Eli이 wrote the unfinished drama, Sweeney Agonistes: Fragments 01 the Aristophanic Me/odrama after The Waste Land and just before bis Christian conversion. He himself put the subtitle of ‘melodrama’ in it in 1932 and later published tbis poem under the group of “Unfinished Poems," which proves the writer’s intricate intention and concerns for this work. In spite of bis thoughtful cODsideratioDs, this work has not much appealed to the public and the scholars as might be expected. This article is to discover the significance of this work as a preparatory step for Eliot’s later works. The survey of tbe experimental strategies of Sweeney Agonistes: Fragments 01 the Aristophanic Me/odrama has revealed an important fact that Eliot wrote this work as an experimenlal ground for Ihe effeclive delivering of his theme to the public. For tbis purpose be has attempted some stylistic aids from both genres, poetη and drama, in this work. Firsl of all, Eliot utilizes the epigrapbs by introducing two representative perspectives on sin and redemption, the heathen Hellenic and the Christian, and implies the themes of his later works would focus on the latter one, that is, the spirilual exploration of Chrislianity. AIso be adopts one of the dramatic devices, the doubleness, whicb is to proceed witb two patterns of life in one work, the superficial daily one and the deep spiritual one, at the same time. Practically, Eliot shows the life of tbe 1920’s American low class in the first fragment of “A Prologue" while the next fragment of “An Agon" presents the under-pattern of the spiritual awakening tbrough tbe main character, Sweeney, with the invilalion of Doris to the he cannibal island to convert her. To use the advantages of the poetic form, EJi이 adopts musicaJ methods such as the jazz accompaniment and the chorus, which not onJy make up the compressed content of the pJay but derive the unconscious, immediate emotionaJ e따cts from the public even in the ignorance of the spirituaJ meaning of death and Iife. EJiot is aJso foJJowing the ruJes of the meJodrama such as the coincidence and the deJaying of the conclusion. In the work, Doris is obsessed by the idea of coincidence about her affairs and this work ends with Sweeney’s mlsslon as a missionary unfulfilled, which should be continually pursued in Eliot's later works.

• 김명옥(한국외대) | Myong-Ok Kim