Research the historical Thomas Becket and his reasons for quarreling with King Henry II To what degree does Eliot's version of these events accord with that found in historical sources?
The British poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson also composed a verse play on the life of Thomas Becket, Becket (1884). Read Tennyson's version of Becket's martyrdom and compare and contrast it with Eliot's. How, for example, does each poet present Becket's decision to remain in the cathedral when threatened by the knights?
Renaissance artists frequently painted saints in symbolic settings. Locate some paintings of Becket and explain the ways in which their artists have manipulated color, light, and form in order to present their subject Whataspects of Becket's personality do they wish to stress?
Eliot admired the morality play Everyman.....
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