Murder in the Cathedral

Being an avoid reader when I was younger, most of my time was used by reading books about vampires or falling in love with a supernatural creature. But now that I am in high school, it has occurred to me that not only do I read much less then when I was in middle school, but the pieces I read are much more grown up and have an underlying meaning to me. Entering my senior year,  I had no idea that AP English was going to be mostly based on my opinion of a book or play and if I even understood what I was reading. Recently however, the assigned novels and plays have been more easier to read and I have enjoyed them more. The most recent play assigned was Murder in the Cathedral by T.S Eliot. From the very first page, I had the feeling that the play was going to be dark and that I would have to pay attention to what Eliot was trying to get across. The basis for the play was Thomas Beckett's internal struggle. What I also loved was how during "part one" of the book that the Chorus that is introduced sort of foreshadows the coming violence of what is to come. When I say the coming violence I am referring to the assassination of Beckett. The Chorus also provides a key aspect with the drama, with its voice changing and developing during the play, which offers comments about the action and provides a link between the audience and the characters and the action occurring. During "part two" of the book, the Chorus makes another appearance when Beckett is being accused of not being loyal to the king, when actually the king is just tired of him. Once Beckett understands that the king's knights are here to kill him, he says he is ready to die. Which I still don't understand because why would anyone want to die? Disregarding what has happened previously in their life, no person should be okay with the fact that knights were told to murder. Even though their were some parts of the drama that I did enjoy, as a whole I probably wouldn't have chosen to read this on my own or even want to see it performed.