Quotes Mod B

Question 1

Context - Inner Self Decay

Answer 1

Rejection of grand narratives –> profound uncertainty = internal decline

Love Song: existentialism present as social anxiety

• overwhelming question
• They will say: “How his hair is growing thin!”
• Disturb the universe

Rhapsody: Internal decline
- through the spaces of the dark/Midnight shakes the memory

Question 2

Context - Spiritual ambiguity and hope

Answer 2

Eliot’s personal context –> no place within the universe

Hollow Men: ontological search for meaning through Dante’s layers of hell

• death’s other kingdom, death’s dream kingdom, the twilight kingdom
• dry grass, dry voices

Magi

• Sermon
• could only be understood by means of a larger faith
• should be glad of another death

Question 3

Form - Inner Self Decay

Answer 3

As the inner self decays, so does the poetry

Rhapsody: fragmentation of time (influenced by Bergson) = decay of inner self
- “Twelve o’clock” Time becomes a structuring device - clock time doesn’t sufficiently demonstrate what is happening inside his head

Love song: Dramatic monologue, reveals he is paralysed by ennui

• overwhelming question
• They will say: “How his hair is growing thin!”

Question 4

Form - Spiritual Ambiguity and hope

Answer 4

Eliot’s personal context –> no place within the universe

Hollow Men: biblical illusions
- dry grass, dry voices

Magi: the blending of forms

• Sermon
• could only be understood by means of a larger faith
• satisfactory, should be glad of another death