HOW DOES ELIOT’S INNOVATIVE USE OF IMAGES, LANGUAGE
AND POETIC FORM HELP CONVEY HIS VIEWS ON MODERN
SOCIETY.
In most of Eliot’s poetry he portrays and questions the nature of modern
urban life and the dependence on routine. He sees modern society as a
world that is sordid, corrupt and mechanical. These views are presented
through various literary techniques. As E. B Pinion comments: “The
deliberate disconnection of their imagery helps to emphasise the
meaningless…of life” as seen in Preludes. Preludes is a series of pictures of
modern city life, dwelling on the lives of squalor and routines. It is
concerned with the alienation of the urban masses and many different
techniques are used to make the concern resonate. Eliot uses imagery,
metaphor, rhythm and sound patterns to reveal people who are caught in
the boring and inane rituals of walking.
Eliot uses innovation by employing the use of isolated lines,
personification, sibilance, synecdoche, to emphasise his imagery and
make the destruction and decay of modern society more apparent. The
sound patterns embedded in the poetry demonstrate the sheer extent of
automation and empty lives that people lead, as the people loose their
souls and are reduced to “hands” and “feet”.
“Six o’clock.” The punctuation of this line presents the meaning of this
poem through its form. The position of this line breaks the rhythm and
sound patterns. It stands out because it is not in the traditional verse form
that a reader expects. The mere fact that it is “Six o’clock” and this is
isolated demonstrates the automation of society. Their lives have become
so mechanical that time rules their existence .This line directly follows the
“smell of steaks in passageways”. Eliot uses this innovatative technique to
highlight the natural function of life being disrupted by time. The use of
alliteration emphasises this homely scene of domestic meals and the
claustrophobic stifling atmosphere as the “smell of steaks in passageways”.
Eliot is concerned with the decay in modern society. He uses “grimy”
images to portray the seasonal change, which stands as a metaphor the
death. According to Eliot modern society is lacking spiritual purpose and
understanding. The leaves are “withered”; they have no life just like the
people in society lacking spirituality. Leaves that wither “about your feet”
simply fall with no purpose and merely drift. The leaves fall “about your
feet”, they, like people have no spiritual understanding and purpose in their
lives and so have no ‘life’ because they are “withered”. They fall aimlessly
to the ground and mix within the decay of “grimy scraps”. The use of the
words “feet”, “beat” and “Street” help to create a rhythm and enable the
reader to understand the automation of the people.
This is a highly effective innovative method as it aurally captures the
movement of people’s feet coming home drudgingly after work. The
monotonous thudding sounds of the repeated monosyllables echo their
empty journey. The alliteration in the “broken blinds and chimney pots”
presents a hard, thudding sound like feet that beat in a street. These
sounds mentally capture a sense of things falling down. The patterns of
imagery suggest a “Wasteland” environment with the “burn out ends” and
“grimy scraps”. The “Withered leaves” exposes a world that is falling
apart.
“The burnt-out ends of smoky days”. The language is innovative because it
evocatively portrays modern society: a place where people’s lives are
empty and purposeless within these routines that appear inevitable. Eliot
presents a series of disjointed images like “Burial of The Dead” in “The
Wasteland”. The “newspapers” and “grimy scraps” act as snap shots into
modern society: polluted and decaying and in desperate need of spiritual
regeneration. The image of beauty of nature is relegated to the level of
the city gutters. In this way Eliot effectively conveys his views on modern
society. The use of synecdoche emphasises Eliot’s view of an empty,
pathetic soulless society. The people are reduced to “muddy feet”, and this
highlights to the reader the impersonal and purely commercial nature of
modern society. The prostitute is reduced to only hair, feet and hands.
Previously the people rushing home were merely “feet”. Eliot employs the
use of this literary technique to show the partial fragmented lives people
lead. They have no sense of personal identity or spiritual wholeness.
Modern society makes people alienated, anxious and trapped. This view is
seen in the poem “The Love Song Of J Alfred Prufrock”. Modern society
has become a place where inane social rituals prevails; a place where
individuals are repressed, alienated and no longer in contact with a
meaningful existence. Prufrock’s repression by social conventions are
conveyed predominantly through metaphor and imagery. The persona
points obliquely to the meaningless world of “tea and cakes and ices.”
These inane rituals are superficial and pretentious just like society itself.
Prufrock lives in a society where women judge him and say, “How his hair
is growing thin”.
Roger Mitchell noted, “J Alfred Prufrock is not just the speaker of the
poems. He is the representative man of early modernism.” Prufrock is
constantly conscious of his actions and self-presentation and the need to
act in accordance with social expectations. Prufrock cannot be himself;
he has to “prepare a face”. Factors restrict him forcing him to behave in
socially prescribed ways and eventually alienating him from his ‘other’
self that aspires to live fully.
The title of the poem suggests potential happiness and involvement in
life but it is immediately undercut by the epigraph from Dante’s inferno.
This poem is a critique of modern society. The imagery of hell in Dante’s
inferno parallels Prufock’s own inner hell of isolation and loveless ness.
Just as Guido is imprisoned in a flame, Prufrock’s inner self is imprisoned
in a world where he cannot tell of his feelings and desires. He cannot
communicate with the women. The inclusion of the epigraph is effective
in portraying Eliot’s view on modern society through the eyes of the
persona. This is another innovative way that Eliot uses poetic form,
language and imagery to convey his views.
“Do I dare disturb the universe?”
Eliot also uses questions to demonstrate the uncertainty of Prufrock
himself, posing questions as a means to escape having to act with
courage. The use of questions is an innovative device within the form that
shows him posing questions. This also acts as a parallel for modern
society. The people like Prufrock are indecisive and reluctant to act.
Prufrock wants to know the meaning of life but is feardul of any
explanation that might also destroy the ideal. He is not moving forward
instead he likens himself to a “crab”. This gives an insight into the persona
because a crab moves sideways and is very indecisive. Prufrock like
society is not moving forward, and has no purpose.
Eliot invites the reader to share in his thoughts on modern society. “Let
us go then you and I.” The reader is also drawn into Eliot’s thoughts and
feelings through the vivid imagery. The poem contains a lot of imagery
and metaphors of pollution to describe the town. This perhaps describes
society too which has become polluted and materialistic, merely
concerned with “tea and cakes and ices.” The fog is “yellow”. The fog cat
metaphor presents the city as stifling and claustrophobic.
This image of sickness and dirt is dominant throughout the poem, and just
like the “yellow smoke that slides along the street”, the sickness is a like a
smell it seeps un noticed into society and envelops it causing decay and
distraction from spiritual well being. This sibilance portrays a sinister
invasion by the yellow smoke. The repetition of “yellow” emphasises the
pollution, dirt and corruption that has entered society.
Eliot provokes an image of disease and death:
“The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window panes.” Eliot uses
innovative language to present a modern city by using distressing
imagery and metaphors.
Eliot is concerned with the isolation that modernity brings. People
become too autonomous and time controls their lives. They do not
communicate and thus become alienated and are reduced to “muddy feet
that press”. The repetition of:
“At four and five and six o’clock” is used to suggest the monotony and
repetition of the activities undertaken at these times both in tone and
rhythm, just like the “typist home at teatime”. The use of time is very
effective in portraying the autonomy of modern society. In “The
Wasteland”, Eliot gives us a view of the city being “unreal”. Life in the city
is not only “unreal” but also immensely monotonous. People are
submerged into routine so much so that “each man fixed his eyes before
his feet”.
This implies a somewhat robotic existence that modern society has
adopted. The experience of the city shows modern life to be dull. The
language used to describe this city is dull and grim:
“Under the brown fog of a winter dawn”. The city has become polluted,
and this is shown by the use of the word “brown” to describe the fog.
People seem to be living life in death, “with a dead sound on the final
stroke of nine.” Eliot’s key ideas about modern life feature heavily in
“Rhapsody on a Windy Night”. His innovation comes in the form of the
use of personification.“The street-lamp sputtered The street-lamp
muttered. The street-lamp said…” The speech emphasises the device of
personification of all street lamps being one just like how society has
become one mass movement. There is no persona and distinction
anymore implying that the street lamps are more important than
humans. The imagery is dark, twisted: “twists like a crooked pin” and full
of decay: “skeleton”. There is “rust that clings to the form”. The imagery
shows society’s obsession with death: “The secret of it skeleton”, the
sordid affairs of people “trying to peer through lighted shutters.”
“The last twist of the knife.” The twist of the knife connects with the
twisted imagery throughout the poem and shows the death in life
situation of the persona. Death is not quick of penetrating thrust of the
knife but the persona has to bear the agony of feeling twists of
metaphorical knife of alienating routines.
In Prufrock, Eliot uses innovation. He juxtaposes the usual beauty and
romance associated with the evening sky with the sterility of an
etherised patient awaiting surgery. The metaphor of paralysis is effective
because it gives an insight into the persona’s psychological state,
showing his own inaction like the comatose patient while also showing
that the persona cannot relate to the beauty of the world. The themes of
purposelessness and time are also present in “Prufrock”.
“And indeed there will be time.” However we know this not to be true
because time is a metaphor for death and morality. The Endless repetition
of time highlights the lack of personal progress and the lack of
achievement as time passes.
“I have measured out my life in coffee spoons”. This captures the
unfulfilling nature of Prufock’s life. His life is carefully calculated and
lived in small measured amounts.. We can see the persona’s anguish as
he sees himself pinned painfully by convention:
“I am formulate, sprawling on a pin.” The closing section of the poem is
the most tragic. The language used; the use of I ten times in 7 lines:
“I grow old…I grow old…
I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled…” makes the tragedy more
complete showing more than anywhere in the poem, the persona fully
comprehending his alienated situation. This also demonstrates the
loneliness of every person and their fears of death and growing old. The
change in form from ‘I’ to ‘We’ in the last stanza is Eliot’s way of
suggesting that perhaps Prufrock is not alone in his failure to live out his
desires.
Eliot thinks that society has become mechanical and spiritually empty. The
people
who live in this modern society are leading lives that are
meaningless and unfulfilling. Eliot is successful in creating through his
poems a truly powerful portrait of the drab lives we lead in our dreary
modern cities where people work and live their whole lives in a
mechanical, almost robot-like fashion. Eliot employs the use innovative
literary techniques like metaphors, rhythm and personification to
demonstrate how empty our lives are. Eliot is innovative because he
presents meaning through form and structure. We understand his views
on the empty modern society by the ways in which he incorporates
synecdoche, repetition, isolation of words, questions, and the use of the
persona. All these methods help to portray images of a decaying,
mechanical society.