Eliot had the feelings and sentiments of a devout Christian.

When asked to write about the canterville

festival, Eliot by his own ambition: Wanted to “concentrate on death and Martyrdom” (Poetry and
Drama) .Through the entire campus of the play, the echo of his own catholic soul resounded through the
character of Becket who was a veritable martyr. The question of Martyrdom has always been his
preoccupation. In plays like Sweeney Agonistes and Ash Wednesday we do find the elements of
martyrdom. This martyrdom is also the pivotal theme of the Murder in The Cathedral around which the
other members if the Dramatis Personae rotate. His martyrdom is what constitutes the focal point of the
entire drama. The priests, the tempters, the knights and the band of poor women of Canterbury – all
partake of the prevailing sense of somber gloom, generated by the foreboding or premonition of an
impending disaster. All the characters in the drama “are forced to bear witness” to the ghastly deed.
Everyone waits for the momentous finale:

“Some malady is coming upon us. We wait, we wait

And the saints and martyrs wait, for those

who shall be martyrs and saints.

Destiny waits in the hand of God,

shaping the still unshapen.”

A true and perfect Anglo Catholic as he was, Eliot was concerned about the spiritual paralysis and moral
degeneration of the modern age. According to him, the divorce from the spirituality and the decadence
of the moral values are the root causes of social and human disintegration. To Eliot, the only panacea for
such dehumanized mankind, for the denizens of the sub human world is a revival of the spiritual values.
He sought to inculcate through the media of literature, the spirit of a true Christian martyr.

He proclaimed with a ring of great religious confidence in his voice: “Let there be a dozen of such literary
pieces to illustrate before the people the inspiring effect of martyrdom in its noblest sense.”

Thus the poet has expressed his own views on the connotation of martyrdom through the voice of
Becket:

“A martyrdom is always the design of God, for him love

of men, to warn them and to lead them, to bring them back

to His ways. It is never the design of man, for the true

 martyr is he who has become the instrument of God, who

has lost his will in the Will of God, and no longer desires

anything for himself not even the glory of martyrdom.”

This is the essence of the play and this is what the dramatist has all along endeavored to highlight. In
this connection, Miss Helen Gardner has made a perceptive commentary which merits quotation: ‘The
central theme of the play’, she says “is martyrdom and martyrdom in its strict sense. The actual deed by
which Thomas is struck down is, in a sense, unimportant. It is not important has a dramatic climax
towards which all that has happened leads. We are warned again and again that we are not watching a
sequence of events that has the normal dramatic logic of motive, act, result, but an action which
depends on the will of God and not on the will of men:

“For a little time, the hungry hawk

Will only roar and hover, circling lower,

Waiting excuse, pretence, opportunity.

End will be simple, sudden, God-given.”

In Murder in the Cathedral, the playwright had an altogether different objective. Indeed, he was not
actuated by any dramatic motive in the strict sense of the term. Eliot has maintained:

“I did not want to write a chronicle of twelfth century

politics, nor did I want to tamper unscrupulously with

the meager records …. I wanted to concentrate on death

and martyrdom.”

The above observation of Eliot is indeed very much pertinent. Neither to recount heroic episode of the
protagonist nor to show the catastrophe on the human tragedy of Becket. He has simply dramatized the
experience of martyrdom. The inner or the central point of interest is the gradual development of
Becket’s mind towards martyrdom. How Becket successfully passed through many a crucial test and also
how he successively overcame the different of temptations have been comprehensively and
convincingly dealt with by Eliot. The agents of obstruction repeatedly and concurrently pose formidable
barriers in the path of Becket’s progress towards martyrdom. But transcending all hindrances and
limitations Thomas became a true martyr. Through incantatory rhythm of verses, the poet-dramatist has
again and again shown the spiritual foundation of Becket which stimulated his confidence and ultimately
enabled him to accept death and suffering quietly and in the spirit of a true martyr. Even in Part I, we
find Thomas explaining to the women of Canterbury :-

“that action is suffering

And suffering is action. Neither does the agent suffer

Nor the patient act. But both are

fixed in an eternal action, an eternal patience

To which all must consent that it may be willed.”

Interspersed in this drama is such poetry of exaltation, of spiritual elevation, which having been set
against the dismal atmosphere of dark foreboding and prognostication has heightened the tone and
effect of the drama. Becket surrendered his will to the will of God and his total resignation and spiritual
transformation have also been manifested as the design of God. A devout Christian as he was, Eliot
never shirked from reiterating that

“Christian martyrdom is neither an accident nor the effect of a man’s will to become a Saint.”

It is absolutely a design of gold. But at the same time, it has sufficiently been shown and adequately
justified that the essential pre-requisite for being a true martyr was inherent in the character of Becket.
He was simply waiting for the destined moment. That this martyrdom was God-ordained, that it was a
will of God has been stressed by Eliot again and again. Simultaneously he has not ignored the issue of
dramatic significance. He has thrown sufficient light upon the process of the progressive spiritual uplift
of Becket and also on the temptations and seductive designs to which Becket was subjected. The
impeccable spiritual uprightness of Becket has also been vividly portrayed. The tempters were all out to
sully his spiritual integrity; but he withstood all obstructions and declined to make will impure. Thus he
rightly came to realize the subtle motive of the last tempter:

“The last temptation is the greatest treason

To do the right deed for the wrong reason”.

While other tempters, “temporal tempters” came “with pleasure and power at palpable price,” the
fourth tempter insinuated him to “Seek the way of martyrdom make yourself the lowest on earth, to be
in high heaven” Thomas did appositely assert:

“You only offer dreams to damnation.”

Subsequently Thomas explicitly states:

“I well know that these temptations

Mean present vanity and future torment”.

This realization helped Becket to effect a purgation or purification of mind and to safeguard himself
from such lapses as are repugnant to true martyrdom. Thereafter in part II we find the essential virtue
and rectitude of Thomas which turned him to a worthy martyr. The following pronouncements of
Thomas stand as eloquent testimony to the spiritual orientation and deep-seated conviction of Thomas
which constitute the sine qua non of Christian martyrdom:

“All my life I have waited.

Death will come only when I am worthy

And if I am worthy, there is no danger.

I have therefore only to make perfect my will”.