Intent and Action in T.S. Eliot's Murder in the Cathedral (original) (raw)

Based on T.S. Eliot's verse drama Murder in the Cathedral, this work aims at demonstrating whether intent means action. In fact, the answer to the question, "did king Henry II really want Thomas Becket dead?" has been the subject of diverse interpretations. Some advance that Becket was his own cause of death regarding his spiritual pride or desire of martyrdom for false reasons. Others support that the king's four knights were to blame no direct and clear order was given to them by the sovereign to slay the man of God, to mention only these ones. But, in the light of the different interpretations of the king Henry's exclamation, "Will no one rid me of this turbulent prelate?", we strongly believe that the sovereign not only intended to have the Canterbury archbishop murdered, but paved the way for the occurrence of that awful assassination of Becket as the result of their ongoing conflicts about the Constitutions of Clarendon (16 articles issues in January 1164 by king Henry II defining Church-State relations in England.) and the coronation of prince Henry as the successor to the English throne. To do this, recourse to Biographical criticism is needed, especially in the common interest it shares with New Historicism in the fact that all literary works are situated in specific historical and biographical contexts from which they are generated.