T.S. Eliot's Dramatic Theory and Practice: From Sweeney Agonistes to the Elder Statesman 9781400879403

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J ^ T. S. ELIOT'S DRAMATIC THEORY AND PRACTICE From Sweeney ^Agonistes to The Elder Statesman

J * T. S. ELIOT'S DRAMATIC THEORY AND PRACTICE FROM SWEENEY ,AGONISTES TO THE ELDETi

STATESMAN

BY CAROL H. SMITH

PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS

Copyright © 1963 by Princeton University Press c/i/i Rights Reserved London: Oxford University Press L.C. Card: 63-7161 Publication of this book has been aided by the Ford Foundation program to support publication, through university presses, of works in the humanities and social sciences Printed in the United States of America Second Printing 1966 Third Printing 1967

This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise disposed of without the publisher's consent, in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published.

jfi 1 FOR C H A R L E S

PREFACE

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FEW topics in modern letters have aroused more animated debate than the vicissitudes of T. S. Eliot's poetic career. In the nineteen-twenties, the poet's conversion to Anglo-Catholicism was regarded as a "defection" by the generation which had hailed the poet of The Waste Land as its spokesman. Eliot's second "defection" was of a different order. In mid-career, after readers and critics had adjusted themselves to the idea of T. S. Eliot as a poet of religious experience, the inscrutable Mr. Eliot began to present to West End audiences a series of plays which seemed incompatible with his earlier achievements. While The Roc^ and Murder in the Cathedral could properly be considered the work of a religious poet, the plays which followed hardly seemed to be written by the same hand. Eliot's use of modern drawing-room settings and a verse which could scarcely be distinguished from prose caused discomfort both to advocates of poetic drama and to defenders of the realistic theater. The plays seemed on the surface to be within the boundaries of realism, but there were clear evidences of cryptic religious symbolism and even supernatural intrusions into the dramatic action. The Family Reunion, The Cocktail Party, and The Confidential Cler\ mystified and confused audiences, but they fascinated them, as well. How were these plays to be judged when the poet's goals seemed unclear and his dramatic method inconsistent? Eliot's own revelation, in "Poetry and Drama," that he had behind his modern situations

PREFACE

classical models from Greek drama and that he felt it necessary to develop a less lyric poetic form for drama in verse, helped very little to explain the principles behind his plays. The result of this dilemma has been a confused, if intrigued, public and innumerable specialized critical studies dealing with Eliot's sources, his dramatic verse, and his developing stage-craft. In contrast, the purpose of this study is to formulate Eliot's theory of drama in the light of his total religious and poetic development. Eliot is first and last a religious poet, but he is also an experimenter. The evolution of his personal philosophy can be traced in his movement from despair at the disorder of the natural world to his acceptance of a supernatural order which gives meaning and unity to the world's apparent chaos. This movement is clearly evident in his critical writings and his nondramatic poetry. Moreover, there is a clear connection between Eliot's religious perspective and his views on art and drama. His endorsement of classicism, for example, was an effort to require of art a form which could order experience, just as a religious interpretation of existence could order the world of nature. In fact, art's function became for Eliot the microcosmic reflection of divine order. Eliot found in drama, because of its ritual origins and its capacity to present a completely ordered dramatic world, the perfect vehicle for the expression of his religious insight. The dramatic theme of all of his plays, therefore, has been the plight of the individual who perceives the order of God but who, forced to exist in the natural world, must somehow come to terms with both

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PREFACE

realms. In order to express this theme, Eliot developed a multi-level drama intended to lead the audience from the ordinary perception of reality to an awareness of a reality transcendent to but immanent in the natural world. Eliot was, therefore, attempting to develop a new kind of theater to fit the special requirements of his dramatic goals. This study, because it is an analysis of one important element in T. S. Eliot's complex development and at­ tempts to show the importance of the plays in the poet's total achievement, does not deal extensively with Eliot's influence on other writers, nor with the relationship of his work to other movements in the modern theater. Moreover, it is not primarily concerned with an evalu­ ation of Eliot's works by current theatrical standards. It attempts, instead, to determine the principles of the kind of drama and the kind of theater which are behind the conception of all of Eliot's plays, for only after the goals of his drama are understood can a final evaluation of T. S. Eliot's literary achievement be made. I would like to express my appreciation to Professors Herbert C. Barrows, Jr., Arthur J. Carr, Marvin Felheim, and Jack E. Bender of the University of Michigan for the helpful counsel they have given me in the preparation of this study. Finally, I would like to thank my husband, Charles Philip Smith, for his generous assistance and val­ uable advice. C.H.S. Princeton, New Jersey August 1962

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CONTENTS PREFACE I. THE PURSUIT OF ORDER II. SWEENEY AGON1STES

vii 3 32

III. THE ROCK AND MURDER IN THE CATHEDRAL

76

IV. THE FAMILY REUNION

112

V.

THE COCKTAIL PARTY

147

VI. THE CONFIDENTIAL CLERK

184

VII. THE ELDER STATESMAN

214

BIBLIOGRAPHY

241

INDEX

247

J ^ T. S. ELIOT'S DRAMATIC THEORY AND PRACTICE From Sweeney