Mod B Flashcards
Intro - Thesis
Humanity fiends for knowledge, often manifesting as a hunger for spiritual experiences to provide purpose; thus, composers mould texts to reflect on personal and societal quests to understand human existence.
Intro - Point
T.S. Eliot exemplifies this in his organically unified poetry, aligning with the process of living by thought to reflect and oppose the uncertainty of modern society, satisfying humanity’s hunger for an integral understanding of human existence.
Intro - Context
Drawing on his contextual concerns for the encroaching immorality of secular modernisation and political turmoil surrounding WWI, Eliot forms a nuanced collection reflective of his varying pessimistic, existential, and religious ideologies.
Intro - Link
Eliot’s poetry effectively provides an accessible medium to reflect humanity’s spiritual hunger, prompting audiences’ critical engagement with universal human experiences surrounding MODERNISATION, COMMUNITY, and SPIRITUALISM.
P1 - Thesis
Disorder stems from the socio-cultural implications of industrialisation, thus igniting discourse upon humanity’s inclination to surrender spiritual hunger for enlightenment in hopes of material gain.
P1 - Context
As such, Eliot constructs his texts to break away from the pastoral tradition of Romantic poetry, positioning the audience to consider his concerns for encroaching urbanisation in the 20th century, exuding industrial monotony, squalor, and secular detachment.
P1 - Evidence 1
He expresses such concern in The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock (TLSOJAP) in his repetitive description of society’s pretension, “Women come and go/ Talking of Michelangelo”, employing the rhyming couplet to replicate the disengaging rhythm of modern society, prompting consideration of industrialisation’s effect on authentic individualism and human connection.
P1 - Evidence 2
Elliot further expands on urbanisation’s shallow nature in Rhapsody on a Windy Night (ROAWN) by exploring its negative implications on the metaphysical world. His atrophic personification, “The moon had lost her memory […] She is alone”, imbues the celestial Luna image with human attributes of memory and loneliness, igniting understanding of humanity’s estrangement from their spirituality.
P1 - Evidence 3
This is extrapolated within TLSOJP’s intertextual links to The Odyssey, aligning with Eric Hayot’s Theory of World Construction by amplifying the natural world. Eliot constructs the symbolism of “Mermaids singing[…] riding seawards[…] till human voices wake us, and we drown.” to highlight the social and spiritual fragmentation stemming from the unattainable expectations of modern society.
P1 - Evidence 4
ROAWN’s alludes to the solution in the imagist rhyming couplet, “Prepare for life/ The last twist of the knife”, constructing the pessimistic rhyme scheme to symbolise death’s subtle allure as the sole escape from industrialisation’s insatiable appetite.
P1 - Link
Thus, Eliot draws on humanity’s spiritual and social disconnect to prompt the audience’s consideration of the hostility of modern society, promoting his Anglican belief that the human experience is fundamentally defined by suffering and cruelty in the plight of salvation.
P2 - Thesis
Simultaneously, modernisation is characterised by the rapid influx of ideologies in the universal plight for success, promoting conflicting secular and religious values amidst individual and collective strife.
P2 - Context
With the rising disillusionment, secularity, and perceived moral decline of the 1910s and 20s, Eliot’s poetry forms pessimistic reflections on the conflicting social and religious ideologies stemming from the fragmentation of community and connection amidst the socio-political tensions of WWI.
P2 - Evidence 1
The consequential suppression of individuality is symbolised in TLSOJAP’s allusion to masquerades, “prepare a face to meet the faces”, as authentic connection is diminished by collective masking.
P2 - Evidence 2
As such, Eliot employs high-modality language, “His hair is growing thin!” to consolidate vacuous superficiality fragmenting society within the binaries of Egoism and Religiosity.
P2 - Evidence 3
These conflicting spiritual and social binaries are expanded in his biblical reformation, The Journey of the Magi (TJOTM), as he reflects on the paradoxical nature of religious affiliation. His pessimistic tone and elongated syntax describing the “satisfactory” plight parallels modern weariness with the arduous journey of the Magi, validating the audience’s struggle to transcend the isolation of contemporary society.
P2 - Evidence 4
This fatigued tone is juxtaposed with distracting imagery of “silken girls bringing sherbert”, employing sibilance to emphasise the trancelike hedonism deteriorating traditional community.
P2 - Evidence 5
Yet, by drawing on the allegory of faith, “Alien people clutching their gods”, Eliot emphasises his struggle to connect socially, utilising the oxymoronic statement “I should be glad of another death” to convey his intrinsic disappointment in contemporary society.
P2 - Link
Thus, Eliot constructs his poetry to navigate humanity’s tense plight for connection within modern society, reflecting his paradoxical struggle between spiritual escapism and the arduous uncertainty of enlightenment.
P3 - Thesis
With such conflicting internal and external ideologies, humanity is inclined to satisfy its spiritual hunger by drawing on religiosity to confront and transcend the fraught tensions of modernity.
P3 - Context
As the 20th century witnessed the rise of secular capitalism, Eliot’s poetry shifted from Unitarian undertones to explicit Anglo-Catholic portrayals of faith, doubt, and spiritual transformation to cope with surrounding socio-political turmoil.
P3 - Evidence 1
Thereby, Eliot expanded his religious dogma through the allegorical monologue TJOTM, portraying his fraught hope in religion’s ability to confront and transcend physical suffering. He aligns with Hayot’s world construction by heightening the amplitude of urban society in the visceral imagery of “cities hostile and the towns unfriendly […] and the villages dirty”, paired with the polysynthetic pulse of “and’’, overstimulating the audience to communicate the crushing toxicity of modern, secular society.
P3 - Evidence 2
He aligns such toxicity within ROAWN in the leitmotif of personified time and memory: “Midnight shakes the memory/As a madman shakes a dead geranium”, drawing on memory’s inherent subjectivity, attributed to the toll of secularity and urban decay. Thereby dismantling Henri Bergson’s Theory of Time to reflect the value of religious reverence in transcending worldly pain.
P3 - Evidence 3
Simultaneously, he constructs TLSOJAP to resonate with the universal anxiety restraining enlightenment, employing the interrogative leitmotif, “Do I dare?” to prompt the audience to seek spiritual satisfaction despite their existential dread and social cynicism.
P3 - Evidence 4
Furthermore, Eliot’s biblical allusion to John the Baptist, “though I have seen my head […] upon a platter […] here’s no great matter”, utilises homodiegetic narration to highlight the mental toll of meaningless, secular society on individuals aware “of [their] dilemma but still incapable of rectifying it” as analysed by Kaplan, highlighting the significance of diverging from the collective to seek spiritual fulfilment.
P3 - Link
Hence, Eliot constructs his poetry to align with his religious sensibilities and prompt the audience to consider their spiritual hunger and contextual hesitations, challenging their perspective of humanity’s purpose, value, and integrity.
