Thornton Wilder and T.S. Eliot

"I was neither Living nor dead, and I knew nothing," states the speaker in T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land. (lines 39-40). This poem raises questions about the meaning of modern human existence. It examines the individual self and how it relates to others. The various speakers' perspectives and attitudes toward life in The Waste Land closely resemble those of the Chorus of Women in Murder in the Cathedral. In this play, Eliot uses the story of Archbishop Thomas Beckett to make similar inquiries about the nature of the self in relation to a community. The notion of human existence as "neither living nor dead" echoes within the voices of the Women of Canterbury. In both Murder in the Cathedral and The Waste Land, Eliot illustrates a devastating deterioration of the human experience.

Eliot's contemporary, Thornton Wilder, also uses the theatre to depict the condition of the self. In Our Town, Wilder dramatizes the realm of the dead to comment on the realm of the living. The character of Emily has a seemingly average existence. In the first two acts, she goes to school, does homework, falls in love, and marries. However, in the third act, Emily is dead. From this perspective, she examines her life and sees the potential for an enriching and complete experience. She can only understand the full essence of life when she is no longer living. Or, is she still living once she has died? In Our Town, one must determine the extent to which the living are really living and the dead are really dead. Similarly, Eliot's Chorus of "Living and partly living" women occupy a seemingly indeterminate existence. (p.19) Thus, both Eliot and Wilder dramatize and question the boundaries between the living and the dead in order to portray the human spirit. Comparing the Chorus of Murder in the Cathedral to the dead characters in Our Town reveals an urgent need to attribute meaning and purpose to the modern self.

The fact that Eliot uses a Chorus in a modern play suggests that the community has a strong voice. He does not specify whether the lines should be delivered by individual women or in unison. He challenges the director and the reader to seek out individuality within large clusters of poetic lines. By making such demands, Eliot illustrates the difficulty of attributing meaning to individual selves within a unified community. Although it is possible to present the chorus in unison, Eliot includes problematic lines to deter this method. The line "Now I fear disturbance of the quiet seasons" would seem contradictory if delivered in unison. (p.12) To say the individual word "I" as a group would provide no hope for recognition of the self. Thus Eliot illustrates that individual, personal identity can exist within a community, but it is often difficult to find. On the other hand, the women of Canterbury are inherently trapped by nature of being a Chorus. For example, there is irony in the line "And we are content if we are left alone". (p.12) In the an obvious sense, the word "alone" refers to the absence of leadership they have experienced. At a deeper level, Eliot displays the incapacity of the Chorus women to be alone and achieve personal identity.

The unified struggle of the Chorus community to prevent Thomas' death further impedes the individual self from obtaining substantial meaning. The self takes on the concerns and desires of the group to which it belongs. In Murder in the Cathedral, these concerns are serious, immediate, and threatening to the survival of the group. They face oppression, disease, poverty, and violence. Most importantly, they are concerned with destiny and God: "God is leaving us, God is leaving us, more pang, more pain then birth or death. . . The Lords of Hell are here". (p.44) When facing a world of such massive unrest, it seems hopeless to find meaning in an individual life. The women of Canterbury a find strong voice in unity. As isolated, private individuals, they cannot handle the horror of being abandoned by God. The Chorus states: "We have all had our private terrors, our particular shadows, our secret fears. But now a great fear is upon us, a fear not of one but of many". (p.20) In order to survive the threat of Thomas' death, the women must ignore their "private terrors" to face the "fear of many". Any personal concerns must be discarded so that the women can collectively prevent the disaster of Thomas' murder. This incomprehensible fear of catastrophe endangers any sense of self that the women may have: "And our hearts are torn from us, our brains unskinned like layers of an onion, our selves are lost- lost in a final fear which none understands". (p.20) Thus, the women's efforts to understand and control their oncoming disaster shatter any hope for attributing meaning to the self.

The Canterbury women achieve a sense of purpose when threatened by catastrophe. Although the meaning of an individual life becomes inconsequential, the purpose heightens. The Chorus describes their existence of seven years in the absence of Thomas. They claim they were "living and partly living". The "living" refers to their physical state of life while the "partly living" refers to that life's absence of purpose. This phrase implies that the Chorus my be partly dead, as well. Eliot illustrates this peculiar, yet devastating state of existence in The Waste Land. In the first section of this poem, entitled "The Burial of the Dead", Eliot describes the death aspect of "partly living". Corpses physically arise from the earth and narrate the poem. One speaker asks: "'That corpse you planted last year in your garden, Has it begun to sprout? Will it bloom this year?" (lines 71-72) The corpse itself reveals the answer as it speaks the poem's opening lines: "April is the cruellest month, breeding Lilacs out of the dead land. . . Winter kept us warm, covering Earth in forgetful snow". (lines 1-2, 5-6). Thus, Eliot illustrates how the cycling of the seasons disturbs the living dead. The Chorus of Murder in the Cathedral also emphasizes the changing seasons and passing months. Just as in The Waste Land, the winter keeps the land warm for death: "Since golden October declined into sombre November And the apples were gathered and stored, and the land became brown sharp points of death in a waste of water and mud". (p.11) In both works, Eliot addresses the issue of physical land harboring death. The phrase "death in a waste" most noticeably represents this similarity. Spring is a dreadful season in both works. In The Waste Land, "April is the cruellest month", disturbing the sleep of the dead. In Murder in the Cathedral, the Chorus states "Ruinous spring shall beat at our doors, Root and shoot shall eat our eyes and ears". (p.12) When comparing Eliot's works, it becomes obvious that the Chorus is not only "partly living", but partly dead. During the seven years of Thomas' absence, the women of Canterbury resemble the corpses of The Waste Land. Their individual lives have no purpose but to "succeed in avoiding notice". (p.19)

Eliot portrays the women's lack of purpose through their feeble actions. The Chorus' lack of significant action suggests that their purpose in life is dull and shallow. They wait, watch, and suffer. According to Thomas, "action is suffering and suffering is action". (p.21). Thomas' statement implies that action functions in non-traditional ways in Murder In the Cathedral. Eliot uses the paradox of a passive action to depict the absence of the women's purpose. Their actions must reflect their lack of motivation and their "partly living" state. The Chorus says: "We do not wish any thing to happen". (p.19) Any character who takes this position cannot legitimately intensify the drama. In a sense, the women fail to be true characters. They cannot contribute to the conflict if they "do not wish any thing to happen". Furthermore, they admit that they will not be active characters. From the beginning of the play, the audience knows that the women will have no significant action: "For us, the poor, there is no action, But only to wait and to witness." (p.13) In the context of the play, waiting and witnessing are important actions. Eliot stresses this passive action to portray a passive attitude toward the function of the self. The women do not have a sense of purpose, or a need to achieve anything. Both collectively and individually, the Chorus women exemplify Eliot's bleak view of the modern human condition. This lack of motivation indicates a "partly living" existence throughout The Waste Land, as well. In this poem, one woman asks: "'What shall I do now? What shall I do? . . . What shall we do to-morrow? What shall we ever do?" (lines 130, 132-133) This speaker seeks action to mask her lack of purpose. She wants something to "do" to fulfill an inherent void in her life. The question, "What shall we ever do?" implies that her actions will never be motivated by a strong purpose. Eliot's characters in both works have nothing to "do". Neither the speaker in The Waste Land nor the Chorus in Murder in the Cathedral have significant action. Comparing these two works presents Eliot's view that a "partly living" self lacks purpose, and therefore has no significant action. The self is aware of its limits. The Chorus states: "We are not ignorant women, we know what we must expect and not expect." (p.43) This state of "expecting" illustrates their inability to control their future. Instead, they just wait and "expect" certain things to happen to them. The women realize their inability to perform action, but do nothing to change it. They "wish nothing to happen", and therefore do not achieve traditional character status. Thus, the Chorus' lack of purpose and subsequent failure to act illustrates a devastating perception of the modern self.

Like Eliot, Thornton Wilder confuses boundaries between the realm of the living and the dead. While Eliot's living characters occupy a deathly existence, Wilder's dead characters come to life. In the third act of Our Town, Mrs. Gibbs and Emily have died. However, their action and language restores them to life. The dead Mrs. Gibbs tells Emily: "our life here is to forget all that, and think only of what's ahead," (p.101) Mrs. Gibbs refers to their state of death as life. This language suggests that the dead characters occupy their own form of existence. They have the ability to examine the realm of the living and offer new perspectives. In addition, Mrs. Gibbs implies that the dead characters have a future. She makes herself more alive by thinking "only of what's ahead". These characters also contribute to the action of the play. Unlike Eliot's Chorus, the dead Emily has a purpose and desires. Her longing to attribute meaning to her life motivates her return to the past. She exclaims: "One can go back; one can go back there again. . . into living. I feel it. I know it." (p.100) Emily's passion toward life and her strong emotions distinguish her from Eliot's mundane and static Chorus. She has an urgent need to connect with other people and share her enthusiasm. She pleads: "Oh, Mama, just look at me one minute as though you really saw me. . .Let's look at one another." (p.109) She wants to share her life experience with her community. On the other hand, Eliot's Chorus (a community by nature) cannot even acknowledge such a need. They "prefer to pass unobserved". (Eliot, p.12) The contrast between these two positions is enormous. In this light, Eliot's Chorus is the antithesis of Wilder's Emily. These modern playwrights' characters display entirely opposing attributes. Wilder obviously holds a more optimistic view of the modern self. However, the Chorus is alive and Emily is dead. Wilder's hope for a deep, inner self-awareness does not exist within the realm of the living. His model of the human passion for life is dead. Thus, both playwrights display some degree of pessimism about modern human existence through metaphors of life and death.

Wilder also emphasizes the passive action of waiting. The dead people in Our Town wait and watch as the living characters experience daily activities. The Stage Manager tells the audience about the dead: "They're waitin'. They're waitin' for something that they feel is comin'." (p.90) This line describes both Wilder's dead characters and Eliot's Chorus. The Chorus must simply wait for something to change their state of existence. They take no action in shaping their own destinies. On the other hand, Wilder portrays waiting as an active way to discover one's true self. In his preface to the play, Wilder asserts a solipsistic notion of attributing meaning to one's life. He states: "Each individual's assertion to an absolute reality can only be inner, very inner. Our claim, our hope, our despair are in the mind." (p.xiii) The dead characters are the only ones who represent Wilder's view. Initially, the dead Emily longs to connect with other characters. After her return to the past, her perceptions change. She finally realizes she must search within herself to find an "absolute reality". She cannot depend on others to give her life deep meaning and purpose. Emily asks Mrs. Gibbs: "They don't understand do they?" (p.113) This question marks the beginning of Emily's process of waiting. She knows that she must separate herself from her community in order to achieve a personal self-awareness. The stage manager states that the dead are waiting for "something important and great". (p.90) He then asks the audience: "Aren't they waitin' for the eternal part in them to come out loud and clear?" (p.90) The Stage Manager does not state what the eternal part is. By the end of the play, however, it becomes obvious that the eternal part of human nature exists in the mind of the individual. What Wilder refers to as an individual's "absolute reality" must be eternal. Wilder suggests that this deep sense of reality cannot expire with the passing of time. Once the dead characters are "weaned away from the earth" (p.90), they can wait for their individual selves to find a meaning. This form of waiting empowers Wilder's characters to achieve purpose and absolute reality. Contrarily, Eliot's women wait because they do not have the ability to take control of their destinies. Thus, both playwrights use the same action to illustrate different views about the nature and depth of the human self.

Eliot and Wilder employ the theatre to dramatize and raise questions about the state of human existence. Murder in the Cathedral and Our Town present the need to attribute meaning and purpose to the individual self. They emphasize, but confuse the boundaries between life and death, making them a metaphor for an interior self-realization. While both playwrights recognize the need for a deeper sense of the self, they are not equally optimistic. Eliot's Chorus exhibits an empty void of existence that cannot be filled. Both as a community and as individuals, the women's lives lack a deep sense of meaning. On the other hand, Wilder's dead characters (especially Emily at the end), envision an opportunity to achieve an inner depth of existence. By removing themselves from the community of the living, they begin to seek meaning within themselves. Wilder offers a remedy for the self's superficial state of existence. These playwrights thus exemplify how modern drama abstracts life on a stage to convey the need for meaning and reality.

Works Cited

Eliot, T.S. Murder in the Cathedral. New York: Harcourt Brace & Company, 1935.

Eliot, T.S. The Waste Land: A Facsimile and Transcript of the Original Drafts. Valerie Eliot, Editor. New York: Harcourt Brace & Company, 1971.

Wilder, Thornton. 3 Plays. New York: HarperPerennial, 1957.