Literary Murder in the Cathedral by T.S. Eliot

[issybird]

Murder in the Cathedral is poetic drama in two parts, with a prose sermon interlude, the most successful play by American English poet T.S. Eliot. The play was performed at Canterbury Cathedral in 1935 and published the same year. Set in December 1170, it is a modern miracle play on the martyrdom of St. Thomas Becket, archbishop of Canterbury.

The play’s most striking feature is the use of a chorus in the Classical Greek manner. The poor women of Canterbury who make up the chorus nervously await Thomas’s return from his seven-year exile, fretting over his volatile relationship with King Henry II. Thomas arrives and must resist four temptations: worldly pleasures, lasting power as chancellor, recognition as a leader of the barons against the king, and eternal glory as a martyr.

After Thomas delivers his Christmas morning sermon, four knights in the service of the king accost him and order him to leave the kingdom. When he refuses, they return to slay him in the cathedral.

This is the MR Literary Club selection for August 2017. Whether you've already read it or would like to, feel free to start or join in the conversation at any time, and guests are always welcome! So, what are your thoughts on it?

[issybird]

I'm going to note that the August main book club selection, Your Turn, Mr. Moto by J.P. Marquand, also was written in 1935. Read in conjunction, they could provide insight into the political climate of the times

[Bookworm_Girl]

Thank you, issybird! I have put Murder in the Cathedral on hold at my library. The wait should be short. Your Turn, Mr. Moto looks interesting too.

[bfisher]

Great nomination, Spinnenmonat.

I find the use of the Greek chorus interesting; what other similarities will this have to a Greek tragedy?

The blank verse is wonderful in places, and some of the images are striking:
"Ruinous spring shall beat at our doors,
Root and shoot shall eat our eyes and our ears,"

[Spinnenmonat]

I have not yet started to read it, but I know the use of the ancient greek chorus is characteristic of this play.

For the fans of T. S. Eliot: Complete works

[Bookworm_Girl]

A few years ago the club read Eliot's Four Quartets. The first poem was Burnt Norton. Unfortunately my recollection of it is too vague!

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burnt_Norton

The concept of Burnt Norton is connected to Eliot's Murder in the Cathedral; he worked on the poem while the play was being produced during 1935. The connection between the poem and the play is deep; many of the lines for the poem come from lines originally created for the play that were, on E. Martin Brown's advice, removed from the script. Years later, Eliot recollected:

There were lines and fragments that were discarded in the course of the production of Murder in the Cathedral. 'Can't get them over on the stage,' said the producer, and I humbly bowed to his judgment. However, these fragments stayed in my mind, and gradually I saw a poem shaping itself round them: in the end it came out as 'Burnt Norton.'

The central discussion within the poem is on the nature of time and salvation. Eliot emphasises the need of the individual to focus on the present moment and to know that there is a universal order. By understanding the nature of time and the order of the universe, mankind is able to recognise God and seek redemption.

[bfisher]

Thanks so much for that, Bookworm_Girl. I must have a look at Burnt Norton.

I thought that there were echoes of The Waste Land in the opening chorus.

[Pajamaman]

I enjoyed it. Lovers of his poetry will enjoy it. I was pleasantly surprised.

[fantasyfan]

This is a very fine work. It is a powerful exploration of the intensity of spiritual conflict which is relevant to all who face such situations. Eliot generally follows the conventions of Greek tragedy in that the drama follows the unities of place and action--though it spreads the time over three days.

Here are some reactions I had to the opening section of the play up to the temptation section.

The outer conflict is between Henry and Becket; the inner conflict is within Becket and the universal level is between the eternal/spiritual and temporal/material.

The chorus is wonderful. They are not mere commentators but crystalise very real concerns related to everyday life. They question the relevance to martyrdom in the world. They must deal with reality:

"Now I fear disturbance of the quiet seasons:
winter shall come bringing death from the sea,
Ruinous spring shall beat at our doors,
Root and shoot shall eat our eyes and our ears,
Disastrous summer burn up the beds of our streams
And the poor shall wait for another decayin October. "

The three priests are icons of belief approaches.
The first priest is basically pessimistic.

"Shall these things not end
Until the poor at the gate
Have forgotten their friend, their Father in God, have forgotten
That they had a friend?"

The second priest is politically conscious and willing to take an optimistic line.

"The Archbishop whall be at our head, dispelling dismay and doubt.
He will tell us what we are to do, he will give us orders, instruct us.
Our Lord is at one with the Pope, and also the King of France."

The third priest is the most spiritual and the least worldly; he has a deep sense of the mystery of destiny's great wheel:

"for good or ill, let the wheel turn.
The wheel has been still, these seven years and no good.
For ill or good, let the wheel turn.
for who knows the end of good or evil?
Until the grinders cease
And the door shall be shut in the street,
And all the daughters of music shall be brought low."

The speeches by the priests are followed by an extended chorus--one which tries to find peace by simply avoiding conflict and running away from the problem:

"O Thomas, Archbishop, leave us, leave us, leave sullen Dover, and set sail for France. . . set the white sail between the grey sky and the bitter sea, leave us, leave us for France."

So even in these opening pages we get a striking dramatic rendering of the deep spiritual conflicts the play wil explore.

These conflicts continue in the Temptations of Thomas which follow and which provide a series of attempts to outline the inner strengths and weaknesses of the Archbishop.

[bfisher]

Almost a bit of playfulness by Eliot with the entrance of the Fourth Tempter.
"Thomas:
Who are you? I expected
Three visitors, not four."

and a great comeback from the Fourth Tempter:
"...
Had I been expected, I had been here before,
I always precede expectation."

We are preset to expect a Trinity. Thus, what the Fourth Tempter has to say may capture our attention more because it breaks a pattern.

[fantasyfan]

Good point bfisher! I was expecting a trinity when I first read it.

One of the things I liked about the temptation section was the way each tempter represented a deeper layer in Becket's soul. The fourth tempter uses spiritual pride--the most dangerous temptation of all as the Archbishop realises:

"The last temptation is The greatest treason:
To do the right deed for the wrong reason."

What should be service becomes selfishness regardless of the good that may be done:

"Servant of God has chance of greater sin
And sorrow, than the man who serves a king.
For those who serve the greater cause may make the cause serve them,
Still doing right:"

[Bookworm_Girl]

I was researching info to place this work in the time period it was written. The interlude didn't seem to move the plot forward since it was mostly clarifying the themes from the first part before moving on to the second part. However I was struck by imagining what it would have been like to be in the audience of the cathedral watching the actor deliver this "sermon." I expect it would have been more impactful as a performance than reading it.

I found this interesting passage about George Bell, Dean of Canterbury (1924-1929) and Bishop of Chichester (1929-1958), who hoped to revive religious drama and "seek ways and means for the restoration of the artist and the church." Bell also commisioned the performance of John Masefield's The Coming of Christ in Canterbury Cathedral in 1928. This quote is from The Image of Christ in Modern Art by Richard Harries.

He [Bell] appointed Martin Browne as director of religious drama, and meeting T.S. Eliot in 1930 helped to facilitate Murder in the Cathedral for performance in Canterbury Cathedral, as well as encouraging the novelist Charles Williams and others. He was equally keen to bring painters and sculptors into the orbit of the church. In particular he supported the refugee artist Hans Feibusch in his work for St. Wilfred's, Brighton. Although Feibusch was not a modernist there was still fierce controversy over his work but, as Bell said, "I think we have been taking too narrow a view in what we have thought of as fitting for church decoration." He was sympathetic to Feibusch when the artist remarked, "I would rather be burned as a heretic than as a bad artist."

This bringing together of religion and the arts, in particular Anglo-Catholicism and the arts, flowered after the war in literature, being associated not only with Eliot but also with writers such as Rose Macaulay and Dorothy L. Sayers. It also found expression in the commissioning of works of art by leading artists for churches. As Alexandra Harris put it, referring to the post-war revival, "The beginnings of all this, however, were in that particular turn to the local that marked English Art in the late 1930's and early 1940's." It was a turn which, as she rightly remarks, is above all expressed in Eliot's Four Quartets.

[fantasyfan]

That's very interesting, Bookworm Girl. A recent biography of Williams, Charles Williams: The Third Inkling by Grevel Lindop has reignited interest in this once-famous, now largely forgotten author. He was certainly admired by C. S. Lewis and T. S. Eliot. Personally, I have always admired the mind-blowing novels but he did engage in Christian Drama and wrote several significant works in that genre. If you go to the site. "The Oddest Inkling" you can read more about him.

I don't know if he actually influenced Eliot to any significant degree, (or vice versa) but both were members of that High Church Anglo-Catholic movement which included C. S. Lewis. Williams, though, was certainly a much more heterodox Anglican than the latter.

[fantasyfan]

The final section dramatises the martyrdom of Thomas and probes the deeper levels of the meaning of that act.

In the splendid opening, the chorus are reacting to the message of the sermon of the Archbishop. The poetry clearly reveals a deepening awareness of the necessity of the sacrifice in the Lord that Thomas must make.

"The peace of this world is always uncertain, unless men keep the peace of God.
And war among men defiles this world, but death in the Lord renews it,
And the world must be cleaned in the winter, or we shall have only
A sour spring, a parched summer, an empty harvest."

The section with the three priests heightens the drama through references to Christ's sacrifice which will now be emulated by Thomas. We again note the deeper insights of the third Priest.

"Every day is the day we should fear from or hope from. One moment
Weighs like another. Only in retrospection, selection,
We say, that was the day. the critical moment
That is always now, and here. Even now, in sordid particulars
The eternal design may appear."

The murder focuses on the refusal of Thomas to recant, thereby remaining true to his spiritual values and loyalty to the Church and ultimately to God. Again Eliot gives wonderful powerful speeches filled with beauty and deep layers of psychological and spiritual significance to the Chorus.

The four knights turn to the audience and--in prose--give their justifications for the murder. Nothing they say links to the world of the Spirit. Instead they refer to the political situation. Thomas has made things uncomfortable. He has to be removed. Political expediency can justify anything--including murder.

"Unhappily, there are times when violence is the only way in which social justice can be secured."

Eliot clearly states that in the modern world the attitude that the secular state must always be more significant than the Church is still a dominant position. The audience must face the unpleasant truth that they are partners in the murder.

"We have been instrumental in bringing about the state of affairs that you approve. We have served your interests; we merit your applause; and if there is any guilt whatever in the matter, you must share it with us."

The Fourth Knight really accuses Thomas of rocking the boat rather than avoiding the problem. He insisted on standing up for Spiritual principles which the Secular State found annoying and brought his death on himself by advocating them to the point of death. And it was his own fault.

" . . . he could still have easily escaped; he could have kept himself from us long enough to allow our righteous anger to cool. That was just what he did not wish to happen; he insisted, while we were still inflamed with wrath, that the doors should be opened. Need I say more? I think, with those facts before you, you will unhesitatingly render a verdict of Suicide while of Unsound Mind. It is the only charitable verdict you can give, upon one who was, after all, a great man."

Much the same could be said of Christ.

But the Knights do not have the final word. Eliot returns to poetry and the play ends with the priests and the great final Chorus.

This is a magnificent, deeply spiritual drama probably the greatest of its genre since Milton's Samson Agonistes.