Death as Martyrdom: A Psychoanalytical Study of Robert Bolt’s a Man for all Seasons and T. S. Eliot’s Murder in the Cathedral

Abstract

This paper focuses on the protagonists of two dramas A Man for All Seasons and Murder in the Cathedral to be studied through the critical prospective of psychoanalysis. The protagonists of the dramas meet their death at the end of the play and their death is appreciated as martyrdom by the readers of the plays without seeing critically their mottos behind their death. Challenging that, this paper varies in the stance that Beckett’s death is a suicide rather than martyrdom, thus questioning the traits of the personalities of the protagonists and their mottos behind their deaths. Taking Freud’s Psychoanalytical theory as a theoretical framework; Jung model of Psychoanalysis for conceptual terminologies and conducting close textual analysis, this study aims to conclude with references. The study is significant in a sense that it widens the dimensions of comparative studies of the modern literary works through contemporary critical theories. It also highlights the application of psychology in the literature in general and the English literature in specific.