Murder in the Cathedral
muder in the cathedraAustralian Journal of Basic and Applied Sciences, 5(12): 2227-2230, 2011 ISSN 1991-8178
A Study of T. S. Eliot’s Murder in the Cathedral
1
Hamedreza Kohzadi and 2Fatemeh Azizmohammadi
1,2
Department of English Literature, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Arak, Iran.
Abstract: T. S. Eliot 's, Murder in the Cathedral, was originally written for the Canterbury festival and tells the story of the murder of Archbishop Thomas Beckett (1118-70) by Henry II 's henchmen. It is essentially an extended lyrical consideration of the proper residence of temporal and spiritual power, of the obligations of religious believers to the commands of the State, and of the possibility that piety can be selfish unto sin. It is this kind of interplay and the confrontation between Church and State which informed society at it 's healthiest. It was men like Beckett and the Knights, willing to sacrifice even their lives in discharging their respective duties, who created the great Western institutions. So long as there were men like Beckett for the State to reckon with, to stand as moral examples and human rebukes to the power of the State, there existed a serious counterbalance to the worst excesses of that power. Indeed, such was the weight of Christian revulsion against this murder that Henry had to scourge himself publicly to atone for it. This article attempts to examine T. S. Eliot 's short play, Murder in the Cathedral especially in terms of the traditional image of the turning wheel and the still point. Key words: T.S. Eliot, Murder in the Cathedral, Church, the Turning Wheel, the Still Point. INTRODUCTION In the Coriolan poems the manipulation of a continuous parallel by Eliot between antiquity and contemporaneity leads initially to a concern with the substitute the world seeks for the Word, and finally to a resignation leading to the discovery that our peace is in His will. This theme of timeless reality glimpsed in the world
A Study of T. S. Eliot’s Murder in the Cathedral
1
Hamedreza Kohzadi and 2Fatemeh Azizmohammadi
1,2
Department of English Literature, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Arak, Iran.
Abstract: T. S. Eliot 's, Murder in the Cathedral, was originally written for the Canterbury festival and tells the story of the murder of Archbishop Thomas Beckett (1118-70) by Henry II 's henchmen. It is essentially an extended lyrical consideration of the proper residence of temporal and spiritual power, of the obligations of religious believers to the commands of the State, and of the possibility that piety can be selfish unto sin. It is this kind of interplay and the confrontation between Church and State which informed society at it 's healthiest. It was men like Beckett and the Knights, willing to sacrifice even their lives in discharging their respective duties, who created the great Western institutions. So long as there were men like Beckett for the State to reckon with, to stand as moral examples and human rebukes to the power of the State, there existed a serious counterbalance to the worst excesses of that power. Indeed, such was the weight of Christian revulsion against this murder that Henry had to scourge himself publicly to atone for it. This article attempts to examine T. S. Eliot 's short play, Murder in the Cathedral especially in terms of the traditional image of the turning wheel and the still point. Key words: T.S. Eliot, Murder in the Cathedral, Church, the Turning Wheel, the Still Point. INTRODUCTION In the Coriolan poems the manipulation of a continuous parallel by Eliot between antiquity and contemporaneity leads initially to a concern with the substitute the world seeks for the Word, and finally to a resignation leading to the discovery that our peace is in His will. This theme of timeless reality glimpsed in the world
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