Mr. Eliot's Fix-It-Shops

Abstract

Eliot's plays follow the basic pattern of sin - expiation - communion. Murder in the Cathedral and The Family Reunion are cast in a religious context and the characters hope for communion through suffering and in the after-life. The Cocktail Party, The Confidential Clerk and The Elder Statesman are cast in a secular context and the characters seek to integrate themselves through action, rather than through martyrdom. From The Cocktail Party on, the dramatization of the characters' integration reveals Eliot’s shift from transcendental to earthly concerns. That shift influences his choice of literary genre and approach to character, plot, diction and style. The distinction between comedy and tragedy is erased. Sin begins to be referred to also as an existential problem; priest and psychiatrist become one in other words, Eliot gradually overlaps the languages of religion and psychology. However, the secularization of his last plays does not mean that the experience is not religious. Religion becomes less a matter of Church ritual conceived in the ways of the world.