Becket

At the beginning of Act III, the audience is introduced to the King’s dysfunctional family, consisting of his wife, the Queen; his Queen Mother; and his two sons. The Queen confronts the King about his dissolute lifestyle; she sees Becket as the cause of this and hopes his influence comes to an end so that the King will return to a healthy family life. Ironically, the Queen and Queen Mother do not realize that Becket has experienced a change from his former ways. The King has no real relationship with his sons and cannot even tell them apart; this echoes his relationship with his mother, who was barely present in his life growing up (82).

The audience senses in this scene that the King is pining after Becket and misses the loyal friend that Becket once was. Without Becket’s friendship, and without any positive relationship with his family, he is truly alone, as he admits: “I shall learn to be alone” (69). The King reviles his children as “royal vermin” and throws them and the two women out of the room.

Becket has another meeting with the young monk, who is still sullen because of England’s political situation. Becket tells the monk that he will take over half of the weight of this “shame.” This foreshadows Becket’s sacrifice of his life for the cause of freedom and honor.

Things are starting to close in on Becket. He is called before the King’s court to answer charges against him. Becket also confronts Folliot and the other bishops on the core issue at stake: defending the honor of God against the unjust actions of the King: “If I do not defend my priests, who will?” (78).

In the trial scene, the play details the psychological torture that the King is going through. On one hand, he wants Becket destroyed; on the other hand, he continues to admire Becket’s talents and applauds his cleverness in defending himself. The King rejoices in the fact that Becket is smarter than his opponents; yet he despises his courtiers for not being able to defeat Becket: “I am surrounded by fools and the only intelligent man in my Kingdom is against me!” (83). Although he considers Becket his enemy, he tells his mother and wife, “I forbid you to gloat,” adding that Becket “weighs a hundred times more than you do” (81). The irony in this statement is that the very thing that makes Becket more morally worthy than them is that he is willing to stand up against the King. The King is blind to the paradox that he ought to admire Becket precisely for having the courage to stand up against him.

Although it does not advance the plot, the scene between the pope and the cardinal at the Vatican (Pages 89–92) is richly ironic. Anouilh portrays leaders of the church as being no different from ruthless politicians at the King’s court. The cardinal tells the pope, “Sincerity is a form of strategy, just like any other, Holy Father” (90). These men are so morally corrupt that they see Becket’s humility and ascetic lifestyle as a sign that he is “an abyss of ambition” (91). At one point, the two men even try to outfox each other: “Zambelli, if we start outmaneuvering each other to no purpose, we’ll be here all night!” (90). Like some politicians, the pope and cardinal care more about ranks and titles than about human welfare: “I don’t give much for his skin wherever he is, when he is no longer archbishop!” (91). Although Becket is set in the 12th century, Anouilh plays on stereotypes about corrupt church leadership during the Renaissance. The scene adds humorous relief to this very serious portion of the play.

The act ends with the second of Becket’s two great prayers—the first of these occurred at the end of Act II. These prayers show Becket’s inner thoughts and feelings more than any other speeches he delivers in the play. As Becket talks to God, he conveys his true, unvarnished self, which the audience does not always hear when he is speaking as a public figure. The prayers are also his longest speeches in the play.

In this prayer, Becket says that he is trying hard to make progress in knowing and serving God, but that he is merely a “dilettante,” or amateur, who depends on God’s help. Becket contrasts poverty and riches, debating the various meanings of these terms. Poverty can denote the state of being materially poor and of making physical sacrifices for God in the form of penances and fasts. However, God has “profound justice” in that he speaks to and helps the rich and the poor, sinners and the pious. That is why Becket is sure that God loves and helps him, a former sinner who was thrust into a holy position.

God judges all human beings equally whatever their station in life, whether they are sinners or well advanced in spirituality. He recognizes in all human souls “the same pride, the same vanity, the same petty, complacent preoccupation with oneself” (94)—all qualities that could apply to the King. Becket decides that external penances, typical of those in religious orders, are less important for him than doing his job well as a bishop. Thus, Becket will stop wearing the penitential hairshirt and simple brown robe and will “take up the miter and the golden cope again, and the great silver cross, and I shall go back and fight in the place and with the weapons it has pleased You to give me” (94).

As the curtain falls on this act, there is a strongly symbolic gesture: The young monk, who sits in the corner as Becket prays, throws his knife into the floor and watches as it quivers. The gesture foreshadows the fatal blow that will strike Becket. The end of Act III thus prepares the audience for the play’s denouement.