Murder in the Cathedral

The starved crow sitting in the field that has no greenery and no air to create movement gives the sense of stagmentation and waiting. “ What sign of the spring of the year? / Only the death of the old: not a stir, not a shoot, not / a breath. ” (Chorus) The Chorus shows their dependency here, making it seem as if they can do nothing on their own. ” (Chorus) The Chorus knows what is going to happen, but they know they cannot do anything about it, that it is too late, and that once it happens, they will go on living the way they always have, from spring to spring, and they ask for forgiveness from Thomas, “ I have smelt them, the death-bringers; now is too late/ for action, too soon for contrition… O Thomas Archbishop, forgive us…” (Chorus) This shows that the women are like a machine, they go on without really thinking, and follow the routine they have always known, “ We go on living and partly living. At the opening of Part I, the women give off a sense of fright and danger, “Here let us stand, close by the cathedral. ” (Chorus) The women have witnessed all that has happened and know now that things cannot return to normal, that the ultimate sin has been committed and have changed their character from going along with everything to knowing that what has happened was not right and screaming out against it. Eliot uses imagery in what the Chorus says to portray their mood. ” (Chorus) Here he uses the Chorus to foreshadow Thomas’s death. This, however, changes at the end of Part I. ” The women go from a sense of not knowing, of ignorance, to knowing what is happening, being able to identify with what is going on.