In a London Drawingroom Flashcards
‘Yellowed by the smoke’
The miasma caused by pollution seems diseased – it is ‘yellow’ which has connotations of sickness and decay, evoking a bilious tone. There is also a sense of cloudiness or blindness, implying that people in London will remain blind to industrialisation’s destructive effects. Smoke becomes a symbol of moral and physical corruption, reinforcing the city’s decay.
‘The world seems one huge prison house’
This suggests that we have placed man-made constraints upon ourselves, and caused our own misery, implies self-imposed suffering, evoking ideas of corruption within humanity. It implies we suffer from a lack of freedom that we have inflicted upon ourselves, and that there is no innocence left in the world. Reinforcing a bleak, dystopian view of the world, possibly alluding to humanity’s moral decline.
“No bird can make a shadow”
Birds have connotations of freedom and purity, so this suggests that we are stripping the natural world of its purity and innocence, suggesting humanity has overshadowed nature, suffocating its harmony and beauty. A darkness hangs over the Earth and suggests
that we have created an impossible living condition. This is a criticism of our disconnection from nature and detachment from nature’s intrinsic value
