Murder in the Cathedral Summary PDF

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Summaries of context and quotes from Murder in the Cathedral....

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Murder in the Cathedral - T. S. Eliot Part 1 Set in 1170, December 2nd. ● ‘The land became brown sharp points of death in a waste of water and mud.’ The changing of seasons and months marks the death of the earth. Harsh imagery. ● The opening chorus has a melancholic tone. ● ‘Winter shall come bringing death from the sea.’ Two meanings - the death of poor people suffering in the cold weather or the death of the earth as it turns icy. ● ‘End will be simple, sudden, God-given. Meanwhile, the substance of our first act will be shadows and the strife with shadows.’ Shortly after the Archbishop returns to Canterbury, he breaks the fourth wall by referencing parts of a play. The meaning behind it remains that he is preaching on what is to come. Subtle imagery of death as the ‘end.’ This line suggests that it is simple but before the end, there will be ‘shadows’ suggesting that the worst is perhaps yet to come. ● ‘Eating up the darkness, with wit and wine and wisdom!’ Illustrating ways of ignoring the fact that there is a bleakness to Canterbury. ● ‘Your sin soars sunward, covering King’s falcons.’ Alliteration makes the tone of revelation harsher. Stating that the Archbishop has committed a sin, the use of ‘sunward’ is suggestive of it reaching heaven and God. ● ‘Think, Thomas, think of glory after death. When King is dead, there’s another King, [...] King is forgotten when another shall come.’ Irony in this line as the tempter evokes the idea of glory after death but he also states that when a new King reigns, the previous King is forgotten as if there can be no glory for him. ● ‘That nothing lasts, but the wheel turns, the rest is rifled, and the bird mourns.’ Two ways of experiencing mourning, life goes on vs life moves on quickly like the turn of a wheel or death causes a vulnerable action.

Part 2 1170, December 29th. ● ‘The owl rehearses the hollow note of death.’ Owls are a symbol of death and hollow is suggestive of the devil.

● ‘When the figure of God’s purpose is made complete. You shall forget these things, toiling in the household, you shall remember them, droning by the fire.’ God’s purpose was Thomas’s execution. Rejoices the fact that he will be forgotten but this does not scare him. ● ‘And behind the Judgement the void, more horrid than active shapes of hell.’ ● ‘The personal loss, the general misery, living and partly living.’ Thomas’s death appears to be both a personal and communal loss but they did not like him when he returned. Can they mourn for someone who has sinned? The idea of living and partly living is repeated throughout the play. ● ‘In life, there is not time to drive long.’ Life moves on fast and we cannot waste it by grieving....