"The Significance of Unity of Being" in Thomas Stearns Eliot's Play The Confidential Clerk

Abstract

Thomas Stearns Eliot has dramatized the age of loneliness, fragmentation, dislocation and desperation in the playTheConfidential Clerk.Most of the characters in the play,ColbySimpkin , Sir Claude Mulhammer,B.Kaghan, Lady Elizabeth Mulhammer and Lucasta Angel suffer from loneliness, dislocationand fragmentation. Colby, oneofthemajor characters of the play around whom theplayrevolves, suffers from disharmony between his profession and vocation. Vocationally he wants to be an organist of the church. But for his livelihood (professionally)he has been compelled to be a confidential clerk of Sir Claude. Moreover Colby, Lady Elizabeth and Kaghan donot know their parents and relatives. Now thequestion is:in spite of their suffering how do they exist meaningfully?What this research probes into. Colby's keen desire (free will) to be a musician in the play is the key to initiate the unity within self, within the family and with the Divine. For the meaningful existence, all the characters struggle alot. In the end of the play, unityin the family is maintained. Moreover, all the characters have religious faith. Unityin the family means unity in the world. Whenever thereisunity in the world,peace, harmony, co-operation, co-existence and brotherhood can be maintained.