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steveatwaywords's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
While profound, Eliot's play is a style which, I found, only vaguely echoes that of his poetry. Told in verse and in a classical style (the poor resemble a Greek chorus and are answered by opposing groups of voices), where Anouilh's dramatic telling of the slaying of the Archbishop Thomas Becket is a fast-moving account of friendship grown distant, Eliot (who wrote first) narrows the scope dramatically to Becket's last month.
In the first act, knowing he is likely doomed if he remains in England, he is symbolically tempted to take another road to save himself. Much like Christ's temptations, he is offered the means to compromise, ones that have so often been accepted by his peerage. Unlike Jesus, he is offered a fourth temptation, that of the paradox of hoping with pride to be rewarded by Heaven.
These Tempters re-appear in worldly guise in Act 2 as the King's barons come to murder him. Eliot presumes we know the history already. The historical politics which brought them all to this moment is lengthy and complicated. It was reduced but explained in Anouilh's play; in Eliot's the dramatic impact of the lines might be lost in performance if the audience is unfamiliar with motivations.
And then, in a harsh shift in the telling, our knights turn to the audience to explain and justify themselves, to suggest the mitigating circumstances which might absolve. It is as if Eliot understood that the setting of his drama made too clear a distinction between savior and sinner. Or is that his intent?
This is Eliot, after all, and while I have outlined the framing of his play, it is in these lines that subtler themes are drawn, not merely of political power which bespeaks its own sense of reason, and not merely the temporal and spiritual consequences between act, word, and inaction. One can find here, too, an earthly argument which stands both strong and impotent against a reckoning of faith it will never understand.
"Human kind cannot bear very much reality."
This is a brief work, but at its best a slow read with reflection. And while I wrote that Anouilh's work benefits from its staging to reveal its drama, Eliot's is quite the opposite. It demands to be read.
In the first act, knowing he is likely doomed if he remains in England, he is symbolically tempted to take another road to save himself. Much like Christ's temptations, he is offered the means to compromise, ones that have so often been accepted by his peerage. Unlike Jesus, he is offered a fourth temptation, that of the paradox of hoping with pride to be rewarded by Heaven.
These Tempters re-appear in worldly guise in Act 2 as the King's barons come to murder him. Eliot presumes we know the history already. The historical politics which brought them all to this moment is lengthy and complicated. It was reduced but explained in Anouilh's play; in Eliot's the dramatic impact of the lines might be lost in performance if the audience is unfamiliar with motivations.
And then, in a harsh shift in the telling, our knights turn to the audience to explain and justify themselves, to suggest the mitigating circumstances which might absolve. It is as if Eliot understood that the setting of his drama made too clear a distinction between savior and sinner. Or is that his intent?
This is Eliot, after all, and while I have outlined the framing of his play, it is in these lines that subtler themes are drawn, not merely of political power which bespeaks its own sense of reason, and not merely the temporal and spiritual consequences between act, word, and inaction. One can find here, too, an earthly argument which stands both strong and impotent against a reckoning of faith it will never understand.
"Human kind cannot bear very much reality."
This is a brief work, but at its best a slow read with reflection. And while I wrote that Anouilh's work benefits from its staging to reveal its drama, Eliot's is quite the opposite. It demands to be read.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Murder
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