Research Paper on Eliot's Establishment of Modern Heritage

Introduction

For many lovers of literature, TS Eliot is synonymous with modernism. His poetry and plays are characterized by high modernism, as is evident in their use of myths to depict the modern experience. The works of literature tend to juxtapose different traditions, discourses, and voices (Dahami, 78). This essay examines the modernism theory and how it is evident in three of Eliot's plays: Murder in the Cathedral, The Cocktail Party, and The Confidential Clerk. It will apply the modernist features presented by the theory to analyze the plays and show how the playwright had established modernism in his plays.

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Modernism is characterized by a strong break from tradition done on purpose. It goes against deep rooted social, political, and religious views. Notable characteristics of modernism is a belief that the world is what people say it is, the absence of absolute truth in a way that everything is relative, and a lack of connection with institutions or historical events. The experiences of characters in modernist works of literature are those of alienation, despair, and loss. Poets and playwrights like TS Eliot who incorporated modernism in their works tend to be fretful about the unconscious, present life as without order, and champion for the individual while celebrating inner strength (Johnson, 101).

The horrors of the First World War with the senselessness and atrocities that accompanied it were a major influence for the modernist movement in both art and literature. Modernist poets, authors and playwright somehow felt betrayed by the conflict. They felt that the institutions they were taught to believe in had caused the civilized world to deescalate into a bloody war. They did not consider these institutions as a reliable way of accessing the meaning of life anymore, and thus began wracking their brains in an attempt to find some answers. They channeled their disgust at traditional institutions towards writing both in content and in form. Notable British modernists include James Joyce, Ford Madox Ford, Virginia Woolf, Stevie Smith, Aldous Huxley, and DH Lawrence. American authors of the 1920s were referred to as the 'Lost Generation' and are credited with bringing modernism to America. Notable ones include Eliot, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Hart Crane, John Dos Passos and Sherwood Anderson. For some like Fitzgerald and Hemingway, the First World War shattered the illusion that acting virtuously led to good things. Such a situation spurred them to turn their backs on traditional forms and institutions.

TS Eliot started his career as a poet and playwright in the second decade of the twentieth century. Since then, there has been just one shift in his literal focus, with his embracing of poetic drama being linked to it. All in all, the focal change in his approach did not alter his modernistic tendencies. The initial stand he had taken was one of disgust at the middle-class liberalist civilization and its emphasis on realism as well as skepticism. It is this skepticism that logically led to adopt his later position of faith in theology, a lot of respect for tradition, and inclination towards ecclesiastical authority. Eliot began writing poetic plays in 1935, starting with Murder in the Cathedral and winding up with The Confidential Clerk in 1953. All these works show that he had drifted from just ecclesiastical tradition and embraced a deep rooted ritualistic pagan faith.

After writing several successful poems, Eliot adopted a certain concept of time. He had a vision of the existence of a phenomenon that is beyond time, and of reality as an intersection point for time with the timeless. The mythical vision quoted in ancient texts such as the Bhagavad-gita presented him with a vision whereby life regenerated from time to time. As a result of such a background, Eliot gradually embraced a deep rooted conviction that ecclesiastical authority had immense value, together with a traditional religious doctrine characterized by inventive myths. With this mind frame, he shifted to poetic drama in 1932 whereby the themes of theology and tradition were the main influences for the plays he wrote. He adopted an intense faith in the Catholic Church largely due to its traditional symbolistic and ritual value.

Of the various genres of literature, it is in dramatic poetry that TS Eliot figured out the deepest traditions of myths and ritualistic forms such as symbolical representations. Since ancient times, drama had always been mythical or symbolist in content, and poetic in garb. Eliot expressed his opinion about modern context drama in the form of a dialogue between characters representing divergent points of view of the same poetic drama. Deeply affected by his weakness for ritualistic tradition, he felt that contemporary drama did not have a system of traditionally symbolical movement and a formal element. This spurred him to incorporate an element of ritualistic rigor into dramatic poetry together with the usual storyline and action. Eliot became convinced that contemporary drama failed to impress because plays were composed by poets who knew nothing about the stage, and also by non-poets who knew the stage. He was drawn to the poetic stage by a deep rooted mistrust of problem and realistic plays as well as ritualistic symbolism.

Eliot earliest attempts at writing poetic drama included a 1932 play titled Sweeney Agonistes and The Rock in 1934. All in all, his most developed poetic plays came afterwards, beginning with Murder in the Cathedral written in 1935, The Family Reunion composed in 1939, The Cocktail Party published in 1949, and The Confidential Clerk of 1953. The first two plays do not exude the intense mystic symbolism of the regeneration cycle that Eliot developed in his earlier poems, and which can be observed in the last two. The more plays he wrote, the more the feeling that he was abandoning his stand on the catholic church's ecclesiastic traditions and adopting a more universal grasp of values.

The biggest motives in Eliot's poetic plays appear to be an attempt to design a pattern of reality states at various time levels. The main characters in The Cocktail Party are a man called Edward Chamberlayne and Livinia, his wife. Both appear to suffer from some illusory visions that they have created for themselves. Psychologically, such illusions depict the smokescreen that veils certain mental reservations and underhand dealings. Also, in the sophisticated circles of the modern upper class, certain primitive impulses are evident in the relationships between men and women. In the simple societies of past times, such impulses would be depicted outwardly in positive action without worrying about the consequences. However, in the cultured and sophisticated societies of today, a male would find himself at various 'time segments' in different positions in the attempt to arrange impulses into a pattern.

Sir Henry Harcourt-Reilly, who happens to be the 'unidentified guest' in The Cocktail Party, is the one who possesses a much better perspective when compared to the others. After being married for a few years, Lavinia and Edward discover that each of them yearn for a change in his and her own way. When it comes to human relations within any society, one individual expects another to be what they wish them to be. A difficulty occurs in that such a mental projection is quite different from the objective personality, thus making the process of reconciliation rather difficult. There is a proposition that an individual continues to change himself or herself and his or her perception of reality at each segment of time. It is such a proposition that occupied Eliot's mind when he was writing the play. It is what may be referred to as a 'mental projection into time-space continuum'. It is excellently combined with a structure called the 'usual West-End drawing-room convection of comedy' that has been used by playwrights since time immemorial.

The Confidential Clerk tells the story of wealthy businessman called Sir Claude Mulhammer who decides to bring Colby, his illegitimate son, into the family by offering him a job as a clerk. He does this in the hope that Lady Elizabeth, his rather eccentric wife, will take a liking to Colby and allow him to live in the household as an adopted son. She soon becomes convinced that he could actually be her own son. At the same time, Lucasta Angel and B. Kaghan want to get married despite the fact that none of them appear to have any parents. The story escalates into a drama of mistaken identity and a subsequent confusion. Just like in his other plays, the play's subject matter, formal structure, and a judgment-scene ending highlight Eliot's obsession with classical drama.

Making it premier at the Edinburgh Festival in 1953, The Confidential Clerk has the same drawing room comedy structure in the form of the relationship between Sir Claude and Elizabeth. The consequences of the extra-marital affair between Lucast and Kaghan are almost certain to have an unsettling effect on the pattern of existence. On her part, Lady Elizabeth had sired a child from an earlier affair but lost track of him, only to then get married to Sir Claude. After many years and numerous ups and downs in life, she discovers that Kagnan is her lost child, and whom no one could have had even the remotest suspicion that he is related to her. In this play, Eliot does something uncharacteristic by refraining from stuffing too many of his ideas on the storyline. Instead, he prefers to leave it to work itself out. Eliot appears to be more interested the play succeeding on stage than in pushing forward his beloved theme of the link between human consciousness and Space-time structure.

Murder in the Cathedral tells the story of the final days of an Archbishop of Canterbury called Thomas Becket. He was once a powerful and friendly chancellor who enjoyed good relations with people. However, upon becoming an Archbishop, he became arrogant and unfriendly, in the process making many enemies. In the play, Thomas returns to England after being in exile for seven years. This was a bad idea as he had made many enemies during his reign as Archbishop. A notable reason for his unpopularity is the fact that he excommunicated a number of bishops while claiming to be following the Pope's orders. He is advised by four tempters to capitalize on the connections he made as chancellor, and to reconcile with his old friends. He declines; a decision that only worsens the situation. Eventually, he is confronted by four knights in the cathedral who accuse him of not deserving his position. They state that the only reason he was appointed as Archbishop was due to the fact that the King was his friend. The knights murder Thomas and do not feel any remorse for it (Schade, 144).

Eliot wrote Murder in the Cathedral specifically so that the play could be performed at the 1935 Canterbury Festival. It was then performed at the cathedral's Chapter House, only a stone throw away from the exact location where Thomas was murdered. Aside from the fact that the play was written for the Festival, it is possible that Eliot had other artistic motives for having it performed in a non-convectional theater space. Perhaps the most prominent artistic motive is that a person in the festival's audience would feel that he or she was not in a theater when watching the play. Rather, he was in a location that resonated with the history of the play's main characters. The impact of such a setting is not hard to miss. By having the play occur in the Chapter House, Eliot was putting emphasis on the link between the past and the present. While the events on which the play is based occurred in the twelfth century, an audience member in 1935 would feel that the play's issues are as modern as its audience. C...