Essay On TS Elliot (Module B)

Resource Description

This was my HSC and trial essay for Module B Critical Study of Literature (TS Eliot). I got 16/20 for this essay – it’s not a perfect essay but should be a good guide and starting point for anyone preparing!

T.S. Eliot’s depiction of the degradation of humanity through his modernist poetry not only demonstrates an insightful encapsulation of humanity’s inability to articulate meaning in a world of chaos, but metaphorically embodies the contextual struggles of Eliot’s own time. Despite Eliot’s firm belief in New Criticism, from a contemporary examination, his work is highly reflective of the world events and personal struggles Eliot carried throughout his writing career. His exploration of universal ideas such as alienation and humanity’s disconnection from themselves and the world around them, as seen in Rhapsody on a Windy Night and The Hollow Men, was inspired by a sense of loneliness and alienation from a childhood of limited interactions with others due to physical disability, as well as living through the dehumanising horrors of WWI. This resonates with modern audiences, particularly in the world’s current climate, who too have witnessed the sordid state of humanity and can relate to Eliot’s sentiments of disillusionment and misery.

The notion of disconnection, both from ourselves and the world around us, is a prevalent component of the degradation of humanity and has been an increasing burden on mankind. This notion is incorporated throughout Eliot’s poem Rhapsody on a Windy Night, significantly emphasised in the simile, “as a madman shakes a dead geranium”, in which the dead geranium, a plant generally adept at survival, is symbolic of man’s disconnection from the natural world. This is additionally evidenced in the imagery, “remark the cat which flattens itself in the gutter, slips out its tongue and devours a morsel of rancid butter”, perfectly elucidating man’s abandonment of living creates other than themselves. This is particularly significant to current audiences, who have lived through the decimation of the environment, the extinction of many animal species and global warming as consequences of man’s disconnection from the natural world. The notion of disconnection is further exemplified in the allusion, “La Lune Ne Garde Aucune Rancune”, translating to “the moon holds no grudges”. This significantly illustrates the disconnection of humanity, as even their own moon is disconnected and has given up on Earth.