Eliot's poetry of Breakdown

It was once said that Eliot?s poetry is the poetry of breakdown. This can be explored by looking at four themes. Madness, memory, the seediness and burden of life, which are all present through out Eliot?s poetry and especially in the poems ?The love song of J Alfred Prufrock? ?Gerontion? ?preludes? and ?Rhapsody on a windy night? By examining these themes it is possible to see
?Eliot?s poetry is the poetry of breakdown?
The dictionary definition for madness is the state of being mentally ill. The characters throughout Eliot?s poetry are not ?mad? they have been broken down by life until sanity seems to be getting pulled from them. In the poem ?The love song of J Alfred Prufrock? there is clearly a sense of physical breakdown. Alfred is a stereotypical old man. He has experienced the world and doesn?t really have any thing to show for it. He feels his life has let him down. Madness is not a recurring theme through out this poem it mainly shows the beauty of the art antithetically to the reality of life.
?I have known the eyes already, known them all?
The poem ?Gerontion? is very similar to ?The love song of J Alfred Prufrock? as is also portrays an old man and the reality of the world his living in. He is also meditating on the past and too is disappointed in him self to not have achieved any heroic deeds, which he could later pass on through communication to his descendants. Through out the poem he deals with the break down in communication and the general decay of humanity. All Eliot?s poems show life and society dissolving. His degenerating memory is all he has left and even that is fading.
Madness plays a huge part in the poem ?Rhapsody on a Windy Night? It tells the tale of a man walking the streets. He walks his solitary path alone and at the witching hour. He genuinely believes the streetlight is talking to him and this in it reflects upon the theme of madness. The streetlight is not only seen as talking but is making a deep humming sound.
?A fatalistic drum?
This represents a death knoll, which suggests that, the man maybe suicidal. Eliot uses repetition in his poems to emphasise his points, the constant struggle is reflected and the need for continuity and routine is represented. The night sky is dim and dusky like the mans mind.
?It?s divisions and precision?s?
As The moon and the sky is unclear so is he; because of loss of memory and a bad past he doesn?t see life clearly. He is in a state of depression, which shows mental breakdown. The man is walking down the street through the hours past midnight so the man may be drunk or as the poem suggests suffering from amnesia. Although it may not mean that the person in the poem is not mad, it does state in the first stanza
?As a mad man shakes a dead geranium?
After the man?s aimless walk he returns to his usual
Night-time routine. This shows madness as routines and patterns can provide that sense of security a person needs.
Madness is not a strong theme throughout ?Preludes? it reflects upon the disintegration in life and human society.
?Wipe your hand across your mouth, and laugh?
There are no explicit references to madness but there are allusions to paranoia, like madness, an altered state of mind.
The dictionary definition of memory is a person?s power to remember things. In ?The love song of J Alfred Prufrock? the memories are disheartening. They show his inability o hold a relationship and he?s alone.
?Of lonely men in shirt sleeves?
The character in ?Gerontion? is reflecting of his past. His memories are depressing. He feels life has done him no justice; it is superficial and false. It has lost all his beauty and passion and is degenerating into squalor. He has no exemplary memories and he feels life worthless.
The poem ?Preludes? is showing the fact that life goes on whether good or bad. There are not many references to memory in this poem it just states all the smells, which can be experienced, have all been experienced before in past life. Eliot uses the sense through out his poetry as a way of expressing the squalor of human society.
?Rhapsody on a Windy Night? portrays that memories together show the reality of life, which them shows that society is breaking down. Old memories resurfacing are also mentioned. These memories cause him to feel insecure.
?Dissolve the floors of memory?
The dictionary definition for seediness is sordid and disreputable. Eliot often lets seediness break through in his poems; it shows a break down not only in human life but also in people?s self respect.
In the poem ?The love song of J Alfred Prufrock? this is present.
?Asleep...tired?or is malingers?
Yet it is more present in ?Gerontion? when showing the lack of communication and the inability to form relationships and the decay of true beauty.
In ?preludes? Eliot uses such words as ?sordid? is shows false beauty created my man.
?You curled the papers from your hair?
It States the fact that people can look respectable and satisfied with there lives by using make up to create a false mask. Where as the truth is quite different, the people are really hurting deep inside.
?Rhapsody on a Windy Night? defiantly shows the seediness of life. It creates a picture of a prostitute. She obviously is ashamed to be what she is but life has made it seem like the only possible answer. It is like life is grinning at her. Not smiling which may be seen as nice and friendly but grinning which suggests evil.
?Which opens on her like a grin?
The shows a breakdown in society and a breakdown in her as a human.
The dictionary definition for burden is a load, typically a heavy one. Life is a cruel burden. It presents people with the pressure to please other people. Though out Eliot?s poems the characters feel a need to impress the people in there lives whether it pleases themselves or not.
In ?Gerontion? females are forced by society to look beautiful. Even thought the beauty is false they are made to feel that without it they are not a fit women. The burden makes people forget that its what?s on the inside but to create that false impression of beauty on the outside.In ?Rhapsody on a Windy Night? it shows that the prostitute doesn?t like her profession but she is made to do what she does. Life forces her to be who she is.
?Who hesitates toward you in the light of the door?
She is made to lose all her self-respect and self esteem which shows a break down in human life.
Eliot?s poetry is defiantly the poetry of breakdown. It shows break down in many ways from the breakdown of self-esteem to the break down of communication. The entire theme's madness, memory, seediness and burden of life show in some way or form the disintegration of human life and the way people live. The way people are forced to be false and no there true selves and the way peoples taunting pasts push them over the edge to insanity. All his poems show the truth and they prove what squalor and mess the world is coming to, and what the world is coming to and the answer is a world of chaos.
?The last twist of the knife?