[Mohammad Ahsan]
[S. Id : 20186421]
[M.A. English sem-III]
[Submitted to
Prof. Shubhi Abidi]
[Nov 13, 2019]
The Christian, Hindu and Buddhist Philosophy in The Cocktail Party
Introduction
Thomas Stearns Eliot [1888-1965] is a well-known literary figure. He without
doubt is amongst one of the most learned poets, playwrights and the critics. American
born English poet has made great achievements in owning the literature that holds impact
on both the eastern and the western readers of English Literature. He himself was a strong
Christian with a huge knowledge of Hindu Philosophy.
It was his inclination towards
eastern philosophy that made him study philosophy at Harvard from 1906 to 1909,
earning his bachelor’s degree after three years, instead of the usual four. After working philosophy assistant at Harvard from 19091910, Eliot moved to Paris, where from 19101911, he studied philosophy at the Sorbonne. He attended lectures by Henri Bergson and read poetry with AlainFournier. From 19111914, he was back at Harvard studying Indian philosophy and Sanskrit.
Stephen Spender in the Standard Literary Biography of T.
S. Eliot says that after
visiting Paris in 1911, Eliot joined Charles Lanmans Philology Course, at Harvard.
Lanman was a distinguished Sanskrit Scholar and Orientalist. Eliot was with him for two
whole years and then went on to study the metaphysics of Patanjali for another two years.
Eliot summed up this whole experience rather cleverly by saying that it left him in a state
of enlightened mystification, he gained a thorough intellectual grasp of AdvaitaVedanta. He was also very much moved by early Buddhist Scriptures, which he said,
affected him as much as many parts of the Old Testament. He also described the
Bhagavad-Gita as the next greatest philosophical poem to the Divine Comedy within his
experiences. However, Eliot never left his vital essential Christian faith while applying
and enjoying these Eastern influences. As a result, we can see the Christian social
scenario imbibing the teachings of the Bible and the Bhagavad-Gita in his plays.
Creation of The Cocktail Party
T. S. Eliot was at Princeton in 1948, during the days he received the letter of winning that
year’s Nobel Prize for literature. His literary reputation was built mainly on his proficiency as a poet and a critical theorist. In the later years of his life most of Eliot’s work was concentrated on writing drama that would display his Christian sensibilities combined with eastern philosophy like that of a much mature and secular literary icon who evolved out of a strong anglican man. My AIM is to analyze his Play The Cocktail Party in the light of the Christian and the Hindu and Buddhist Philosophy, which he studied during his graduation, and its influence is seen in most of his poems and plays in his latter years works.
The allusions in The Cocktail Party
1. The Christian martyrdom of the mistress character Celia is seen as a sacrifice that
permits the predominantly secular life of the community to continue. In his 1949 Spencer
Lecture, T. S. Eliot admitted to trying to conceal the source of the main theme of The Cocktail Party. He confessed that he took his theme of a wife who chooses to die for her
husband from the Alcestis of Euripides. He said, I was still inclined to go a Greek
dramatist for my theme, but I was determined to do so merely as a point of departure, and
to conceal the origins so well that nobody would identify them until I pointed them out
myself. In this at least I have been successful; for no one of my acquaintance recognized
the source of my story in the Alcestis of Euripides.
2. The impermanence and sufferings in the lives of all the leading characters and Celia
working for her own Nirvana reflect the Buddhist philosophy that says, Life is
suffering. According to other interpretations by Buddhist teachers and scholars, lately
recognized by some Western non-Buddhist scholars, the “truths” do not represent mere
statements, but are categories or aspects that most worldly phenomena fall into are
grouped in two: (i) Suffering and causes of suffering (ii) Cessation and the paths towards
liberation from suffering. Celias decision to work for the missionary and getting
herself killed was the only path she could choose to liberate her physical being from the
sufferings.
3. The attainment of still point–the Bindu where nothing can be altered by human hands
and everything seems to be out of human reach. Henry Harcourt Reilly explains this to
the chamberlaynes when they were worried on getting the news of Celias killing, thus
reflecting the Hindu philosophy. It also contains the message of Shree Gita, which tells
that we will get the fruit of our actions so one should not worry or regret for any
happening on the earth. It is all planned and executed by the almighty.
The plot of the play reflects the contemporary society of Eliot
In the play The Cocktail Party, a married couple, Edward and Lavinia
Chamberlayne, organizes the party. They suffer impermanence and separation after five
years of marriage due to their infidelity. Their marital problems are aggravated by the
pressure of having to keep up social appearances, portraying the modern society where
the structure lacks in sincerity and lives in mere showbiz where we find partially satire on
the traditional British drawing-room comedy and partially philosophical discourse on the
nature of human relations. Any how the play explores the modern human conditions of
love, marriage, post marital affair ,desire, infidelity and choosing of the right path after
the intervention of a spiritual advisor who can be a psychiatrist too in this modern urban
society thereby leading to realization, guilt, sacrifice and penance in search of salvation.
All these seem to have the impact of Eliots relation with his first wife Vivienne who
showed infidelity in their relation. He wanted to uplift the spirituality of such women and
men who lack loyalty in their relation, through his play.
The plot of the play reflects the contemporary society of Eliot
In the play The Cocktail Party, a married couple, Edward and LaviniaChamberlayne, organizes the party. They suffer impermanence and separation after five
years of marriage due to their infidelity. Their marital problems are aggravated by the
pressure of having to keep up social appearances, portraying the modern society where
the structure lacks in sincerity and lives in mere showbiz where we find partially satire on
the traditional British drawing-room comedy and partially philosophical discourse on the
nature of human relations. Any how the play explores the modern human conditions of
love, marriage, post marital affair ,desire, infidelity and choosing of the right path after
the intervention of a spiritual advisor who can be a psychiatrist too in this modern urban
society thereby leading to realization, guilt, sacrifice and penance in search of salvation.
All these seem to have the impact of Eliots relation with his first wife Vivienne who
showed infidelity in their relation. He wanted to uplift the spirituality of such women and
men who lack loyalty in their relation, through his play Eliot had pointed out that this play owes to Alcestis by the Greek playwright Euripides (480-406 B c). In the Greek tragedy, the title character sacrifices her life for her husband, King Admetus of Thessaly, but is rescued from Hades by Hercules. In Eliot’s version, a mysterious Unidentified Guest Sir Henry Harcourt Reilly brings Lavinia back in the same manner.
The spiritual advisor Reilly
In Eliots literature, we find that he always preaches to his readers taking allusions from
the Bible, the Bhagavad-Gita and the Buddhist philosophy. This can be seen in his
Wasteland, Murder in the Cathedral, and Ash Wednesday along with The Cocktail Party.
We can always find some advice to uplift the spirituality by reading his literature. Let us
now analyze the role of Reilly in The Cocktail Party as the spiritual advisor. Sir Harcourt
Reilly – a psychiatrist at the party, turns out in true twentieth-century form. Edward and
Lavinia both consult him. They learn that their life together, though hollow and
superficial, is preferable to life apart; a lesson that is rejected by the play’s third main
character, Edward’s mistress, who, with the psychiatrist’s urging, sets out to experience a
life of honesty and uncertainty. Edwardss mistress Celia is filled with guilt and chooses
to go for penance and reconciliation with God through her services to the missionary. It
reflects the Christian elements of penance, sacrifice and martyrdom and the Buddhist
element of choosing the path of liberation through self-extinction. All this happens only
after every leading character of the play consults Reilly and chooses to follow the path of
righteousness.
The Life in the Play
The first act of The Cocktail Party is the only one divided into three separate scenes.
The first scene opens on a party in the drawing room of the Chamberlayne home in
London with all of the play’s major charactersEdward, Julia, Celia, Peter, Alex, and the
Unidentified Guestpresent. There is witty bantering about people not present, making
this seem like many British drawing-room comedies. Lavinia Chamberlayne is missing,
and her husband, Edward, a lawyer, makes up a feeble excuse for the absence of his wife,
who has invited the guests. He tells them that she has gone to visit an aunt in the country,
but most of the party guests are skeptical. They had never heard of any such aunt of hers.
They all leave except for the Unidentified Guest, whom Edward asks to stay and talk with
him. As always, Eliot introduces a spiritual guide who shows the way towards virtues and
tells how to depart from the guilt as Amy does in The Family Reunion and Eggerson does
in The Confidential Clerk.
Edward confesses the stranger that Lavinia left him the day before, and that he tried
to cancel the party but could not reach the people who did attend. During the
conversation, he expresses his concern over what his life will be like without her, and the
stranger tells him that he will arrange for Lavinia to return the following day reflecting
the Greek element. Although Edward speaks alone with Celia Coplestone, his mistress,
and we learn that they planned to be together pending the breakup of his marriage. Yet
Edward now seems uncertain about Celia, as if he has a mind to return to his wife after he
talks to the unidentified guest. The next day the Unidentified Guest indeed brings Lavinia
home, and she and Edward discuss their marital problems, and especially Edwards
indecisiveness. Edward becomes convinced that his indecision is a mental illness, and he
seeks treatment. One day ending up in the office of the Unidentified Guest, he finally
identified Sir Henry Harcourt-Reilly, as a psychologist. Lavinia joins the session, and
reveals her own affair with Peter Quilpe – another frequent cocktail party guest. Through indirect means, including vague talk about a sanitarium, Reilly convinces the
Chamberlaynes to resume their marriage. Then Celia comes in to see Reilly, and she later
decides to do missionary work. In the final act, set two years later, the Chamberlaynes are
depicted as having a more tranquil marriage, and we learn that Celia has been killed
violently in Kinkanja, where she was doing her missionary work. In spite of some
characters shock on hearing the news, most accept her death as natural, perhaps even
noble.
This penance and suffering and the concept of self-extinction of Celia is drawn from
the Christian, the Hindu and the Buddhist philosophy. Everyone makes a choice, of one
kind or another. / And then must take the consequences. Celia chose / A way of which the
consequence was crucifixion (CP187). Clearly, this is the main idea of the play. Despite
Eliots own well-known Christianity, The Cocktail Party does not argue specifically for
Christian solutions to the human condition. Celia, endowed by her creator (Eliot) with
such characteristics as having been a poet and a nurse, is something of a martyr for
Christian ideals, as is made clear by her death being characterized as a crucifixion.
However, this is seen as one of several paths towards solution. The Cocktail Party is
simply an idea play, dramatizing the condition of man as a moral agent, a chooser.
Celia participated in an affair with Edward consequently committing adultery.
Edward too was guilty of cheating his wife. Then he finds himself alone with the astute
and slippery Unidentified Guest, who is a master of reverse psychology, and has the
mysterious power to bring his wife back. Had the Unidentified Guest not intervened,
Edward might simply have chosen to marry Celia. However, as usual Eliot wanted to
uplift spirituality amongst his crisis-ridden characters so he introduced a spiritual advisor
in the form of a psychiatrist reflecting the mood and temperament of the modern waste
landers. The Unidentified Guests pronouncements about Edwards indecision stack the
deck against Edward choosing for himself. Edward is utterly criticized for his lack of
choice but soon he realizes his moral duty. Eliot fulfills his purpose to preach the society
lacking in religion and conduct. Julia, Alex, and Reilly form a bizarre conspiracy, whose
entire existence seems devoted to making people see that they must live with their
choices. Surely, few of us have encountered such benevolence as theirs. Julia sends
nearly all the characters mysterious telegrams to meet at the Chamberlaynes, where she
has planted a de facto spy in Reilly. Reilly as psychologist freely discusses his patients
problems with Julia and Alex, his co-conspirators. Because these three show human
motives, these characters exist as device in the machinery of the play, to show the other
characters their ultimate fates.
Eliot tries to show the illegitimate relationships as the hell in the modern society. He
writes, And other people bring no comfort or companionship. Edward echoes Sartres
formula when he says, What is hell? Hell is oneself, / Hell is alone, the other figures in it
/ Merely projections (CP98). One senses that Eliot has a whole philosophy of choice and
selfhood lurking under here somewhere, one which he may have been better off writing
as a philosophical treatise but he employed these philosophies to show the fate of wrong
doings on earth. Eliot was always firm to philosophize his literature. Eliot owns
masterpieces such as the long poem The Wasteland -a poem that uses multiple languages along the way, the Biblical allusions and the Hindu philosophy and The Hollow Men,
which paints a dark vision of man as “broken” because of his lack of faith in God. There
are religious overtones in The Cocktail Party too that tells that religion is the right path.
Conclusion
As an idea play, The Cocktail Party has a few things going for it. It is a well-made play
in the sense that the conflicts spawned from Edwards infidelity are introduced at the
beginning and resolved by the end of the play. There is a plot that develops. The
characters also speak a dry verse, the meter of which helps suggest the lifeless custom of
their lives, which was the aim of Eliot. He has a gift for this sort of dialogue, many of the
characters sound like the defeated narrator of Eliots early Love Song of J. Alfred
Prufrock. The dialogue sparkles with intelligence, and is what keeps the play going. As
usual, he picks up the themes of sin, guilt, penance, renunciation, suffering and search for
salvation. However, in The Cocktail Party he does not remain just an Anglican rather he
explains it through the Hindu and the Buddhist philosophy too as analyzed earlier in this
article.
Bibliography
[1]
[2] Kermode, Frank (2003). “Introduction” to The Waste Land and Other Poems, Penguin
[3] Eliot, T.S. The Cocktail Party. (1950).London: Faber, 1950; New York: Harcourt,
Brace.
[4] Eliot, T.S. (1951). Poetry and Drama. Faber and Faber: London. [Eliots lecture (the
Theodore Spencer Memorial Lecture at Harvard University]
[5] Gethin, Rupert (1998). Foundations of Buddhism. Oxford University Press. p. 60
[6]Geddes, Dan. The Cocktail Party Eliots Iceman Cometh Review
[7] Jacobs, Alan. T.S-Eliot-Vedanta-and-Buddhism. Review on T.S. Eliot, Vedanta