The Concomitance of Asceticism and Valor in T. S. Eliot's Poetic Tragedy Murder in the Cathedral
Taha Khalaf Salim
Tikrit University, Collegeducation for omen of E
DOI: https://doi.org/10.25130/jls.3.4.13
Keywords: poetic drama revive asceticism valor temptation murder knights self will
Abstract
Despite the truth that some modern dramatists have serious endeavors
to originate a fondness for poetic plays after a long time of absence, it
is T. S. Eliot who is able to propound its theory and to found the
tradition of this drama. His Murder in the Cathedral is the first poetic
tragedy in the modern age that is structured in full-length. The recent
research is an attempt to examine in depth the main character of this
play, Thomas Beckett, and the aim is to investigate the inseparability
between his asceticism and bravery that enables him to confront his
self-will and then the tyrant king, Henry II. For being necessary to
institute the proper background of the study, the reader is provided
with the essential information concerning the development of drama
in verse as well as Eliot's great efforts to revive it. In summing up the
researcher concludes that expressing courage by the Archbishop
comes to be the natural consequence of defying mundane affairs.
Followed by a bibliography that encompasses the references, the
endnotes come at the end of this treatise.
