THE FAMILY REUNION -T.S ELIOT

 THE FAMILY REUNION

                                                                -T.S ELIOT

Introduction: 

            Thomas Stearns Eliot was a poet, essayist, publisher, playwright, literary critic and editor. Considered one of the 20th century's major poets, he is a central figure in English-language Modernist poetry. He was born in St. Louis, Missouri, September 26, 1888. He lived in St. Louis during the first eighteen years of his life and attended Harvard University in London that Eliot came under the influence of his contemporary Ezra Pound, who recognized his poetic genius at once, and assisted in the publication of his work in a number of magazines, most notably "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" in Poetry in 1915 Eliot also made significant contributions to the field of literary criticism, and strongly the school of New Criticism. He was somewhat self-deprecating and minimising of his work and once said his criticism was merely a "by-product" of his "private poetry-workshop" 

Writing Style of T.S Eliot: 

He used stream-of- consciousness to show the chaos in of the modern man's thinking. In addition, he uses many techniques such as imagism, repetition, fragmentation and other modernist techniques. All these techniques help depict the modern life for the reader and reflect its status in real manner. His famous works are

  "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" (1915) 

 The Waste Land (1922)

  Four Quartets (1943) 

 Murder in the Cathedral (1935)

About the play:

            T. S. Eliot's The Family Reunion: Overview The Family Reunion The Family Reunion is a play by T. S. Eliot written mostly in blank verse. It incorporates elements from Greek drama and mid-twentieth century detective plays to portray the hero's journey from guilt to redemption. The play was unsuccessful when first presented in 1939, and was later regarded as unsatisfactory by its author, but has been successfully revived since the 1940s.

            The play was unsuccessful when first presented in 1939, and was later regarded as unsatisfactory by its author, but has been successfully revived since the 1940s. Some critics have thought aspects of the tormented hero reflect T.S. Eliot's own difficulties with his estrangement from his first wife.

 Title- Justification: 

            The play is entitled as The Family Reunion, the Family reunions provide an opportunity to gather family members from far and wide, renew old relationships, and meet some family members you may not even know. The keys to a successful family reunion are planning and preparation. 

Themes of the play: 

 He extends this theme to the dualistic love-hate relationships between generations and among siblings of the same generation. 

 The “reunion” of the title, therefore, is ironic: although most of the family members are physically united, their actions before and during the party push them ever further apart. 

 The existence of family secrets and how they tend to repeat themselves from generation to generation. 

 Death of a spouse is a recurring theme in the play. 

Structure of the play: 

        The play is partly in blank verse and partly in prose. Eliot had already experimented with verse drama in Murder in the Cathedral, and continued to use the form in his post-war stage works. Though the work has superficial resemblances to a conventional 1930s drawing room drama, Eliot uses two devices from ancient Greek drama. The play is divided in two parts, each divided in three scenes. The first part takes place in the drawing room, after tea, an afternoon in late March. The first scene is used as an introduction of the persons Amy, Ivy, Violet, Agatha, Gerald, Charles, Mary and Denman. They are talking about tonight, when a dinner is being held with the entire family. They are also talking about Harry, whom they haven't seen for eight years. “

        T.S.Eliot has a poetic and descriptive voice. He uses the metaphors of nature and the senses to describe Harry & Mary's constricted and contrived upbringing at Wishwood. They describe the hollow tree in the wilderness as their place of escape. It's absurd that one's only memory of freedom should be a hollow tree in a wood by the river”.

 Birthday party of Lady Monchensey:

         The play is in two acts set in Wishwood, a stately home in the north of England. At the beginning, the family of Lady Monchensey is assembling for her birthday party. She is, as her doctor later explains, clinging on to life by sheer willpower:  

“I keep Wishwood alive/ To keep the family alive, to keep them together, To keep me alive, and I keep them."

        Neither of the younger sons ever appears, both being slightly injured in motoring accidents, but Harry soon arrives, his first appearance at Wishwood for eight years. He is haunted by the belief that he pushed his wife off the ship. In fact Harry has an alibi for the time, but whether he killed her or not he wished her dead and his feelings of guilt are the driving force in the rest of the play. Lady Monchensey decides that Harry's state warrants the discreet observation of the family doctor, who is invited to join the party, ostensibly as a dinner guest. Mary, who has been earmarked by Amy as a future wife for Harry, wishes to escape from life at Wishwood, but her aunt Agatha tells her that she must wait:

 “You and I, Mary/ Are only watchers and waiters, not the easiest role”. 

An Unwelcomed death of Harry’s Wife 

            Lady Monchensey's two brothers and three sisters are present, and a younger relation, Mary, but none of Lady Monchensey's three sons. Among other things they discuss the sudden, and not to them wholly unwelcome, death at sea of the wife of the eldest son Harry, the present Lord Monchensey Before those years, something terrible had happened to Harry's wife and he thinks he is to blame. His wife was swept off the deck of a boat. Because harry thinks he has thrown her overboard, his family thinks he is not sane. But know, eight years later, Harry is the only one who acts sane about it, his aunts Ivy, Violet and Agatha are the ones who are making a fuss out of it. And that upsets Harry.

“When the others notice Harry sees 'persons' that they don't see, they really begin to think Harry's gone crazy. It appears that these ghosts are from his deceased wife, and he is haunted by them, at least he thinks he is. Scene two describes a conversation between Harry and Mary, they talk about their youth and Harry sees the ghosts again. Mary doesn't see them and she feels sorry for him. Scene three tells that everyone is preparing for dinner and that the guests are worried about John and Arthur, who haven't arrived yet. Part two takes place in the library, after dinner.” 

            Harry’s conversation with Dr. Warburton: Dr. Warburton has a conversation with Harry, at advice of Harry's uncles and aunts. It's about Harry's mother, Warburton explains that Harry's mother gets her strength to live from her determination of keeping the family together, and that she is very feeble at the moment. Then Sergeant Winchell appears with the message that John has had an accident, but that it is nothing serious, just a concussion. Later on, it appears that Arthur has also had an accident.

 Revelation of Truth: 

Harry asks Agatha for the truth behind his parents and she is strong enough to tell him. She tells Harry that his father was going to kill his mother while she was pregnant of him. Agatha stopped Harry's father just in time. When she is finished telling she sighs with relief and says that Harry is now the one who has to carry the burden. 

Argument between Amy and Agatha: 

Describes an argument between Amy and Agatha, Amy is very angry with Agatha for taking away her son, saying she first took her husband and now her son. Agatha explains that it was inevitable and that they have to start their lives over again and leave the past behind them. Harry realises he has to follow the ghosts and that they will lead him. I'm not sure, but I think Amy dies at the end because she can take no more. That is when Ivy says:

 "I shall have to stay till after the funeral: will my ticket to London still be valid?" The play ends with Agatha, saying that the knot is unknotted, the cross is uncrossed and the crooked is made straight as a conclusion of what she said before. "

Nature of Harry:

 Harry, returning from Wishwood after eight years discusses his longing to return back to his childhood home. (The home theme this semester.) His return to Wishwood is actually his need to make peace with his past, his loss of his father and the confines he unchanged room symbolizes the Harry of his youth, and the person that Harry is hoping to find when he returns. It also symbolizes his family's inability to accept the fact that Harry has moved on. Their longing to keep life the same. In this scene Mary and Agatha have been waiting for Harry to appear for dinner. Agatha exits and Mary alone says, "Waiting, waiting, always waiting, I think this house means to keep us waiting."

 “A contemporary review described Harry as "an unresolved amalgam of Orestes and Hamlet" and Eliot himself had vetoed the casting of John Gielgud because he thought him "not religious enough to understand the character's motivation." Some modern critics see in Harry a parallel with Eliot's own emotional difficulties of the time, with his estrangement from his first wife.” 

Conclusion: 

We can also find chorus in the play. As the chorus tells about the future turns of events. T.S.Eliot has given its imitating the Greek writers. The play has some defeats also the hero homes stays for sometimes and leaves without telling clearly about the reasons. It is a mystery. His departure is unsatisfactory. It is forced and hurried. It keeps the readers confused. And at last the dramatist has proved that even in modern age a poetic drama can be successful.