<P> In 1951, in the first Theodore Spencer Memorial Lecture at Harvard University, Eliot criticised his own plays, specifically Murder in the Cathedral, The Family Reunion, and The Cocktail Party . Eliot regarded The Family Reunion as seriously flawed for reasons that may be summarised as follows: </P> <Ul> <Li> The play is badly paced, coming to an excessively abrupt conclusion after "an interminable amount of preparation ." </Li> <Li> The Greek elements are not successfully integrated into the work: <Ul> <Li> the attempt to portray the House of Monchensey as a British House of Atreus poisoned to its roots by sins both recent and long ago fails either to stick closely to Aeschylus or to venture far enough away from him, and so remains marooned in an artistic no man's land </Li> <Li> the attempt to transform the aunts and uncles into a Greek chorus is unsuccessful </Li> <Li> the Furies are a failure, as they look like uninvited guests from a fancy dress ball </Li> </Ul> </Li> <Li> It is hard for an audience to sympathise with a hero who renounces his mother, his house and his heritage for the spiritual life, when he is plainly, in Eliot's words, "an insufferable prig ." </Li> </Ul> <Li> The play is badly paced, coming to an excessively abrupt conclusion after "an interminable amount of preparation ." </Li> <Li> The Greek elements are not successfully integrated into the work: <Ul> <Li> the attempt to portray the House of Monchensey as a British House of Atreus poisoned to its roots by sins both recent and long ago fails either to stick closely to Aeschylus or to venture far enough away from him, and so remains marooned in an artistic no man's land </Li> <Li> the attempt to transform the aunts and uncles into a Greek chorus is unsuccessful </Li> <Li> the Furies are a failure, as they look like uninvited guests from a fancy dress ball </Li> </Ul> </Li>

Theme of the play the family reunion by eliot