Yeats's Purgatory and Eliot's Murder in the Cathedral - Essay Example

Yeats's Purgatory and Eliot's Murder in the Cathedral "Symbolism, as seen in the writers of our day, would have no value if it were not seen also, under one disguise or another, in every great imaginative writer”. Discuss with reference to Yeats's 'Purgatory' and Eliot's 'Murder in the Cathedral' and 'The Family Reunion'. W.B. Yeats, one of the pioneers of symbolist movement in modern discourse of literature, has elevated the trend of poetic creation to a different dimension with the help of masterful symbolic usage. His poetry essentially carries numerous evidences in support of such observation. At the same time, Yeats’ dramatic works are also replete with impressions of such symbolic usage and his famous one act play “Purgatory” emphasizes the fact that for a great imaginative writer, symbolism is an extremely effective device with which the writer can provide the audience an impression of larger cosmos through limited scope. Yeats, within limited scope of this one act play, has elevated certain basic aspects related to humanity and his personal understanding about ongoing trends in modernist social existence. Application of symbolism, in this context, has helped him to represent his ideas to the audience in a thought provoking manner. Yeats’ comment about the play itself provides this observation a strong foundation, “I wish to say that I have put into this play not many thoughts that are picturesque, but my own beliefs about this world and the next” (Yeats; Jochum, 2006: 223). Title of the play is both significant and symbolic enough to provide a clear idea to audience that the dramatist wishes to portray an impression of purgatorial existence and in the very opening scene, backdrop of the play, reasserts this realization. There are only two characters, an old man and his son, and the audience is introduced to them on the background of “a ruined house and a bare tree …” (Yeats, 1994: 51). Through this play, Yeats did not try to give an impression of the destruction and barrenness of the external world but he actually attempted to show the audience a purgatory that exists within. Here the house becomes symbol of safety and peace but trivialities of the modern world have ruined that ambiance of solace and security. The world that becomes poignant through Yeats’ play is a world of corrupted morals and in this world even the closest of our relations are always ready to slain us. This is such a world where love, affection and respect for life do not carry any important for the inhabitants. A tree is symbol of spontaneity and sumptuousness of life and so was life on this earth at certain point of time “Before the thunderbolt had riven it,/ Green leaves, ripe leaves, leaves thick as butter,/ Fat, greasy life” (Yeats, 1994: 51). However, now life has lost all its vitality and appeal and it exists now only as a ruined, void house where “The souls in Purgatory that come back/To habitations and familiar spots” (Yeats, 1994: 51). Purgatory, in Yeats’ play is not a cosmos apart but it exists within every human being. Human virtues like, mutual love, trust, tolerance and respect for each other help us to receive an upper hand over this purgatory, to stop it from being exposed to its wildest form. However, the world and time Yeats has shown through the play, does not have any respect for these virtues and we are compelled to live within such a cosmos, where a son does not hesitate to murder his father or a father can slay his “lad because he had grown up/He would have struck a woman’s fancy,/Begot, and passed pollution on” (Yeats, 1994: 58). Yeats has made masterful use of symbolic application with the intention to depict picture of a morally derogated society and in the end of the play, through speech of the almost lunatic father he gives a final touch to the process of his portrayal, “Twice a murderer and all for nothing” (Yeats, 1994: 58). Such is the helplessness of common people in the modern society that despite having complete understanding of their respective situations, they are entirely helpless amidst the purgatorial existence. In order to convey such pathetic state of modern existence, symbolism becomes a highly effective instrument in the hands of W.B. Yeats and through its measured application the playwright evokes a true impression of existence in modern time and in future as well, “Mankind can do no more. Appease/ The misery of the living and the remorse of the dead” (Yeats, 1994: 58). According to W.B. Yeats, symbolism is a medium, so powerful that it helps a reader to perceive the intellect or emotion, which has been conveyed by the author and the entire process occurs so naturally that the reader sees himself/herself as an integral part of the entire sensibility (Yeats, 1980: 20). In one of his most celebrated poetic drama, Murder in the Cathedral”, symbolic usage from T.S. Eliot clear speaks on behalf of this observation. Plot of the novel revolves around the theme of how a person is trapped within the conflicting ideas regarding meaning of life, martyrdom, religious principles and conflict with tyrannical sovereign force. This is the craftsmanship of Eliot’s art that through application of symbolism, he not only provided a clear impression about condition of an artist in the current situation but also help the audience to receive a clear idea about paradoxes of modern existence. Symbolically, T.S. Eliot, in this play, has attempted to emphasize over the fact that condition of human existence and suffering, somehow remains same in different ages, at different points of time. Amidst the stereotype ambiance of “oppression and luxury”, “poverty and licence”, people have become saturated to exist within a cosmos of monotony, “We do not wish anything to happen” (Eliot, 1964: 19). This monotonous existence, finally emerges as an intoxicating slumber that people are “left to our own devices, oppression /And we are content if are left alone” (Eliot, 1964: 12). Such alienation becomes a barrier against spontaneous flow of creativity and is also directed against the will of the Almighty, because for an artist, creativity is the only ideal or the source of his spiritualism. Thus, amidst the established rule of social existence, an artist starts to survive with the realization that he is perishing gradually; slowly he is becoming deprived of his creative potentials. His realization also extends to such degree that he admits there is no escape from the inevitable, “Death will come only when I am worthy,/ And if I am worthy, there is no danger./ I have therefore only to make perfect my will” (Eliot, 1964: 69). It is by developing a readiness to accept life as it comes and through perfection of will as well as his creative potentials, an artist creates differences, despite existing within the mundane ambiance. One of the most important themes in both plays of T.S. Eliot (“Murder in the Cathedral” and “The Family Reunion”) is the Christian observation of Original Sin and redemption of a human being. In the Murder in the Cathedral, symbolically, the playwright has shown that an artist, despite existence of all trivialities and mundane around him, is required to chose creative aspiration as the sole way of redeeming him. In The Family Reunion, Harry becomes both protagonist and symbol of the eternal artistic dilemma of choosing between mundane and spiritual enlightenment. Harry’s isolation from the rest of his family members is not physical; rather it is spiritual and his tragic plight lies in the fact that he is unable to communicate his feelings or spiritual preferences about life to them, “…I am not speaking/ Of my experience, but trying to give you/ Comparisons in a more familiar medium…” (Eliot, 1964: 20). Symbolically, his angst, generated from his incapacity to communicate with other people actually represents eternal angst of artist as he fails to show the surrounding the exact dimension of his perception. Finally he is left just as “…the old house/ With the noxious smell and the sorrow before morning/ In which all past is present, all degradation/ Is unredeemable” (Eliot, 1964: 20). In the book, The Symbolist Movement in Literature, Arthur Symons has observed symbolism as such a medium “in which art returns to the one pathway, leading through beautiful things to the eternal beauty” (Symons, and Ellmann, 2004: 4). In all the three plays, “Purgatory”, “Murder in the Cathedral” and “The Family Reunion”, the playwrights have elevated the essence of creative beauty to an eternal dimension with the help of masterful symbolic application. Both for T.S. Eliot and W.B. Yeats, symbolism becomes a necessary means by which they have provided their imagination about life, society and artistry a unique potential that encompasses within its scope the essence of universalism. Thus, after reflecting over the use of symbolism and its relevance, which has been executed by the playwrights, in these three plays, it can clearly be said that "Symbolism, as seen in the writers of our day, would have no value if it were not seen also, under one disguise or another, in every great imaginative writer” (Symons, and Ellmann, 2004: 2). References Eliot, T.S. Murder in the Cathedral. Later Printing Edition. (Pennsylvania: Harvest Books, 1964) Eliot, T.S. The Family Reunion. (Pennsylvania: Harvest Books, 1964) Jochum, K.P.S. The reception of W.B. Yeats in Europe. (New York: Continuum International Publishing Group, 2006) Symons, A. and Ellmann, R. The Symbolist Movement in Literature. (Montana: Kessinger Publishing, 2004) West. T.G. Symbolism, an anthology. (London: Taylor & Francis, 1980) Yeats, W.B. and Moon, S. One Act: Eleven Short Plays of the Modern Theater. (California: Grove Press, 1994) Read More