A Study Guide for T. S. Eliot's "Family Reunion"

By Gale and Cengage

A Study Guide for T. S. Eliot's "Family Reunion," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Drama For Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Drama For Students for all of your research needs.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Cengage Learning - Gale
• Release date: Aug 12, 2016
• ISBN: 9781535823098

Book preview

11

The Family Reunion

T. S. Eliot

1939

Introduction

Although T. S. Eliot's literary reputation largely rests on his poetry, he was also a well-known and respected playwright. Eliot's The Family Reunion, which is centered on the character of Henry Monchensey and his strained relationships with his family, is on one level a mystery play, as family members attempt to uncover the secrets related to the death of Henry's wife. At the same time, the play operates as a psychological drama, as Eliot explores what appears to be Henry's insanity. Eliot further incorporates supernatural elements that may be regarded either as signifiers of madness, or as actual spirits haunting various family members. These elements include ghosts, as well as the Eumenides, or the Greek deities associated with vengeance. The event around which the play is centered is Henry's homecoming, timed to correspond with his ailing, elderly mother's birthday. As family secrets are revealed, Henry's own emotional pain is exposed and examined by some family members, and disregarded by others. At the play's end, Henry resolves to leave his family and confront his personal demons. His mother dies after his departure. Through the course of the drama, Eliot explores the intertwining nature of isolation, madness, and guilt, and offers philosophical explorations on the nature of existence and reality. Although the title of the play suggests unity, the family is fractured as a group, and the individual members are isolated.

Originally published in 1939, The Family Reunion is available in a 1964 edition published by Harcourt Brace.

Author Biography

Eliot was born on September 26, 1888, in St. Louis, Missouri, the seventh child of Charlotte Champe Stearns Eliot and Henry Ware Eliot. His mother was a schoolteacher and poet, his father a merchant. An early interest in writing led to the 1905 publication of his first poetry in his school magazine. Eliot earned his bachelor's and master's degrees from Harvard in 1909 and 1911. He traveled in Europe and then returned to Harvard to pursue a doctoral degree.

In 1914, Eliot was studying at Oxford University when World War I began. The following year he married his first wife, Vivienne Haigh-Wood. In 1915, Eliot published his first major poem, The Love Song of J. Alfred Pru-frock, which was followed two years later by his first poetry collection, Prufrock and Other Observations.

Eliot worked as a teacher