THE SALVATION OF THREE HEROES IN T. S. ELIOT'S THE FAMILY REUNION THE CONFIDENTIAL CLERK AND THE ELDER STATESMAN

Abstract

The three heroes in Eliot's plays are all longing to free themselves from the human bondage. They have their own sins which force them to suffer. However, each has accomplished the path of salvation through Christianity. Harry, the hero in The Family Reunion is agonized by his sin, making him wonder whether he himself killed his wife or not. He has to wander between the world of "sleeping and waking". But at last, he can achieve salvation, reconciled with God. Agatha, who has become his spiritual mother, helps Harry depart from Wishwood, for a divine world, which symbolizes the place of human love. In The Confidential Clerk, Colby who could not be satisfied with the people in a make-believe world, has finally, integrated the worlds of reality and spirit. He, also attains salvation through God's power. But his attitude towards the compromising reality is more positive than Harry's, because Eggerson leads him to his vegetable garden and church. And in The Elder Statesman, Lord Claverton had led his life in peace from his unsatisfactory public self. Through the vision of human love, he has pursued his salvation. He has a more aggressive attitude than Colby, compromising with reality. In this play, Monica, Lord Claverton's daughter, acts the role of his custodian. In these three later plays, Eliot intends to reflect his conversion to Anglo-Catholicism. Nevertheless, Eliot himself says: What I want is a literature which should be unconsciously, rather than deliberately and defiantly, Christian." As he comments, none of Eliot's characters preaches christian doctrine except Thomas in Murder in the Cathedral. Instead they reflect the Christian ideal in their daily lives. Most of Eliot's dramatic themes are concerned with a religion which integrates the real and ideal. Therefore, in each of his plays, Eliot has "portrayed the plight of the individual who perceives the order of God but, forced to exist in the natural world, must somehow come to term with both realms."