Play: Becket or The Honour of God

Overview

Jean Anouilh's Becket or The Honour of God (1959) retells the fraught relationship between Thomas Becket and King Henry II of England as a tightly wrought historical drama. The play traces the transformation of a close friendship into a lethal conflict, using the struggle over political authority and spiritual integrity to examine deeper questions about honor, identity and the cost of moral conviction. Anouilh frames the historical episode with modern psychological clarity and theatrical economy, turning a famous martyrdom into a study of human will and fate.

Plot Summary

The story opens with Henry II elevating Thomas Becket from companion and chancellor to Archbishop of Canterbury, expecting loyalty and administrative control. Becket's new office unexpectedly reshapes him: the trappings and responsibilities of the church awaken a different allegiance and a stern sense of duty. Where once the two men shared jokes and common cause, Becket's refusal to subordinate ecclesiastical independence to royal prerogative becomes the clearest wedge between them.
Tensions escalate as Henry seeks to secure revenue and legal authority over clerics, while Becket insists on the church's ancient immunities and spiritual jurisdiction. Personal intimacy hardens into political antagonism, and both men are revealed as proud, stubborn figures whose notions of honor are incompatible. The crisis reaches a tragic peak when a rash royal outburst is interpreted by fanatical followers as a command; Becket is slain in his cathedral, an act that confounds victory and defeat and leaves Henry to confront the hollow consequences of power.

Themes and Dramatic Technique

Central themes include the clash of secular power with spiritual authority, the ambiguity of honor, and the paradox that personal elevation can produce estrangement rather than gratitude. Anouilh probes how ideals and loyalties can mutate when they become roles to defend; Becket and Henry are less caricatures of saint and tyrant than fractured men whose identities are bound up with public performance. The play asks whether conscience is an inner absolute or a social mask, and whether sacrifice redeems or simply completes a tragic script.
Stylistically, Anouilh combines historical sweep with intimate, modern dialogue, emphasizing moral complexity over simple hagiography. Moments of wit and irony puncture solemnity, and the moral dilemmas are dramatized through sharp exchanges rather than lengthy exposition. The result is a theater of ethical confrontation where theatricality itself, titles, rituals, public gestures, becomes central to the story's stakes.

Legacy and Adaptations

Becket achieved wide recognition for its piercing character study and moral seriousness, contributing to Anouilh's reputation as a dramatist who could reshape historical material into contemporary moral inquiry. The play's narrative and dramatic potency carried easily beyond the stage: it was adapted for the screen and found international audiences, reinforcing the enduring fascination with the Becket story as both history and allegory. The play continues to be revived and discussed for its tight plotting, moral ambiguity and its capacity to make a medieval conflict speak to modern anxieties about authority, conscience and the burdens of honor.