A major theme of Eliot’s work is the difficulty of genuine and lasting human connection. Connection can be based on a positive (love) or a negative (guilt). The thesis of this essay is that certain shared actions constitute a tie that binds―especially shared actions that have been concealed, secrets kept between two guilty parties. Complicity in such actions binds partners together socially, psychologically, and morally. “Friendships” based on shared secret sins last for a lifetime; they can be denied, but they cannot be nullified, and finally, they must be acknowledged in public. In The Elder Statesman, crime, sex, and blood (family) are the ties that bind.

• Jewel Spears Brooker(Eckerd College)