Becket

“It is our task to see into the hearts of men. And I am not sure that this one will always be our enemy.” 

This quote comes from the archbishop of Canterbury. As Becket’s mentor, he senses that he has the capacity to change his moral attitude and will not always be hostile to the interests of the church. This turns out to be prescient in light of Becket’s actions after succeeding to the archbishop’s office. 

“One has to gamble with one’s life to feel alive.”

Becket reflects philosophically on the sport of hunting and how the hunter must meet large animals head-on, thus putting himself in danger. His statement foreshadows how he will later, as archbishop, put his life on the line by standing against the King. It also reflects the existential theme of the need to remain true to one’s value system and thus be “responsible for oneself” (16).

“Do you love me, Becket?”

Throughout the play, the King is anxious about keeping Becket’s friendship; he wonders whether Becket is capable of love at all. The quote has a biblical resonance, echoing Jesus’ question to Peter in John 21:17. It thus the human need to choose whom one loves and gives one’s allegiance to.

“You must ask yourself far fewer questions.” 

This quote is spoken by the King to Becket. Throughout the play, Anouilh contrasts characters who are philosophical and reflective, like Becket, with characters who are thoughtless and merely carry out functions, like the barons. Anouilh comes down in favor of the philosophical need to reflect on life and reality, which Becket exemplifies.

“England will be fully built, my prince, on the day the Saxons are your sons as well.”

Speaking to the King, Becket depicts good royal government as being like the love of a father for his children. He says that England will only be a complete and whole society when the bitter divisions between Saxons and Normans are healed and the King treats both groups with equal dignity. In the play, Becket is a Saxon, so the idea has personal relevance to him. 

“You belong to a conquered race too. But through taking too much of the honey of life, you’ve forgotten that even those who have been robbed of everything have one thing left to call their own.” 

Gwendolen gently takes Becket to task for his indifference to her. She reminds him that he, like her, is a Saxon and knows what it is to be conquered and degraded. Becket, however, cares more about external notions of honor than about protecting Gwendolen’s welfare. A few moments later, Gwendolen will kill herself to avoid sexual dishonor. 

“You gave me your Seal to keep, my prince. And the Three Lions of England which are engraved on it keep watch over me too.”

The King gave Becket the royal seal as a symbol of loyalty to him. However, Becket reminds him that the seal has a deeper meaning. It stands for the rights that the English government guarantees, and as such it protects Becket’s rights as well. 

“But where is Becket’s honor?”

After Gwendolen’s death and as the King falls asleep in his room, Becket expresses his thoughts in a short soliloquy. Reflecting on his accommodating and duplicitous career, he wonders what he will do if he ever meets a serious moral challenge. These reflections set up Becket’s subsequent moral progress in the play. 

“If I become Archbishop, I can no longer be your friend.”

When the King appoints Becket as archbishop, he immediately grasps—as the King does not—the consequences of this on their relationship. Becket understands that there will be a conflict of interest that will imperil their friendship, since the King explicitly sets himself against the interests of the church. 

“There are no invitations. The great doors will be thrown open and you will go out into the street and tell the poor they are dining with me tonight.” 

In one of the strongest biblical parallels in the play, Becket echoes the parable of the Heavenly Banquet in the Luke’s Gospel by inviting poor people to dine at his house. The decision marks a decisive change in his character and moral outlook after becoming archbishop. He is no longer devoted to serving royalty and privilege and instead embarks on a life of charity and service to the common people. 

“I don’t believe you are a sad God. The joy I feel in shedding all my riches must be part of Your divine intentions.” 

In prayer, Becket reflects on how casting off his possessions makes him feel happy and unburdened. He concludes that God embodies this joy and that this new turn of events is part of God’s plan. Anouilh implies that a divine plan now guides Becket to his final destiny. This is the first time Becket has prayed in the play, and audiences sense his change to a more holy and God-focused character. 

“It is only after death that it bites.” 

The King tells Folliot of the perils of friendship, as reflected in his difficulties with Becket. He likens friendship to a wild animal that seems warm and friendly at first but eventually turns on you. On one level, the quote refers to the “death” of the King and Becket’s friendship. On another level, it refers presciently to Becket’s own death: Becket’s memory and legacy will haunt the King after the murder. 

“Bishop, must I remind you that we are men of God and that we have an Honor to defend, which dates from all eternity?”

Becket declares himself a defender of the eternal honor of God before the temporal honor of the King. This is what led Becket to excommunicate noblemen who persecuted or murdered clergymen. Becket speaks to his fellow bishops as sharing a common moral and spiritual vision, but they have instead allied themselves with the King. 

“Your body was an empty desert, Madam!—which duty forced me to wander in alone. But you have never been a wife to me! And Becket was my friend, red-blooded, generous and full of strength!”

The King complains to the Queen about her sexual and personal coldness, contrasting their barren marriage with the warmth he experienced in his friendship with Becket. Audiences see how the King’s relationship with Becket poses an obstacle to his family life. Becket provides an emotional outlet that he does not get from his family. 

“I’m learning to be alone again, Madam. As usual.”

After the Queen tells the King to “do something” about Becket, the King replies that he is doing something: learning to be alone. The quote underlines the fact that without Becket’s friendship the King is truly alone, since he receives no support or solace from his family. The quote creates a measure of sympathy in the audience for the King. 

“It has pleased You to make me Archbishop and to set me, like a solitary pawn, face to face with the King, upon the chessboard.”

Becket reflects in prayer, using the metaphor of chess to emphasize that both he and the King are players on the world stage. Becket reveals that he sees his life as part of a drama that God wants him to enact. Politics and the moral life are like a game with a winning and a losing side. 

“Sire, we loved each other and I think he cannot forgive me for preferring God to him.” 

Becket explains to King Louis the source of the discord between himself and the King. He affirms that the source of the King’s hatred is the fact that Becket decided to follow his vocation seriously and conscientiously—a vocation in which the King himself placed him. The King has no regard for God and thus sees God as a source of competition. He considers the office of archbishop merely as a political pawn to serve his desires. 

“I’m waiting for the honor of God and the honor of the King to become one.” 

Becket shows that he desires a reconciliation between him and the King. He explains how this could come about: by both men obeying the will of God. The King, however, wants to follow his own will instead of God’s, replying, “You’ll wait a long time then!” (100). 

“I was a man without honor. And suddenly I found it—one I never imagined would ever become mine—the honor of God.”

Becket explains his moral turning point when he became archbishop of Canterbury. Before then, he acted mostly on the whim of the King instead of on moral principle. It was by having an important ecclesiastical office thrust on him that he discovered his dormant sense of moral duty. This is the central theme of the play, expressed in its subtitle The Honor of God. 

“We must only do—absurdly—what we have been given to do—right to the end.” 

This is a formulation of moral duty from Becket, speaking to the King. On this account, it is not necessary for the moral life to make logical sense; one must simply to do one’s duty and stick to it. Moreover, one must carry out one’s duty even if it seems absurd to do so. This emphasis reflects a philosophical concern with the absurd aspects of life and how individuals must be true to their chosen identities. 

“Come back to England. I give you my royal peace.” 

During the peace summit, the King reluctantly invites Becket to return to his country after his exile in France. This shows that, though troubled by Becket’s actions, he is holding out an olive branch to Becket and hopes to be friends again. The truce will be short-lived, however, because Becket will hold fast to his opposition. 

“Will no one rid me of him?” 

Driven to hysteria by his mixed feelings of love and hate for Becket, the King cries out to the barons. He knows that only getting rid of Becket from his life will end his inner torment. The barons take the King’s words literally and murder Becket to save the King from an emotional breakdown. According to legend, a line similar to this was actually spoken by King Henry before Becket’s murder. 

“The supreme folly. This is its hour.” 

Becket speaks these words as the barons arrive in the cathedral to murder him. The phrase echoes that of Jesus before he was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane (Matthew 26:45). The “supreme folly” is the power of evil and senseless passion, which lead to Becket’s death.