Discuss Eliot’s treatment of the theme of the modern city in

Discuss Eliot’s treatment of the theme of the modern city in

Preludes. Also refer to The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock if you

wish.

In both ‘Preludes’ and ‘The love song of J. Alfred Prufrock’, the

modern city is one of the main themes. Eliot’s fascination with the

modern city could stem from the fact that he was an American, and so

when he moved to England in 1915, the modern city was a part of

England of which he was in awe. Eliot was also influenced by the

French poet, Charles Baudelaire who explored the poetic possibilities

of “the more sordid aspects of the modern metropolis.” I believe that

this is what Eliot is doing in Preludes; I believe he is exploring the

poetic possibilities of the city.

In ‘Preludes’, Eliot begins the poem with “The winter evening settles

down / With smell of steaks in passageways / Six o’clock.” Here, Eliot

has personified the weather and made wide use of sibilance. By using

sibilance, he makes the “passageways” seem eerie and mysterious. Eliot

then continues with “The burnt-out ends of smoky days / And now a

gusty shower wraps.” These two lines suggest endings, as life is

firstly compared to a cigarette, where it burns away to nothing and

then the line “And now a gusty shower wraps” makes use of pathetic

fallacy, as the turbulent day in the city is over, just like the “gusty

shower” has finished. The last two lines of the stanza create the

impression of a city atmosphere which is dingy and dark; “And at the

corner of the street / A lonely cab horse steams and stamps.” The cab

horse could mirror people in the city, as many of them are lonely, and

“at the corner of the street” suggests isolation and dinginess mixed

with a familiar city image.

In the second stanza, El...

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... mirroring the harsh world which the city is. “The worlds revolve…”

suggests that in cities people are living in their own different

worlds, behind “masquerades”, which is a theme also present in ‘The

Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’ with the line “To prepare a face to

meet the faces that you meet.”

In ‘Preludes’ and ‘The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’, Eliot

illuminates the modern city in a very harsh light. Eliot seems to

focus on the negative points of the city such as its darkness,

loneliness and how threatening it can be. This could be due to the

fact that Eliot was writing about these city themes after Darwinism,

and just before World War One, when the city and civilisation were

seen as the things which would eventually destroy man. Eliot

discusses the theme of the modern city truthfully and writes about it

in the stark way in which he views it.