Lovesong Of J. Alfred Prufrock 'And Preludes'

Within a world of rapid globalisation humanity’s struggle to seek and perceive meaning in the modern world, confronts individuals with the existential crisis associated with the overwhelming lack of purpose. This sense of disconnection from the world is a result of the existential ideology that arose as a result of the war, where questions of existence and purpose circulated heavily in literature and art and in general, the consciousness of individuals. Eliot’s perspectives of the modernist consciousness and how it is reflected in the urban landscape is prevalent in ‘The LoveSong of J.Alfred Prufrock’ (1915) and ‘Preludes’ (1911). From which we come to an understanding of the unfulfilling experiences of the existential crisis as a result of

Eliot further portrays this disconnection from the industrialised world in his poem “Preludes”, in particular the deliberate break from the traditional scheme of writing. This change from the Romantic to the Modernist era is indicated through the form of his poetry in “Six o’clock”, “...The morning comes to consciousness”, “...Watched the night revealing” and”... Evening newspapers”, whereby the progression of the day indicates that the structure of the poem is segmented by time. From this, it is evident that through Winterson’s perspective of Eliot in “Needed some sort of membrane between himself and experience which for him became language”, Eliot is able to provide us with an insight of the modernist world around him through his use of language, meanwhile accounting for the sense of isolation or disconnection of the persona from the word around him. Hence, through the evocative use of the inconsistent rhythm of the progression with time, Eliot emphasises the breaking from the previous generations traditional rhythmic scheme of writing to establish a sense of discomfort and unpredictability as a result of the skips in line. From this, Eliot enables the audience throughout time to continually resonate with this idea of the shift in context from Romanticism to Modernism as they are the ideological

Such portrayal of an individual unable to go through anything, accentuates the stagnation and paralysis as something quite significant as they basically don’t exist in any authentic and valuable way, hence we are left with “In the room, women come and go”. This mirror’s Eliot’s contexts as it cements his vision of the modernist world and the degradation that it is creating to the urban landscape, hence a sense of detachment from the world. Through, “that sometimes gives the sense that he is holding back a little from life”, we see that Winterson’s perspectives of the persona reflects a sense of detachment from humanity and life itself. Thus, Eliot portrays a vision of his context of the incapabilities for humanity to change. Hence we experience an endless stagnation, and are incapable of establishing a sustainable relationship to move forward as a result of the overwhelming lack of purpose. From this, we learn the degradation and mistakes of the characters so that we don’t continue the same path, hence the relevance it has in today’s