Recommended Reading...

I recently re-read one of my favorite plays: The Cocktail Party by T. S. Eliot.

Eliot was a contemporary of "The Inklings" but did not share their common love for Medieval and Renaissance literature. Definitely a man of his own time, Eliot prefered modern poetry and contemporary themes for his plays and literature (with the exception of his Nobel-prize winning Murder in the Cathedral, which is a historical drama based on the martyrdom of Thomas Beckett). C. S. Lewis himself expressed a deep dislike for Eliot's style. However, near the end of both their lives, they worked together in committee on a new translation the Bible, and they developed a mutual respect for one another.

The Cocktail Party illustrates the messiness of modern relationships: the breakdowns in communication, the alienation, and the total misunderstandings that often occur between people. Though its theme is serious, it is a comedy. It centers on the failing marriage of Edward and Lavinia Chamberlayne, although other friends with their own idiosyncracies are brought into the mix. The most interesting character is "the unidentified guest" at the cocktail party, originally portrayed by the master character actor Alec Guiness. This unidentified guest is later revealed to be a wise counselor who enables all the characters, especially Edward and Lavinia, to better understand the nature of their flawed relationships and the path that is necessary for healing.

Eliot's Christian faith shines throughout the play, often in specific lines, but also in its overall message: that it is sacrifical love that leads to the redemption of relationships. Although written sixty years ago, this play has much to teach our culture today, in which fragmented relationships have become the rule rather than the exception. I highly recommend it!

Here are a few of my favorite quotes from the play:

"To invite a stranger is to invite the unexpected, to release a new force, or let the genie out of the bottle. It is to start a train of events beyond your control."

"What is hell? Hell is oneself, Hell is alone, the other figures in it merely projections. There is nothing to escape from and nothing to escape to. One is always alone."

"I really want to believe that there is something wrong with me--because, if there isn't, then there is something wrong, or at least, very different from what it seemed to be, with the world itself--and that's much more frightening! That would be terrible. So I'd rather believe there is something wrong with me, that could be put right."

"You suffer from a sense of sin, Miss Coplestone? That's most unusual!"

"Only by acceptance of the past can you alter its meaning."