There is now general critical agreement about Anouilh's Becket. Formerly docile to the random quality of life, willing to play whatever role is offered him, without an honor of his own to value, agnostic if not atheistic, Becket determines finally to consummate his life in the role of Archbishop of Canterbury. His heightened sense of aesthetics tells him that the role he embraces to give meaning to his existence must finally protect the honor of God at all costs…. [His] is not a death which draws on adamant convictions about the truth of the church's position in the conflict. His criterion is an aesthetic view of human morality, and what gives his role authenticity, what makes its artificial behavior timelessly Becket's own behavior is his selection of death as the means to unadulterated selfhood. What has not been examined critically within the play, however, is one of the central methods by which Anouilh links the many aspects of the quarrel between church and state, between Becket and Henry: the use of continuing familial imagery. For enemies refer to each other as father, son, or brother. Members of the church deny kinship, and the parental nature of societal structures is emphasized throughout the play.
The familial strand is at its most determinate in the form of the genealogy of the two central protagonists, for it initially sets each in his place in the world. Henry, hedged around by rank, race, and ancestry, is the Norman king by right of conquest and the law of primogeniture. Becket, on the other hand, says he is a "double bâtard." His admission describes not only his natal and political illegitimacy, but the transgressions of his parents which are the real source of the shame he has in his Saxon ancestry…. An implicit thought in Becket's mind must be that he is following too faithfully in his parents' footsteps.
This is a free excerpt of 312 words. There are 826 words (approx.
3 pages at 300 words per page) in the full critical essay.
Read the rest of this Criticism with our Anouilh, Jean 1910–: Critical Essay by John H. Stroupe Access Pass.
