State1709 Words   |  7 Pagesreligious landscape of societal leadership structure. This research article discusses the political argument and discourse of T.S Eliot as depicted through the pilgrimage of Thomas Becket in his play, Murder in the Cathedral, and also demonstrates how the death of Thomas Becket mirrors the political thinking of the day. The work of T.S. Eliot in Murder in the Cathedral is an artistic attempt to unearth and display the political undertones that historically define the relationship between the secularRead MoreSymbolism and Religious Drama: T.S. Eliot’s Murder in the Cathedral2754 Words   |  12 PagesMurder in the Cathedral By T. S. Eliot In 1163, a quarrel began between the British King Henry II and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Becket. The men had been good friends, but each felt that his interests should be of primary concern to the nation and that the other should acquiesce to his demands. Becket fled to France in 1164 in order to rally support from the Catholic French for his cause and also sought an audience with the Pope. 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Eliots The Hollow Men Essay1973 Words   |  8 PagesFutility of Life Exposed in T.S. Eliots The Hollow Men      Ã‚   The Hollow Men, by T.S Eliot, is a reflection on the emptiness, futility and misery of modern life. It is also a reflection on the problems involved in human communication, and on the meaning (or lack of it) to life. Eliot uses religious and desert symbolism, biblical and literary allusions, repetition, parody and deliberately sparse, controlled language to convey the themes of the poem. The poem opens with two epigraphsRead MoreEliot as Dramatist1935 Words   |  8 PagesT.S. Eliot as a dramatist Introduction American-English poet, playwright, and critic, a leader of the modernist movement in literature. Eliot was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1948. His most famous work is THE WASTE LAND, written when he was 34. On one level this highly complex poem descibes cultural and spiritual crisis. 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