Discuss Murder in the Cathedral as a poetic drama.

Murder in the Cathedral as a poetic drama. Nineteenth century England, although productive in other fields of literature, was rather weak in drama. But it wasn't maybe for want of trying. Virtually all the great muses, Wordsworth, Shelley Byron, Browning, Tennyson, tried their hand at lyrical drama, but failed to bring about a reanimation of the kidney. Therefore, there was no drama of significance between Sheridan's plays, and Shaw's and Wilde's early sweats in the late 19th century. Indeed these ultimate playwrights wrote in prose. Though facetious, and social in spirit, Shaw's plays deal substantially with social immoralities.

 Murder in the Cathedral as a poetic drama.  Lyrical drama, still, sounded to have downscaled into dead, after its glory in the Elizabethan age. Still, prose drama soon come decadent after Shaw; plays now tended to be superficial in its treatment of subjects; they didn't grasp the depth, pressure and complexity of contemporary life. The end was primarily entertainment and those norms had fallen. It tended to count issues of a deep and abecedarian nature, concentrating as it did on social or provident issues. This to some extent redounded in some muses trying to revive the tradition of verse plays.

Revival of Poetic Drama-

 Murder in the Cathedral as a poetic drama. W.B. Yeats was of the view that drama should turn down from verismo or literalism and rationalism and get its results through the feelings; that can be achieved only through poetry. Yeats and some other Irish dramatists likeJ.M. Synge and Sean O'Casey contributed to the reanimation of this kidney. Some of their plays, however in prose, had a lyrical quality about them. Stephen Phillip's Herod in 1901 could be seen as, the' lyrical play marking the morning of the reanimation of lyrical drama in the 20th century. Some other names are also important in this reanimation movement. They're John Masefield, Christopher Isherwood,W.H. Auden, Stephen Spender and Christopher Fry. The topmost influence wasT.S. Eliot who formulated a dramatic proposition regarding lyrical drama in a number of critical essays and lectures.

 Eliot's Views-

Murder in the Cathedral as a poetic drama. At the time of writing Murder in the Cathedral, Eliot's view was that the followership should be made apprehensive that what they were watching that the followership shouldn't be made apprehensive of the medium but only be concerned with the drama as a whole.

 He further said that the subject for lyrical drama should be similar that it can not be adequately dealt with in prose, i.e., a subject that can he treated in prose wasn't fit for lyrical drama. Lyrical drama had to deal with violent feelings introductory to the mortal heart. Lyrical drama has a uproariousness in it and this was due to the presence of an"under- pattern"-a kind of replica in the action as if it took place on two aeroplanes at formerly. Lyrical drama also had the capability to achieve a better attention and concinnity-because verse by its veritably nature gave uproariousness, depth and concinnity to a play. Murder in the Cathedral as a poetic drama. There should further be, said Eliot, a moral station on the author's part which he can partake with his followership. Eliot also held the view that the author would have to follow certain conditions and conventions in writing lyrical drama. Tone- control was necessary, if he'd to succeed in communicating to his followership, and communication in drama was a great problem as it had to be immediate and done through strange actors and directors.

Murder in the Cathedral as a poetic drama. The versification had to be of a flexible or elastic kind that could be modulated to suit the different characters in different situations. The poetry had to be integral to the drama, i.e. it had to be dramatically justified and not be simply incidental or just an embellishment or a decoration. In such a light, indeed rhetorical speech had its place in lyrical drama if it suited the occasion. Each and every line had to be dramatically applicable. Let us see how far Murder in the Edifice follows these tenets of lyrical drama.

  Subject-

 Originally, its subject was literal and as similar presented an easy nance for Eliot to use verse. There was a tradition of literal subjects being dealt with in verse. The plot was the martyrdom of Thomas Becket.

  New lyrical form-

Murder in the Cathedral as a poetic drama. Eliot's purpose needed the creation of a new lyrical form. For this he turned far back, to the ancient Greek dramatists and the english Morality plays of mediaeval times. He avoided Shakespeare, as that form had been perfected in the Elizabethan age and using it would only affect in what he called" pale carbons". He's substantially indebted to Greek tragedy for the form of his play. It can be said to be a series of occurrences linked by Stasima or choral odes. He modelled much of the versification upon Everyman, a medieval Morality play. Murder in the Cathedral as a poetic drama.

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 Versification-

Eliot developed a suitable verse form which was neither archaic (which would have insulated the theme from any contemporary applicability) nor fully of contemporary expression (that would not be suitable for characters substantially removed from this age). The vers form was similar that it worked both ways kept up the literal vision while bringing home the applicability of the theme to the contemporary situation. Murder in the Cathedral as a poetic drama.

Murder in the Cathedral as a poetic drama.

 Still, it's to be noted, as Eliot himself was apprehensive, that this form was suitable for Murder in the Edifice alone and not for all verse plays. As he said, the versification in this play is flexible, avoids Shakespearean saturations and has a natural style. It's suited to the feelings which are to be expressed, and the character who expressesthem.Nowhere in the play do we find any versification which isn't dramatically valid. It's the power of this dramatic verse that gives the play its unique quality of concinnity and intensity. As lyrical drama demands that it deal with feelings and themes abecedarian to humanity, Murder in the Edifice deals not simply with the story of the murder of Thomas Becket; not only with his martyrdom, but with its significance for the common man. It deals with man's relationship to God. In this aspect it can be called a religious play. Such a abecedarian aspect of mortal actuality is fit for lyrical treatment." Imagined with violent emotion, it demands expression in heightened speech". Another important fact about lyrical drama is that it deals with commodity of endless applicability. This is true of Murder in the Cathedral its theme is of universal significance. Its treatment is again always dramatically applicable."Each character speaks and expresses what he or she is". The vocabulary, expression and meter of the language are impeccably modulated to suit the occasion-the Chorus is a perfect illustration of this.