Search results
Modern works based on the Becket story include: T. S. Eliot's play Murder in the Cathedral, adapted as the opera Assassinio nella cattedrale by Ildebrando Pizzetti; Jean Anouilh's play Becket, where Becket is not a Norman but a Saxon, adapted for the screen in 1964, and starring Peter O'Toole and Richard Burton; and Paul Webb's play Four Nights ...
People also ask
Who was Thomas Becket?
Is Becket a Saxon?
Why is Becket based on a Saxon story?
Why is Thomas Becket important?
Thomas Becket was an English archbishop and martyr, famously murdered by knights of Henry II at Canterbury Cathedral. After his death, his tomb and relics became a focus for pilgrimage and he was made a saint.
- Introduction
- Author Biography
- Plot Summary
- Characters
- Themes
- Style
- Historical Context
- Critical Overview
- Criticism
- Sources
Jean Anouilh's Becket; ou l'honneur de Dieu (Becket; or the Honor of God) tells the troubled story of the relationship between Thomas à Becket and Henry Plantagenet, known to history as King Henry II of England. This relationship begins as friendship and ends with the murder of Becket by Henry's henchmen at the Cathedral of Canterbury. Anouilh sets...
Jean Anouilh was born near Bordeaux, France, on June 23, 1910, to middle-class parents. Anouilh attended school in Paris and briefly studied law. During the years 1929–1931, he worked for an advertising agency and wrote two plays as well as comic gags for the cinema. In 1931, his play L'Hermine premiered in Paris. From this point on, he achieved gr...
Act 1
The play opens at the tomb of Becket in the Cathedral of Canterbury. King Henry IIenters, removes his cape, revealing that he is naked, kneels, and begins to pray. The king is at the tomb waiting to be flogged by priests in payment for his role in the assassination of Becket, the archbishop of Canterbury. As Henry speaks, Becket appears on stage. Henry recalls earlier times when they were best friends. The scene shifts suddenly, and it is now several years earlier. A much younger Becket, dres...
Act 2
The second act opens in a forest in France, where the English army has just won a victory against the French. As chancellor, Becket warns Henry that the clergy has gained a great deal of power in England. Soon after, a young Saxon monkfrom Hastings is captured with a knife. It appears that he wanted to attempt an assassination of the king. The monk reminds Becket of himself at a younger age. Meanwhile, the king receives word that the archbishop of Canterbury has died. Henry pounces on this ev...
Act 3
Act 3 opens with Henry in his palace accompanied by his mother and his wife. They are discussing Becket's odd behavior. An emissary arrives from Becket to return the Great Seal, the mark of the king's chancellor. Becket has chosen God over the king. In particular, he wants the men responsible for the slaying of a monk tried in the ecclesiastical court rather than the royal court. In addition, he has excommunicated the three men responsible, all friends of the king. Henry's feelings toward Bec...
Archbishop of Canterbury
The archbishop of Canterbury is the highest official of the Catholic Church in England. At the time of the play, the archbishop and Henry are engaged in a struggle for power. At issue is who will have authority over England: the king or the church.Ironically, the most important action undertaken by the archbishop of Canterbury is dying. His death opens the way for Henry to appoint Becket to this position, thus setting the tragedy in motion.
Thomas Becket
Thomas Becket is first the king's friend, later the king's chancellor, and finally God's archbishop of Canterbury. In a historical inaccuracy, Anouilh has written Becket as a Saxon, a member of the subjugated English race conquered by the Normans. Thus, although Becket is a close personal friend of the king's and his most trusted adviser, he is not of the same race as the king. Much of the tension in the play is derived from Becket's role as a collaborator with the Normans. In the early acts...
Gilbert Folliot
Gilbert Folliot is an important cleric and a strong opponent of Thomas Becket. When the archbishop of Canterbury dies, Folliot is the likely successor; Henry's appointment of Becket seals Folliot's hatred of the man. He becomes bishop of London soon after Becket's appointment, and from this position of power he negotiates with the pope on Henry's behalf. Historically, Folliot was excommunicated for his role in Becket's murder, although he was later absolved.
Friendship and Love
Anouilh explores the extent to which a friendship can be stretched, as well as what happens to the love between friends when the friendship is irrevocably over. Indeed, H. G. McIntyre argues in his book The Theatre of Jean Anouilhthat "the play's major theme is the tragic failure of a friendship." At the beginning of the play, Henry and Becket maintain what appears to be a close friendship. They hunt together, fight battles together, and carouse together. Yet, because of the inequality of the...
TOPICS FOR FURTHER STUDY
1. Research the conflict between Queen Matilda and King Stephen. How does Henry Plantagenet come to the throne? What political maneuvering takes place to establish his dynasty? 2. Find a print of the Bayeux Tapestry, depicting the Battle of Hastings in 1066. Describe scenes pictured there. Why is this tapestry so important? How does Anouilh draw on the conquest of England by the Normans in Becket? What liberties does he take with the historical record? 3. Research the relationship between Hen...
Honor
As Alba Della Fazia argues in her book Jean Anouilh, "Anouilh's heroes love honor not for honor's sake, but for the sake of an idea of honor which they have created for themselves." In no other play is this truer than in Becket. Early on in the play, Becket notes in several places that he is a man without honor. Indeed, act 1 closes with Becket asking perhaps the most important question in the play: "But where is Becket's honor?" Becket finally creates an "idea of honor" when he takes on the...
Flashback
Anouilh chooses to construct Becket through a device known as "flashback." That is, the opening scene chronologically takes place after the entire action of the rest of the play. When Henry appears naked on the altar of Canterbury Cathedral, ready to receive his flogging at the hands of the monks, in penance for the murder of Becket, he creates for the audience the rest of the play. As a device, flashback allows a playwright to play with time; events are sequenced as the character remembers t...
Hero
Anouilh also uses the idea of the hero as an organizing device for the play. In The Hero with aThousand Faces, anthropologist Joseph Campbell outlines the basic conventional figures of a heroic story. The heroic story starts with a call, or a mission. In the case of Becket, the call comes in the form of an appointment to the bishopric of Canterbury. Often, heroes are reluctant to heed the call; they often do not want to take on the mission before them. Likewise, Becket makes it clear to Henry...
Irony
In their Handbook to Literature William Harmon and C. Hugh Holman define irony as "the recognition of a reality that is different from appearances." They go on to note that in drama "irony has a special meaning, referring to knowledge held by the audience but hidden from the characters." Irony, then, becomes one of the most important devices used by Anouilh in Becket. Indeed, he layers irony upon irony. At the first level, Henry speaks ironically as he recalls his relationship with Becket in...
The Middle Ages
The historical events on which Becketis based took place during the twelfth century, culminating with the death of Becket in 1170. Anouilh openly admits his error in making Becket's Saxon parentage an important thematic device in the play. Historically, Becket was born to a prosperous Norman merchant. Theobald, the archbishop of Canterbury, recommended Becket to Henry as a candidate for chancellor, to which Henry agreed. The two men became fast friends, and Henry even entrusted the education...
Post–WWII France: The Algerian War
After the Allied victory in World War II in 1945, France set out to reestablish its colonial holdings across the world, most notably in Vietnam and Algeria. Beginning on November 1, 1954,Muslim Algerians rebelled against the French. Ultimately, the Algerians were successful in ridding themselves of the French colonial rule in 1962, but not before the struggle had dire results both in Algeria and in France. By 1958, the war caused civil unrest and economic crisis in France, and the Fourth Repu...
French Existentialism
Anouilh's work was influenced by a major mid-twentieth-century philosophical movement, existentialism. The existentialists, notably Albert Camus and Jean-Paul Sartre, argue that life is an essentially absurd proposition. That is, the only thing that humans can know is their own existence and that there is no meaning to that existence other than that which humans create individually for themselves. This does not absolve humans from the responsibility of choice. For Sartre, human beings are fre...
By the end of World War II, Anouilh was widely recognized as the most successful playwright in France. His 1958 play, Becket, did nothing to diminish his reputation. Indeed, the play was both a commercial and critical success.
Diane Henningfeld
Henningfeld is a professor of English literatureand composition who has written widely for educational and academic publications. In this essay, Henningfeld examines Anouilh's construction of gender in the roles of Henry, Becket, and the two queens. In 1959, Jean Anouilh created a play loosely depicting the historical events surrounding the martyrdom of Thomas à Becket at the hands of the barons loyal to Henry II of England. For Anouilh, historical accuracy was less important than was his pos...
WHAT DO I READ NEXT?
1. Anouilh's play L'Allouette (The Lark) (1952) retells the life of St. Joan of Arc, focusing on her heroism and her refusal to compromise her own beliefs. 2. Alison Weir's Eleanor of Aquitaine(1999) offers an easily readable account of the life of Henry II's queen. Weir details the relationships among Henry, Becket, and Eleanor during the turbulent years of Henry's reign. 3. Eleanor of Aquitaine and the Four Kings (1950), written by Amy Kelly, remains an excellent source for insight into the...
Alfred Cismaru
In the following essay, Cismaru explores the relationship between Becket and Henry II as portrayed by Anouilh in his play. It is hardly necessary to recall the theatrical success Becket enjoyed when it was first presented in Paris in October, 1959, and on Broadway in 1960 and again in 1961. The last major play of Jean Anouilh intrigued and delighted Parisian theater-goers at a time when box office receipts throughout France were reaching their post-war low, and caught the widespread attention...
Anciman, André, Foreword, in Becket; or the Honor of God,by Jean Anouilh, translated by Lucienne Hill, Riverhead Books, 1996. Anouilh, Jean, Becket; or the Honor of God,translated by Lucienne Hill, Signet Books, 1960. Campbell, Joseph, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Princeton UniversityPress, 1972. Della Fazia, Alba, Jean Anouilh,Twayne Publishers...
On 21 February 1173 Pope Alexander III makes Becket a saint, officially endorsing his growing cult. Becket's relics, including fragments of his bones and pieces of blood-stained clothing, were distributed across Europe.
Mar 10, 2020 · Thomas Becket (aka Thomas á Becket) was chancellor to Henry II of England (r. 1154-1189) and then archbishop of Canterbury (1162 to 1170). Thomas repeatedly clashed with his sovereign over the relationship between the Crown and Church, particularly the right of Church courts to try clerics.
- Mark Cartwright
Aug 7, 2024 · Saint Thomas Becket, chancellor of England and archbishop of Canterbury during the reign of King Henry II. His career was marked by a long quarrel with Henry that ended with Becket’s murder in Canterbury Cathedral. Learn more about his life, career, and martyrdom.
Key points about the Anglo-Saxons. Thomas Becket was Archbishop of Canterbury, the most important bishop in England. In 1170, he was brutally murdered in Canterbury Cathedral. Historians have...
