The intolerable wrestle with words and meanings: John 21, TS Eliot and the sense of an ending

This article is an exploration of the relationship between the endings of John’s Gospel and T. S. Eliot’s Little Gidding, in the light of some of the ideas in Frank Kermode’s The Sense of an Ending. Of particular interest is the way the final sections of both texts seek to change the mindset of their readers by their re-use and re-interpretation of words and images which are familiar from earlier in the texts. It is suggested that both point to new beginnings rather than closed finalities.