Module B essay example (Advanced English) PDF

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Sample essay for Module B Yr 12 Advanced English...

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MOD B A text has value if it creates opportunities for change To what extent does this statement align with your view of Eliot’s poetry? In your response, you must make detailed reference to two poems set for study. T.s Eliot, in his poetic Magnus opus comments on an array of concerns for his audience that can be enduringly applied to range of contexts. Eliot’s social milieu, ravaged by two devastating world wars saw the rejection and loss of faith in traditional values and morals triggering Eliot to criticise the disillusioned and existentially anxious 20th century zeitgeist in his poems the love song of j Alfred Prufrock and Hollow men. His scathing criticism almost a century remains relevant by creating parallelism to the 21 st century milieu ensuring to this day his poetry continues to challenge contemporary audience’s intellectual outlook. Thus, the value of Eliot’s poetry is attributed to the ideas explored and his experimentation with poetic techniques, which is enriching for current audience’s perception of Eliot’s world and most importantly the current 21 st century zeitgeist. The love song of J Alfred Prufrock, a dramatic monologue embodies Eliot’s psychoanalysis of 20 th century mankind’s disintegration of culture and psychological identity in the aftermath of the late 19th century industrialisation. Eliot’s views are embodied through the antithesis of Prufrock in the epigraph “Ma perciocche giammai di/ti rispondo” in which he acknowledges his life of immorality and shame. In this manner, the epigraph emphasises Prufrock’s internal collapse with his metonymy of hell in “the one-night cheap hotels of the ominous city “allowing Eliot to denounce the breakdown of social cohesion in his context; believing that society values youth rather than knowledge. Eliot’s criticisms engages the contemporary reader as the flaneur allowing them to realise a similar phenomenon is occurring within the 21 st century society with the presence of social technology contributing to a vane and fragile zeitgeist providing impetus for modern audiences to personally identify and change beyond Eliot’s concerns .The notion is typified in the final two lines, “I have heard the mermaids singing/I do not think they are calling to me” through the fantastical and auditory imagery which allude to Prufrock’s inability to conform relationships in a society governed through masculinity and chauvinism. The parallelism to 21 st century toxic masculinity providing impetus for modern audiences to personally identify and change beyond Eliot’s concerns .Thus, Eliot constructs Prufrock as a deviant who embodies the brittle nature of 21 st century mankind to provide modern audiences with the desire for personal enrichment ,exemplifying the value of Eliot’s texts . In The Hollow Men, Eliot criticise his society lack of spiritual connection and purpose (embodied by Prufrock), reflecting modernist concerns of the disillusionment of society following the First World War. The inherent similarities within Eliot’s and contemporary audiences contexts allowing us to reflect and procure improved perspectives beyond Eliot’s criticism .In the first stanza “We are the hollow men/ We are the stuffed men” the paradoxical juxtaposition of ‘hollow’ and stuffed’ implicates Eliot’s society’s disillusioned ,existentially anxious stasis. Eliot’s use of inclusive language “we” encouraging contemporary audiences to reflect on their societies similar status caused by the rise of technology and improve beyond Eliot’s criticism .Eliot’s disillusioned sociocultural milieu is further conveyed by multifaceted imagery of “dried voices” “wind in dry grass” and “rats feet over broken glass” which condemn the lack of energy and emotional decay as inherent within 20 th cetnur society . Moreover in “The eyes are not here/ there are no eyes here/ in this valley of dying stars”, the biblical allusion and enjambment establishes Modernism concerns for the “Hollow men’s” (modern society) isolation from divine salvation. Exemplified by Eliot use of ‘eyes’ as a symbol of the ‘soul’, subverting the common trope to criticise 20th century society’s moral vacuity after WW1.

Eliot’s criticism which remains relevant in 21 st century abandonment of religion through atheism allows current audiences to reflect and change beyond the socially degraded society depicted in the poem. As a result, Eliot’s textual significance is due to his unique exposure to notion of a spiritually isolated society which realigns contemporary reader perceptions. Furthermore, Eliot’s experimentation with poetic techniques explores his society’s unsettling zeitgeist to change today’s audience’s perspectives and values. Eliot’s unique experimentation; the inclusion and repetition of refrain in the Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock” In the room the woman come and go/talking of Michelangelo” highlights the women fake intellectual substance to be involved in the conversation with the apathetic interactions, exemplifying Eliot’s opinion that the Industrial Age, has fostered his societies detachment from social interactions .Eliot’s prose “the one-night cheap hotels of the ominous city” is juxtaposed to his concurrent use of free verse 'I should have been a / Scuttling across the floors of silent seas ,creating a disjointed poetic structure which archetypes the breakdown of social cohesion within 20 th century society. Eliot’s innovative techniques position contemporary audiences as a flanuer to previous intergenerational faults , shaping their intellectual progression ultimately aimed at progressing beyond 20 th society limitations . Moreover, in Hollow men, Eliot’s explores the decay of humanity through a unique structural element of modern society’s collective stream of consciousness “This is the dead land/ this is cactus land.” Which reflects Eliot’s perception of his moral ‘dryness’ in modern society. Finally, Eliot’s consistent overuse of binary opposition hollow/stuffed, shade without colour, paralysed force”, systematically cancels out the poetic phrases narrative progression, leaving no meaning to symbolise the similar stifled social progression of his society hampered by a lack of morals and purpose. Thus, Eliot’s unique poetic treatment, motivates contemporary audiences, to escape from Eliot’s nihilistic perceptions through renewed ideals, exemplifying the textual integrity of Eliot’s poems. The love song of J Alfred Prufrock CONTEXT: The wars which influences his nihilist perception UNIQUE STRUCTURAL ELEMENTS; Dramatic monologue which Eliot’s uses to gradually reveals more and more about the personas faults to embody modern society faults Disjointed use of free verse and prose FV: “the one-night cheap hotels of the ominous city” I have heard the mermaids singing/I do not think they are calling to me”, “Ma preached gamma di questo fondo P: 'I should have been a pair of ragged claws / Scuttling across the floors of silent seas. 'I grow old...I grow old... / I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled. “I am formulated, /sprawling on a pin, /I am pinned / wriggling on the wall”, I know the voices dying with a dying fall" (52) echoes Orison’s first lines in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. [26] Hollow men CONTEXT: The war Structure; FREE VERSE POEM that is a dramatic monologue because it doesn't have a regular meter or rhyme scheme

POEM

QUOTE

TECHNIQUE

EFFECT

Hollow men and Prufrock

Furthermore, Eliot’s examination of humanist concerns; nihilist disposition and persona flaws in his oeuvres through the conventions of modernism demands an intellectual response from audiences, ;epitomising its textual value. The love song of J Alfred Prufrock criticises society’s nihilist tendencies. This is exemplified in the sibilant synecdoche “Ragged claws scuttling across the floors of the silent seas”. Prufrock’s extreme, self-deprecation suggests he merely is crab, a bottom feeder insinuating by this zoomorphic imagery, his grave personal milieu of estrangement . Reiterated, through the dark metaphorical imagery “the evening is spread out/ a patient etherised upon a table”, which encapsulates Prufrock’s existentially -disillusioned attitude is enervating to the extent of disconnectedness from society. Eliot’s damning criticism of society illuminates the readers to his and modernisms perception of their faults, stimulating personal reflection and catalyse new ideals, which serves to meet his and modernisms need for progression. In the Hollow men, Eliot’s clarifies societies troubling detachment subject to society’s personal malfeasance. The visual metaphor “Lips / kiss from prayers to broken stone” which explicate humanity’s addictions to desires - in this case, love - as a secluding agent from society. Conceptually furthered through the sibilant double utterance ‘ Shape without form, shade without colour” which illuminates The Hollow Men lack the essential qualities of reality ;detaching them from society, capturing Eliot’s modernist -driven memorandum of humanity’s vulnerability, prompting a personal reflection from contemporary audiences ,to escape from Eliot’s perceptions through renewed ideals . Therefore the exploration of modern society’s faults , through his oeuvre enkindles a personal response from readers which realign their preconceived notions ,epitomizing Eliot’s poems textual integrity. PRELUDES “burnt out ends of Ambiguous bleak Reflects the ennui and exhaustion felt 1 smoky days”. diction, olfactory about life in an industrialized, imagery secularized world. You tossed a blanket from the bed, you lay upon your back and waited; you dozed”.

‘light crept up between the shutters And you heard the sparrows in the gutters,’

‘infinitely gentle Infinitely suffering thing.

Rhapsody on a

‘twists like a crooked pin,” and “a cat flattens

Dreary diction and Demonstrates 20th societies lack of productivity in the morning ,when second person productivity is at the optimal narration exemplifying to readers he modern society is devoid of purpose and meaning corruption of nature Juxtaposition - juxtaposition between sparrows + ,unnatural gutters, manmade vs natural – imagery unnatural imagery - western society lack of regard for natural world, preoccupied with mundanity and modern living - similar to the cat in Rhapsody Repetitive allusion - human soul – infinitely gentle, but suffering in this Western civilisation to depict alienation and fragmentation of humanity Unnatural visual The personas memory imaginatively imagery,stream of debases societies mannerisms to the

windy Night 2

Journey of the magi 3

itself in the gutter”

consciousness

‘My memory “ opposed to “my memory”

Juxtaposition and impersonal pronoun

I have seen eyes in the street/Trying to peer through lighted shutters

Narrated enjambment

‘So the hand of a child, automatic Slipped out and pocketed a toy that was running along the quay

imagery and historical allusion

‘summer palaces on slopes’

truncated sibilance and idyllic imagery Emotive narration and allusion to industrialisations

“cities hostile … towns unfriendly … villages dirty’,

‘no longer at ease

truncated narration

“voices in our ears, saying/ That this was all folly’ and ‘A hard time we had of it’

Stream of consciousness and emphatic tone

extent of abnormality to expose modern societies faults Eliots archetypes the personas uncertainty of self and of reality as an extenuating indicator of modern society disconnectedness. showcases the concept of an alienated observer by subverting the common trope societies uses of wyes “from eyes looking outside” to “the eyes are on the outside looking in”to explores the disconnectedness of society Alludes to industrialisations and WW1s roles corrupting image of humanity which once equivalent to innocent, exuberant archetype of child - slip and slipped – suggests that the act of stealing by the child is just as debased as the cat .The Magi initially expresses gratitude for their idealistic lifestyle Juxtaposes to Magis previous experience Summate their changed perception of societies now scarred and intimidating landscape as a result of their initial encounter with Christianity .Thus symbolising, the imminent birth of Christ as the death of the paganism and astrology ;their lifestyle. .Eliot archetypes modern societies religious vacuity due to their increased transition towards atheism Eliot allegorises the Magi’s arduous journey and hostile environment as their difficult spiritual journey...