Asterisk denotes entries on real places.
*Canterbury
In the second part of the play the theme of the cathedral as a place of violence is intensified. Becket’s priests try to protect him from the murderous knights. His instructions to them to open the doors and not make the cathedral into a fortress constitutes a key Eliot theme about the role of place. Even after violence enters the house of prayer, Becket will not allow the barring of the doors. The unbarred doors allow the knights to enter and kill him, but his martyrdom shows that the cathedral is not simply a place of sanctuary, but also a place where one may suffer for the good of all.
After the assassination, each of the four knights attempts to justify the murder of Thomas Becket. Their rationalizations make the cathedral a place where, finally, the audience must bear the burden of the world’s false attempts at justification of its power against faith in God.