FREE ESSAY ON THE COCKTAIL PARTY - T.S.ELIOT

THE COCKTAIL PARTY - T.S.ELIOT

Eliot is considered to be one of the most influential writers of the 20th century. His
works have been admired greatly. In his play The Cocktail Party, Eliot's focus of
attention is on what he calls 'the malady of the 20th century people'.He explores the
various aspects of people's lives concentrating on their frivolity & pettiness in
particular.He also explores 2 kinds of love that are not necessarily better than the
other but are equally important to society ; that of romantic love & supernatural love.
The romantic love ie the relationship between edward & lavinia is explored in great
deatil & the first scene of act 1 introduces them to the audience.
Throughout the play, Eliot very subtly, tells us about how callous and petty the people
of high society England were at that time.All of his plays were genearlly watched by the
upper class rather than the middle class as they could realte to them better.
Through celia, eliot explores a kind of love that is very rare. It is one of total &
complete selflessness and unconditional love for every human being. He portrays Celia as
a martyr who is almost always misunderstood and is seeking some sort of direction in life
which Reilly and the other guardians help her in finding. The guardians also play a very
important role in the play besides Celia, Edward & Lavinia. They are the ones who
symbolise a church within a church and go about helping their friends in their
soul-searching.
Eliot has always been known as an author/poet of hope & not despair though most of his
works revolve around the shallowness & emptiness of human lives. He always gives us some
hope towards the end and that is what m akes him one of the greatest critics of all
time.