T.S. Eliot Quotes Flashcards
Prufrock - “one-night cheap hotels”
The extended allusion to the epigraph juxtaposes classical damnation with the banal hell of “one-night cheap hotels” framing urban isolation as a metaphysical crisis exploring the futility of modern living.
Prufrock - “In the room the women come and go/Talking of Michelangelo”
The refrain, “In the room the women come and go/Talking of Michelangelo” critiques performative modernity with the banality of social rituals, symbolising the triviality and hollow intellectual pretension of the modern man.
Prufrock - “(They will say: “How his hair is growing thin!”)”
the parenthetical insertion, “(They will say: “How his hair is growing thin!”)”, structurally interrupts the stanza, symbolising the disruptive nature of self-consciousness in achieving self-discovery.
Prufrock - “Do I dare/Disturb the universe?”
Prufrock ultimately avoids the ‘overwhelming question’, instead escaping his journey of self-discovery by preoccupying himself with the cosmic search for meaning, noted in the rhetorical question, “Do I dare/Disturb the universe?”.
hollow men - “We are the hollow men/We are the stuffed men”
the paradoxical anaphora, “We are the hollow men/We are the stuffed men” symbolically portrays Eliot’s acknowledgement of the modern man’s inability to connect and how they are the eponymous embodiment of immobility, despair, hopelessness and entrapment which characterise the life of the modern man.
hollow men - “Fading star”
While Eliot embodies pessimistic naturalism, David Buckley argues that the subtly threaded within biblical allusions, noted in “fading star”, displays the hollow men’s quest for unified meaning.
hollow men - “The supplication of a dead man’s hand”
The synecdoche of, “The supplication of a dead man’s hand” emphasises the futile endeavour of the hollow men in begging for salvation as they are completely alienated from God. The objective correlative serves as a lament of the abstract emotional state of the hollow men.
hollow men - “This is the way the world ends”
The repetition of, “This is the way the world ends” mirrors the hollow men’s inability to escape their spiritual paralysis, and reinforces the monotony of their existence.
magi - “a cold coming we had of it”
Eliot’s interplay of biblical allusions and modernist doubt creates enduring philosophical resonance, with the journey reimagining the epiphany through a lens of existential uncertainty, with the speaker’s fragmented recollection, “A cold coming we had of it” mirroring the destabilising effects of spiritual awakening.
magi - “we regretted the summer palaces on slopes”
The restrictive narrative of society exemplified in both ‘Prufrock’ and ‘The Hollow Men’ are reflected in the declarative, “We regretted the summer palaces on slopes”.
magi - “With the alien people clutching their gods. I should be glad of another death.”
The aporia within the final line, “With an alien people clutching their gods. I should be glad of another death.” encapsulates the concern of alienation from society, exerting a sense of hopelessness, which espouses Eliot’s ultimate loss of confidence in the quest for self-discovery.
