Module B: Rhapsody quotes Flashcards
what is paragraph one about in rhapsody
deconstruction of the modern individual amidst industrialisation
quote 1
by juxtaposing the similes, “Every street lamp that I pass/Beats like a fatalistic drum” and “Midnight shakes the memory/As a madman shakes a dead geranium”,
explanation 1
where the succession of morbid images reflects the loss of the old hopes and ideals of Romanticism (the geranium) amidst routine.
quote 2
the personification, “the memory throws up high and dry/As if the world gave up/The secret of its skeleton.”
explanation 2
This sickly action, symbolising the brutal deterioration of memory, frames the dehumanising representation of the person, who is reduced to a ‘skeleton’
quote 3
the entropic mechanical images in the persona’s interiority, “A broken spring in a factory yard, Rust that clings”
explanation 3
reflecting the devastating spiritual damage from urbanisation.
what is paragraph 2 about
the corruption of modern society due to industrial values
quote 4
beginning with “Regard that woman/You see the border of her dress/is torn and stained with sand.”
explanation 4
Through the woman, who symbolises temptation and ill repute and the stain, Eliot comments on the spiritual immorality of his age and yearns for the idealistic purity of Romanticism.
quote 5
the mangy olfactory imagery of “Remark the cat which flattens itself in the gutter/And devours a morsel of rancid butter.”
explanation 5
evokes a constant impression of grime within the urban consciousness.
quote 6
Eliot’s chilling, first person admission, “I could see nothing behind that child’s eye”
explanation 6
where the child becomes a machine.
Through the literary significance of the child as innocence and the eye as a window to the soul,
