Analysis --> Quote

Question 1

The bathos is indicative of Prufrock’s alienation, his inability to extract meaning or fulfilment from everyday life when everyone else is complacent. Life seems to happen ‘around’ prufrok and he seems unable to engage with it. This may come about as the modern perspective that city, urban life is superficial and lacks humanity or character. This theme of inertia is carried throughout preludes, rhapsody and the hollow men.

Answer 1

“In the room the women come and go\ talking of Michelangelo”

Question 2

The Synecdoche provides a heightened sense of alienation. It does this by only providing a part to represent the whole, reflecting the seemingly incomplete and insufficient nature of modern life. It is symbolic of the dehumanisation of the modern city.

Answer 2

“And time for all the works and days of hands\that lift and drop a question on your plate”

Question 3

Prufrock, here, embodies the modern persona of the ‘flaneur’, a contradictory and ironic character in the sense that he considers himself above his surroundings (pretends to perceive them holistically, objectively) and yet does not dare disturb their power. It comments on social reforms & expectations in the modern era being too pretentious and thereby socially binding.

Answer 3

“Do I dare disturb the universe?”

Question 4

The magic lantern (an allusion to an EEG) is a metaphor for the stream of consciousness, a structural device of much interest in Eliot’s context. He argues that the mind needs a new form to accurately represent the complexity of thought/meaning. This responds to the increase of secularism and scientific understanding in his context.

Answer 4

“But as if a magic lantern threw the nerves in patterns across the screen”

Question 5

This passage is symbolic of Prufrock’s ultimate concluding image of himself, and his portal of voice is pessimistic and powerful, which evokes a sense of pity. Prufrock determines that even in the imagined and mythical realm of mermaids does not provide an escape from Prufrock’s alienation from the modern world, “they will not sing to me” means that they will not offer him the mercy of their fatal illusions.

Answer 5

“I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each. I do not think they will sing to me”

Question 6

In conjunction with an ongoing motif of edible pleasantries, the paradox of this statement is that it expresses how microscopically contemplated prufrock’s life is, and yet even with that information, he still is plagued with paralysis. This reflects a paradox that exists in wider modern society; that even with an increased scientific understanding, and such elaborate and deliberate social reforms (like coffee or cakes) less meaning can be inferred for the human person.

Answer 6

“I have measured out my life with coffee spoons”

Question 7

Trivial interactions of everyday life are reduced through synecdoche, and no amount of reflection will ever amount to action.

Answer 7

“And for a hundred visions and revisions, before the taking of a toast and tea.”

Question 8

Bathos hints at the irony of the title, preludes leading to what? There seems to be hints of human action but no humanity. Contributes to fragmentation. Tone captures grim, isolated, alienated, malaise sense of listlessness.

Answer 8

“A lonely cab-horse steams and stamps. And then the lighting of the lamps”

Question 9

Highlights anonymity of urbanity. It contrasts romanticist thinking (like wordsworth) and plays on the motif of the mechanical representation of modernity as a continuation of the day before, no uniqueness or spontaneousness.

Answer 9

“In a thousand furnished rooms”

Question 10

Imagery of modern theatre creates a dream like atmosphere; superficial and meaningless. It represents the human consciousness as a never ceasing construct that flows continuously and randomly.

Answer 10

“The thousand sordid images\of which your soul was constituted”

Question 11

Birds are a symbol of freedom and the human soul/spirit (like in the gospels) but this image places them in the gutters, an unnatural habitat for them contributing to a displaced and disconnected image that resonates with the notion of humanity being displaced in large urban cities.

Answer 11

“And you heard the sparrows in the gutters”

Question 12

Fragments of humanity but no full human. Contributes to fragmented feel of the poem. Satirises the rise in fake news and information/propaganda that may have risen due to globalisation/melodramatic publishing agencies.

Answer 12

“And short square fingers stuffing pipes, and evening newspapers, and eyes\assured of certain certainties.”

Question 13

Circulatory imagery demonstrates that the poem leads nowhere. This hints at the irony of the title preludes to be a prelude to nothing. This creates a sense of disillusionment and comments therefore on the pretentious nature of modern life.

Answer 13

“The worlds revolve like ancient women\gathering fuel in vacant lots”

Question 14

Idea that life is inextricably linked to theatre, that people put on a mask and that most experiences are superficial.

Answer 14

“With the other masquerades that time resumes”

Question 15

The simile references a geranium, a traditionally resilient flower used extensively in romanticist poems. No romantic ideas left, no meaning left in nature.

Answer 15

“As a madman shakes a dead geranium”

Question 16

The involvement of music in the poem suggests an inevitable return to habit. This develops the characterisation of the street lamp.

Answer 16

“Every street lamp that I pass beats like a fatalistic drum”

Question 17

Two motifs appear here: The moon and memory, which are linked.

Eliot was influenced by Bergson’s idea of habitual memory. The way that he objectifies memory here is a link to the role of memory influencing our perception of objective reality. By doing this he responds to the way in which the ontological ground shifts in the modern world, with the allusion to the moon illustrating a shift from rationality to irrationality (characteristic of modernist art).

The motif of the moon is carried throughout rhapsody. It is almost romantic, and it holds a certain mystery (magic) about it. Eliot uses the symbolism of the moon to illustrate how habit is dissolved through i’s mystery, maybe hinting to the importance of mystery in the modern world to shape and promulgate meaning. This could therefore be responding to the rise in secularism and scientific understanding.

Answer 17

“Whispering lunar incantations dissolve the floors of memory”

Question 18

Symbolic of human memory to associate seemingly disconnected images with each other. The eaten smooth twisted branch is symbolic of humanity; humanity has no sustenance, no character left, nothing to protect it. As if the modern world has corroded away any protection to expose humanity in its true form, as represented in the modern world.

Answer 18

“A twisted branch upon the beach\eaten smooth, as if the world gave up\the secret of its skeleton”

Question 19

Eyes are considered the windows to the human soul. By portraying an innocent child to have nothing behind their eye, Elliot creates a sense of purposelessness and soullessness because their innocence is dislocated through social constructs.

Answer 19

“I could see nothing behind that child’s eye”

Question 20

After fighting to detach from reality (moon and such) returning to its vacantness is equivalent to death, argues Eliot, and to heighten the effect of this commentary he uses a hyperbolic anticlimax.

Answer 20

“The last twist of the knife”

Question 21

Allusion to French symbolism. Images in this passage mix and blur in a “lunar logic” devoid of the standard discourse of routine (habitual Memory). The moon is forgiving, but it sees everything. It lacks intrinsic value.

Answer 21

“La lune ne garde aucune rancune”

Question 22

Pathetic fallacy juxtaposes summer and winter, symbolises a transition between lifestyles: a conversion.

Answer 22

“The very dead of winter… the summer palaces on slopes, the terraces”

Question 23

The rejection of the traditional biblical archetypal narrative of angels singing and encouraging the three wise men to visit Jesus fragments the magi from modern society, as well as from their own context. This contributes to their own personal sense of alienation.

Answer 23

“With the voices singing in our ears, saying that this was all folly”

Question 24

The biblical allusions to baptism symbolise an awakening and rebirth for the magi and that despite their context’s misgivings, they might still be able to find hope and meaning though this journey/conversion. The allusion to the three crosses contributes to the anachronisms of the poem. The anachronisms may be there to: Disorientate the reader, alienate the magus or represent God’s power as transcendent of time.

Answer 24

“With a running stream… And three trees in a low sky”

Question 25

This is an allusion to Judas’s betrayal, fragmenting him, and contributing to the theme of replacement. Question is asked: Why does Eliot allow us to interpret allusions but not the Magi? Is it to argue that literary knowledge is equal to faith? Is it to make us determine that the search for meaning is inward rather than outward, against what the modern world suggests?

Answer 25

“Six hands at an open door dicing for pieces of silver”

Question 26

The enjambment portrays an informal voice that evokes a temporal shift to build anticipation for an epiphany or sudden realisation.

Answer 26

“And I would do it again, but set down-this set down-this:”

Question 27

The philosophical rhetorical question is used to evoke reflection in the reader to realise that rebirth of oneself, and their community, requires the death of old self, habits and obsessions. This parallels TS Eliot’s own experience with modernism.

Answer 27

“Were we led all this way for birth or death?”

Question 28

Voice changes to convey reflection in the magi to realise that rebirth of oneself, and their community, requires the death of old self, habits and obsessions. This parallels TS Eliot’s own experience with modernism.

Answer 28

“I should be glad of another death”

Question 29

Intertextual allusion to ‘a heart of darkness’. Demonstrates how through British colonialism and the social constructs associated with it, people are dehumanised. Seen through the impartibility of the character to the death of another character.

The exclamatory remark “Alas!” is rendered impotent by the end of the next line “when”. This symbolises the inertia and indecisive nature of the hollow men and sets the voice for the rest of the poem. Contributes to fragmentation.

Half rhyme contributes to fragmentation, creates a broken, chant-like, yet disordered voice. The objective correlatives instil a sense of passive, meaningless moments to characterise the Hollow Men.

Answer 29

“Mistah Kurtz- He dead.
A penny for the old guy

We are the hollow men, 
We are the stuffed men, 
Headpeice filled with straw. Alas!
Our dried voices, when
We whisper together
are quiet and meaningless,
as wind in dry grass, 
or rats feet over broken glass, 
in our dried cellar."

Question 30

The irony here is that the hollow men seem to be fully conscious of their inability to act or contribute meaningfully to society or to themselves, and yet refuse to change anything. They instead wear disguises to mask who they really are, which is apparently nothingness, and hence the disguises conceal nothing.

Answer 30

“Let me also wear\such deliberate disguises”

Question 31

The wind is random and has no direction or purpose. This perfectly resembles the Hollow Men, and contributes to their characterisation. This level of passivity has seemed to have been caused by many modern niches.

Answer 31

“Behaving as the wind behaves-no nearer”

Question 32

The inability of the hollow men to love manifests itself with a disconnect between the hollow men and God. The stretching and yearning for connection is re-dispersed as a spiritual connection with a false God.

Answer 32

“Lips that would kiss\form prayers to broken stone”