The Images of Women in T. S. Eliot’s The Confidential Clerk

By – Dr. Shiva Mahzavi, published in Vol.II, Issue.XIX – August 2016

Introduction to the Author:

Dr. Shiva Mahzavi is presently working as Assistant Professor at Maharaja Aggrasen Degree Colleg Bareily. She has four years’ teching experience at P.G. level and a total of five years’ experience at undergraduate level. She has also presented two research papers at national level seminars. Her areas of interest are Twentieth-century literature and Romantic poetry.

Abstract

“The Confidential Clerk” by T.S. Eliot was first enacted on the stage in the year 1953. Eliot believes that comedy ridicules the human follies and thus, leads to purification of soul. The story of the present play feels simple outwardly but actually has a serious theme- ‘search for one’s identity and real vocation’. The females in the play have been projected in a positive manner. They pave the way for the journey of their male counterparts, guide them, support them and help them to achieve their destination- spiritual awakening.

            Mrs. Elizabeth Lucasta and Mr. Guzzard, ‘the fairy’ are the fine examples of round characters as they grow, develop and turn out to be the entirely different types of characters at the end. They are very positive in their attitude. Elizabeth attains maturity to reconciliate with the situation, Lucasta opts for a better wish by choosing B. Kaghan as her life partner and ‘the fairy’ Mrs. Guzzard provides everyone their wishes. Without these female characters, the play would not have been a success in toto.

The Confidential Clerk written by T.S. Eliot was first staged in 1953. Eliot always makes his plays a medium to generate spiritual awakening and believes that the comedies are the best medium for the same. The comedy ridicules the human follies and thus leads to purification of soul. John Beaufort believes that “If you want to say something serious nowadays, it is easier to say it in comedy than in tragedy. People take tragedy seriously on the surface. They take comedy lightly on the surface but seriously underneath.”¹ Here this play deals with the story of a lost child who does not know his real identity. His search for the real parentage culminates positively and he identifies not only his reality but his real vocation also. This outwardly simple story has a serious theme- ‘search of one’s reality’. Robart A. Colby believes that “despite the intimacy of its subject matter, The Confidential Clerk is not simply a domestic drama. It is not about a family, but of course, the entire human family.”²

                        T.S. Eliot weaves the threads of The Confidential Clerk upon the central theme taken from Ion. Here he deals with the story of young man Colby Simpkins, who is ignorant of his real parents and wants to know about them because he believes that “unless you know who your father is, you don’t know who you are, and if you don’t know, who you are, you don’t know what you are…. Be the thing you are;” ³ So the central theme is the search for the real father, but this search is not easy rather consists of a serious and painful journey which all the characters go through. The old financier named Sir Claude Mulhammer is worried, as he is childless and has nobody to take care of his business except an old and confidential clerk named Eggerson, who also wants retirement but cannot neglect his master’s needs. The clerk is very reliable, plays important part in his master’s life and knows his every secret too. The old financier Sir Claude and his wife lady Elizabeth are childless but had children before their marriage. In order to solute his problem the master wants to adopt his illegitimate son Colby Simpkins, but without bringing the truth in Elizabeth’s knowledge, because he thinks that she would never approve Colby’s entry in the house with his real identity. They both make a plan to place Eggerson by Colby so that he could win her favor and later they would adopt him, because Colby’s real identity would never let develop a healthy relationship between his wife and son. He appointed Colby in Elizabeth’s absence and enjoys a talk with him. He loved to give shape to the wet soil but could no longer maintain his hobby as his father had wanted to see him as a financier. The ceramics creates a new world for him to escape into just to avoid the sordid and artificial world of reality. But due to his father’s design he had to atone his mind with the deeds of a financier. He was also aware of the lack of proper creativity in him. The decision of his father was right. He himself knew that he could never become a first-rate potter. But those pieces of ceramics have been the part of his inner spiritual and artistic life, so he has maintained them in a private room and often goes there to contemplate over them. Here Colby does not agree with his philosophy of submission, therefore, feels rebellious spirit inside, which rebukes and inspires him to go against such conditions. In fact, Colby finds him better in relation of a protective guardian than as a father with Claude. He does not believe in complete surrender to the external forces, so he is unhappy to have him as his father. K.S. Misra writes in this connection – “He is really not happy to have him for his father. Sir Claude has suffered to his failure to understand his father till it was too late.”⁴

                        The beginning of the act II shows Colby playing upon the piano after some weeks. Lucasta listens, appreciates his music and expresses a desire to learn it. They both share their highly intense feelings. Feeling emotionally weak, Lucasta reveals her secrets, her past and her fears before Colby. She knows that Colby is more strongly secure than her. His job gives him financial security while his ‘rose garden’ gives him mental relief. She reveals the reason behind her feeling insecure. She is an illegal daughter of Sir Claude and a woman of weak character who is also addicted to alcoholism and feels orphan because the woman died of an ‘accidental overdose’ and for her father, she is something he would prefer to forget. On looking at Colby’s face, she finds him fumbling for words so that he can express his disliking for her. She bursts and starts condemning it, as she has not been expecting this. She refuses to believe him and promises for not forgetting his despising expressions throughout her life. Being a self-respecting girl she cannot bear it. She assures him also for thinking about B. more clearly. Meanwhile Elizabeth enters and comments harshly. She suggests Colby also for maintaining a proper distance from them. While talking with him, she starts enquiring about his parentage and birth place. He tells her that he is orphan and has been brought up by his aunt Mrs. Sarah Guzzard at the place named Teddington near London. The names of Mrs. Guzzard and Teddington strike in her mind. When Sir Claude comes there she discloses a great mystery that, perhaps Colby is her lost child. She loved Tony before marriage and gave birth to a son. The responsibility of bringing the child up was given to some Mrs. Guzzard of Teddington near London at the regular allowance. Tony went to Africa and died in an accident. After his death Elizabeth tried her best to search for the child but failed as both these names had slipped away from her memory. But now after listening about them once again those incidents became refresh in her memory. Claude is disappointed to hear this and finds himself compelled to tell the truth to her. He tells about his relation with Mrs. Guzzard’s sister. When she was pregnant, he had to leave for Canada on a business trip. On coming back, he received the news that she was already dead leaving a newly born son behind in the lap of Mrs. Guzzard. He paid a regular allowance to Mrs. Guzzard for the good care of his son, but now he wanted to adopt his son, so has brought him here. Lady Elizabeth is not ready to accept it as she thinks that Mrs. Guzzard has invented the story so that he would satisfy her greed of money. They both are busy in their dispute without knowing that the present scenario is quite painful for the young clerk. After facing a vacuum in his mind during his childhood, he has forgotten both his father and the mother. He cannot accept them in both the current relationship, “He can love both of them, but as older friends, not as parents” ⁵. She says that a son cannot break the relation with his mother. He frankly admits that in his childhood he wanted a mother, who was never there. But now with the passage of time the relationship has died, and a new relationship cannot generate of a dead thing. He remains firm to know his real parents. Therefore, it is decided that Mrs. Guzzard will be invited to reveal the truth about Colby’s real identity.

                        Mrs. Guzzard comes to remove many confusions, and to solve the puzzles of many identities. She reveals that she and her husband were poor and childless, so took the responsibility of a child. They were getting regular payment through the third party but it stopped as the father of the child died leaving no information about any other relative. Being poor they could not bear the child’s responsibility so, they accepted the proposal when one of the neighbors, Kaghan’s, desired to adopt the child as they were childless. In this way B. Kaghan is revealed to be Elizabeth’s lost child. After completing her desire, she turns towards Lucasta and declares her the “wisest wisher” ⁶ among all. Colby expresses his desire to know about his parents. She puts two more questions to him- ‘whether he has any choice or preference for a mother or father?’ And ‘whose son he wishes to be, of Sir Claude or any other man?’ Colby replies that his mother should rest in peace but he would like to know about his father, whom he has never known. She reveals the greatest mystery of the play. He is her own son and his father was Mr. Herbert Guzzard, a disappointed organist. Though she was Colby’s mother, she chose to be his aunt only for the sake of Colby’s bright and financially secure future as she was helpless because her husband had already died before the birth of the child. Claude’s child was never born. Her sister was pregnant and her lover Claude was away in Canada because of some business trip. But her sister died without giving birth to any child. During the same period Mrs. Guzzard gave birth to her son Colby. Coming back, Claude reached home and developed a fancy for Colby that it was his son. Seeing his love for the child, Mrs. Guzzard could not reveal the truth of his son’s death. Although she had sent a message of her sister’s death but it never reached him. After the knowledge that he was a son of an unsuccessful musician, he decides to pursue the vocation of his father-music, knowing fully well that now he would get internal peace. Now there are left Lucasta, B. Kaghan, Sir Claude and Lady Elizabeth. All of them had never tried to understand one another, but now they all have reached at the point of proper understanding. Lady Elizabeth consoles her husband, shows love for Lucasta who promises to understand the old couple well. Here the play ends.

                        The play The Confidential Clerk centers round many themes and all characters contribute equally to the development of the theme. Although the theme deals mainly with the lives of Sir Claude and Colby Simpkins, yet without Elizabeth, Lucasta and Mrs. Guzzard the theme cannot communicate its full meaning. These women play a great role in the development of the theme. These are the most real women ever projected by Eliot. A close look over his previous plays shows that either he has been interested in protecting them like angels or as sinful characters. But as far as the female characters of this play are concerned, they all are the amalgamation of vices and virtues, and perfect to be called a “human.” They gradually develop and attain a victory over the weakness of their characters.

                        One of these three women is Lady Elizabeth, the wife of Sir Claud Mulhammer. Both of them do not have any legal child born out of their marital union. She despises Lucasta very much. B. Kaghan, fiancé of Lucasta is also victim of Elizabeth’s lack of interest. She does not consider them worth noticing. According to her, Lucasta does not want anything except money from Claude and Claude should also not take any interest in her except helping her in monetary affairs. She has a great reverence for her husband due to his business skill. Though she considers herself more efficient in the matter of “guidance”.

                        A close look into the marital relationship of this couple shows that the husband is weak enough to bow his head before his wife. He wants to adopt his own illegitimate son but can not do it directly. He is making a plan to hide the truth while the wife directly admits Colby as her son born out of her union with her lover Tony, before her marriage with Claude. The only difference is that Claude had more than one love affair before marriage while Elizabeth had only one. The husband is quite aware of his weakness and is always ready to accept them. While the lady knows how to turn the weakness in the quality. They both are not good judges of characters. The old lady believes upon the world of her own make believe which seems true to her. Lady Elizabeth was a perfect match for Sir Claude. He has always admired his wife for being “grande dame.” He had once accepted before Eggerson after returning from a lunch party, “I wanted a lady, and I’m perfectly satisfied with the bargain.” ⁷ She had possessed very influential connections because of her own family. Being a socialist Sir Claude has always been in profit due to her high class mannerism and good connections. She never enjoys the humour either of Eggerson or of B. She has, according to Eggerson little oddities which are quite simple and harmless in their nature. She has lapses of memory. She likes to travel more and more for the sake of her health. She likes to go abroad and to purchase houses there. It is very funny that after buying houses there she forgets about them. She is so forgetful. She has a great sense of etiquettes and mannerism. She shows herself very rigid kind of lady but has a very soft heart full of emotions. Actually, she is broken because of the lack of children in her life. Though she could not give proper love to Claude’s illegal daughter Lucasta but in the last she accepts the same girl as her own daughter-in-law. When the dispute regarding Colby’s identity arises, she makes a lot of inquiries to know the real identity of the young clerk, but later she becomes ready for compromises, which puts her in a new phase of her marital life. She never knew that Claude had a passion for pottery. But during the dispute regarding their separate claims upon Colby they for the first time develop an understanding for each other. She accepts “….Claude./I feel as if this brought us closer together.” ⁸ Claude tells her that he had a passion for Pottery but under the pressure of his father’s will he had to adopt the profession of a financier. She also acknowledges that she would have liked if she would have been able to inspire an artist in order to create new shapes. They both were full of delusions about each other. She thinks that actually she is not worth talking to Claude while Claude believes that Elizabeth’s interests are too deep to be discussed with him. They both were satisfied but were not happy. For the first time in their lives they talked openly. After knowing each other they both start their life with a new and mature understanding. They both have got their children back in true sense, so now they take more steps towards their neglected children. Thus the family reunites.

                        Another woman in the play is Miss Lucasta Angel. She is daughter of Claude born out of his union with a lady of low birth and loose character. Being illegitimate and of low birth, she is a source of shame for her father. Her mother had already died due to the “accidental overdose” of the wine. She belonged to the filthy areas of the city. After giving birth to Lucasta she makes her a source of income from her father. She used to collect a huge amount as an allowance for bringing up the girl from the father Claude. Although after her death, Claude took all the responsibilities of Lucasta but could never become her father. He never accepts her as a daughter rather she is a burden for him, which he has been carrying till her marriage. The world outside did not know the reality of their relation and considered her as a mistress of Claude.

                        She never cared for her job and has never been punctual about time and her work. But she has a good and jolly nature. She has a bad habit of taking money from others, sometimes she takes money from Eggerson and sometimes from B.Kaghan. She also gets a regular allowance from her father, but she is so great a spendthrift girl that she spends it in no time, and soon starts begging money from others. Therefore, she is always in debt. She does not show any respect for high class polished mannerism. She calls Eggerson as ‘Eggy’. Although Eggerson is very old and calls her ‘Miss Angel’. She does not love her father and always abuses him for the negligence he shows towards her. She sometimes calls her ‘Claude’ that is very harsh respectless expression from a daughter. Lady Elizabeth is also not an exceptional case as she is called as ‘Lizzie’ by her. Colby, a young man of refined tastes, feels shocked listening these distorted nick names from her mouth. When she sees Colby playing on the piano, she requests him to play for her and develops a taste for music and requests him to teach her music. “Will you play to me again/And teach me about music.” ⁹ She feels always insecure, so she casts wrong impressions about herself, Colby believes so. He thinks her so powerful character that she can teach him to play music in a better way. “I suspect that it’s you who are educating me.” ¹⁰ Lucasta is surprised to get this remark. He remarks that she is insecure from inside and in order to suppress the feeling of insecurity she presents false impression about herself. Actually she is very simple from inside but projects herself in a false manner. This kind of act has only been a kind of defense mechanism that she uses in order to defend herself. She sharply reacts only in the most insecure condition to show herself quite safe and confident. Colby makes it very clear to her-

         You’re afraid of what would happen if you left things to themselves.

You jump-because you’re afraid of being pushed.

I think that you’re brave-and I think that you’re frightened.

Perhaps you’ve been very badly hurt, at some time.

Or at least, there may have been something in your life.

To rob you of any sense of security¹¹

                        Actually, she is insecure because she has nobody to support her socially. Her father is not ready to accept her as his legal daughter. The condition is so distorted that most of the people consider her a mistress of Claude. At the same time lady Elizabeth hates her due to her husband’s illegal relations with Lucasta’s mother. She sees nobody in whom she can put her trust. Therefore, not only she spreads false impressions about her. She bitterly despises the dirty community of which her mother was a member. She hates the atmosphere where she lived as a child. She also wants to create the music which only she can hear and have the flowers which only she could smell but unluckily she does not have it. She feels jealous of Colby’s garden. K.S.Misra writes that Lucasta “envies his ‘garden’, which is, of course, his inner world that nobody else can share.” ¹² She wants to enter there but Colby denies entry to anybody. His guests must come themselves and he should not get the idea of anybody’s arrival there. This is the point where Lucasta feels herself fully acquainted with Colby. In fact, she is a good judge of character. When she hears about her creating false impressions about herself, she at once reaches to the conclusion that he also has a sense of insecurity. But his insecurity is different from that of hers. He has his own inner world, his ‘garden’ to save him from that insecurity but she does not have anything like that. She reveals her true identity before Colby, who is really shocked to see her as his half-sister. She is shattered but the same disappointment gives birth to her sense of self-respect. Colby has insulted her feelings of love by giving her despising looks, but being a self-respecting lady, she shouts at him and recognizes the importance and place of B. in her own life. “I may be a bastard, but I have some self-respect. /Well, there’s always B…….”¹³. The most influential characteristic of Lucasta angel is her power of judging the characters and situations well. Although Claude never discloses his future plans regarding her, yet she knows them all, that in order to get rid of her, he wants to get her married very soon. This idea does not come out of his sense of duty rather out of his lack of interest in his own daughter. When she reveals her plan of marrying B. to Claude, he shows no surprise as he had already settled it in his own mind. She starts shouting at him out of her anger. She believes it is not Claude’s love or sense of duty towards her, rather it is only a way to send her away from his life. She knows that the situations help to understand the others well. Different situations define the characters in the true ways. She would not have understood B truly if she had not been despised by Colby. “But I’m grateful to Colby. But for Colby/I’d never have come to appreciate B.” ¹⁴ Though she does not know the reason behind Colby’s shocked condition but she realizes that the best match for her is B Kaghan because only “B. can give her the kind of security she needs.” ¹⁵

                        Eliot has portrayed her as an intelligent and sensitive woman who imbibes the capacity to make introspection of the characters. He presents her in positive image at the close of the novel as she makes clear decisions and is desirous to own the responsibility of the same. Her judgment about the young clerk is quite appropriate. K.S. Misra appreciates this quality of hers. “Lucasta is quite right in her appraisal of Colby’s nature and character.” ¹⁶ She is wise enough to make the right choice and wish for so perfect that she would never feel the need to turn it in future. Therefore, Mrs. Guzzard calls her “The wisest wisher”. ¹⁷ But it had not been easy to achieve this perfect wisdom. She had to go through a long chain of painful experiences to reach at this height of prudence. David E. Jones also accepts “But she has not come to this wisdom easily. It is Colby who has helped her to it. Sensing her insecurity, he has pierced the mark she presents to the world in self-defense.” ¹⁸ It is very good on Lucasta’s part that in the beginning of the play she did not have any relation in her life. But up to the ending she gets every relation back. She feels the warmth of the love of her father, mother-in-law, and B. Kaghan at the end of the play. Claude’s dialogue “Don’t leave me Lucasta” ¹⁹ assures her of his selfless love, security and protection and also demands the same from her.

                        The third female is Mrs. Sarah Guzzard. Although she appears for a little time in the last act of the play physically, yet her unseen presence can be felt throughout the play. She is introduced as the aunt of Colby who has brought him up. For this work she has been paid a handsome amount by Claude regularly. She has relation with everybody except Lucasta and Eggerson. She has been called at the request of Colby who wants to know about his real parentage. She is a kind-hearted lady, who has enough sympathy for Eggerson and Lady Elizabeth, who have lost their sons as she can easily feel their pain due to the loss of her own son though not in the same way like those of Eggerson and Elizabeth. She wishes heartily that Elizabeth’s son might be restored to her. She and her husband were very poor and childless. So they took responsibility of bringing a child up who was none other than Elizabeth’s son, who was later adopted by her childless neighbors, the Kaghans. Mrs.Guzzard and her husband were very religious. They did not know whether the child had been baptized or not. Even then they baptized it in the Church and named the Child-Barnabas, after the name of St. Barnabas in whose church they had got married.

                        In fact, Mrs.Guzzard is a self-sacrificing lady. She gave birth to a son but before his birth her husband had died. She was very poor and fundless. Her sister was also pregnant but died before giving birth to Claude’s child. Although the message containing the news of her death was sent to him by Sarah Guzzard but it never reached him. After coming back Claude saw a little child in home who was Sarah’s child – Colby. Claude took it as his own son. He started loving and kissing the child passionately. Seeing his love Sarah did not feel enough courage to disclose the truth to him that actually his son never took birth. She did not want to deceive him but seeing his love for the child and her own inability to bring the child up well due to poverty, compelled her to keep the truth hidden. She knew that Guzzard’s son will not get a bright future but Claude’s son will get every comfort in his life. Therefore, she assured Claude that the child belonged to him only. Claude could not take the child with him, so she was given the responsibility of it. She had the fear that Claude would ask about the birth certificate of the child but he never did. Her arrival in the third act reveals many secrets, Claude declares her story, a mere fiction. But Claude is wrong because “She once made a great sacrifice by giving up her own claim to the child, now she makes a greater sacrifice by undoing all that she has done for the child since Colby choose to have freedom. Colby at once believes in Mrs. Guzzard’s statement because this act of faith grants him his liberation.” ²⁰ She answers Claude very patiently, that the present sentences would easily destroy her most desired wish of Colby’s bright future. Now after the revelation of truth Claude would deny of bearing the responsibilities of Colby, for which she had decided to become the aunt, though she was the real mother to the child. The decision before twenty-five years had been the murder of her all the motherly love, care rights and duties. Only for Colby’s proper upbringing and financially secured life she had destroyed the most divine achievement of her life. Later there was no sense in destroying her own sacrifice made in the past. How could she do that by her own hands? She knew that her truth would destroy not only her previous sacrifice but also make her son deprived of all those facilities, he was enjoying as Claude’s son. She makes quite clear to Claude-

                        Consider, Sir Claude would I tell you all this

                        Unless it was true? In telling you the truth.

                        I am sacrificing my ambition for Colby.

                        I am sacrificing also my previous sacrifices. ²¹

                        For, a real mother it is not easy to consider her own child as it belongs to others. But she did it. Her own child used to call her aunt. Every moment she felt pain at every call of her own child who called her ‘aunt’, but she never told him anything. When she made the choice for the same, she actually gave up the pleasure of being a mother. She could never have it back in her life. She says, “When I gave up my place as Colby’s mother? /I give up something I could never have back.” ²² She was already broken but the present situation shattered her completely. It destroyed her completely.

Don’t you understand that this revelation

                        Drives the knife deeper and twists it in the wound? ²³

                        Colby desires her mother to rest in peace. So she decides for the same and leaves for Teddington, leaving her all the possession- Colby behind. Before many years she told a lie and purchased every comfort for her child, and now by the revelation of the truth, she lost the same child once again for whom she sacrificed her motherhood.

                        In fact, she plays the role of a ‘fairy’ who has the power to complete the wishes of all the characters but at the condition that whatever would be given, they will have to accept it without uttering a single word. Elizabeth wants her son back and gets her real son B. back in her life. Colby’s wish is also fulfilled as he wanted to be the son of a dead and obscure man. He was the son of a disappointed musician, an obscure man, who had already died before his birth. She calls Lucasta the ‘wisest wisher’ and consoles Claude and herself that they had got their wishes completed before twenty-five years. The pain can easily be felt in her speech “I had a child and lost him. Not in the way/ That lady Elizabeth’s child was lost.” ²⁴ The later had lost her child somewhere but the former had herself lost or gave up her child as she declared her own child as the son of Sir Claude and her own sister. Actually she “mothered, a foster child belonging to Sir Claude and found in him solace for the deaths of those close to her.” ²⁵ Being a liar, she possesses a negative trait in the character but this is wrong assessment. Mrs. Guzzard told a lie but under the compulsion of her son’s well bringing up and bright future. She is also considered eccentric who at once turned truth into lie and later she herself turned the same lie into truth. But on examining the situation one can easily feel the pain of her heart. She told a lie and then spoke the truth but not for her comfort but the bright future of her son. Her revelation abolishes her all the sins. “She has been a liar, and if she truth full now, she has suddenly become eccentric. For a quarter of a century she has been committing a punishable crime for money and just at the moment of greatest reward, for herself, her son, and the man, she has been swindling, she throws away the whole game.” ²⁶ She is one of the most sacrificing mothers projected in literature throughout the world. She and Sir Claude had their wishes many years before but failed badly to observe them fully. Those wishes had a time-limitation, and now the time has ended. She says-

                        You, and I, sir Claude,

                        Had our wishes twenty-five years ago;

                        But we failed to observe, when we had our wishes

                        That there was a time-limit clause in the contract. ²⁷

                        Therefore, with the ending of the time limit, those wishes are also ended. After all the settlements Colby chooses to go to Joshua Park as an organ player. He seeks the spiritual father in Eggerson who also “Cultivates his own garden, who is at peace with himself and his God.”²⁸

                        Thus in The Confidential Clerk, T. S. Eliot presents positive image of women. After applying the touchstone of E.M. Forster, they can be categorized as ‘round’ characters, as they do not remain static but grow develop and turn out to be entirely different characters at the end of the drama. Elizabeth, a peevish, domineering and snobbish woman comes out as a sensitive and mature person with the power of understanding and reconciliation. Lucasta with her fine judgment of characters take most appropriate decision to follow her heart. Mrs. Guzzard, a poor widow without anybody to support her, is one who has supported herself till date with a ‘lie’ that Colby was Sir Claude’s son has been presented by Eliot most dazzling character-she sacrifices everything, all the hopes for a happy future, love, respect and attention and speaks the truth when the situation demands so. Thus, to conclude the credit should go to T.S. Eliot for creating these positive women character with immense possibilities.

REFERENCES

1. John Beaufort, The Confidential Clerk on Broadway, Christian Science Monitor, (February 20, 1954), p. 16.
2. Sheila Sullivan, Critics on T.S., Eliot (London’s George Allen and Unwin, 1973), p. 107.
3. B.B.C. “Critics on the Air” quoted in K.S. Misra, Twentieth Century English Poetic Drama, op. cit., p. 193.
4. S. Misra, Twentieth Century English Poetic Drama: A Revaluation, op. cit., p. 206.
5. Ibid, p. 206.
6. S. Eliot, The Confidential Clerk, (London: Faber & Faber), p.124.
7. Ibid, p. 25.
8. Ibid, p. 82.
9. Ibid, p. 47.
10. Ibid, p. 48.
11. Ibid, p. 50.
12. S. Misra, Twentieth Century English Poetic Drama: A Revaluation, op. cit., p. 215.
13. S. Eliot, The Confidential Clerk, op. cit., p. 61.
14. Ibid, p. 97.
15. David E. Jones, The Plays of T.S. Eliot, (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1960), p. 169.
16. S. Eliot, The Confidential Clerk, op. cit., p. 215.
17. Ibid, p. 124.
18. David E. Jones, The Plays of T.S. Eliot, cit., p. 168.
19. S. Eliot, The Confidential Clerk, op. cit., p. 135.
20. Subhash Sarkar, S. Eliot: The Dramatist, (Calcutta: The Minerva Associates, 1972), p. 211.
21. S. Eliot, The Confidential Clerk, op. cit., p. 128.
22. Ibid, p. 128.
23. Ibid, p. 128.
24. Ibid, p. 110.
25. Grover Smith, S. Eliot’s Poetry and Plays, (London: The University of Chicago Press, 1956), p. 242.
26. Ibid, p. 242.
27. S. Eliot, The Confidential Clerk, op. cit., p 134.
28. S. Eliot quoted in Wilkinson, New York Times, (February 7, 1954, Sec. II), p. 3, Vol. 4