Thirty Characters in Crisis

Paper Summary:

The paper looks specifically at two poems by T.S. Eliot, "Murder in the Cathedral" and "The Cocktail Party", in which the characters are instruments in conveying his recurring theme of man's need-- a return of faith in God to combat the desolate state of society. The writer argues that the themes that Eliot was facing in his day are the same concepts with which we struggle today.

From the Paper:

"Most people move on the rim of the wheel, on the level of time. They are born, marry, grow old, and die without ever achieving a consciousness of life as anything greater than the flow of time But some.. .seek to move beyond the level of time to the still point at the center of the wheel where time and timelessness intersect and they experience the eternal presence of God. (McCormick 774-75)
Thomas Becket in Murder in the Cathedral and Celia Coplestone in The Cocktail Party are two characters who tragically attempt to transcend worldly restraints of emptiness; they are the noble ones amidst societies of intolerant chaos and shallow meaninglessness. (An in-depth discussion of their fateful characters and lives is provided later in the paper.) A stark contrast to Thomas and Celia are the people surrounding them, those who live within the superficial realm of the wheel's outer rim."

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