T.S. Eliot and William Butler Yeats portray their characters as two men, who are trying to deal with the idea of loneliness. Both men are presently depressed with their existing lifestyles and crave to become a part of an entirely different state of affairs. As these authors present their characters desires to live a separate life from their recent one, Prufrock and the narrator (Yeats) take a different approach to expressing their ideas of loneliness. Eliot chooses to depict his character as an overly educated man, whose mental state is deteriorating because he longs for companionship, while Yeats chooses to depict his character as a man, who wants to live-out his childhood dream in solitude. Both authors show their characters as men who are trying to cope with their feelings toward seclusion. Loneliness can be compared to a coin; it has a head and a tail. To someone who is overcome by the constant influx of people or situations, loneliness can be seen as a sort of utopia; to someone who feels that they are all alone in the world, loneliness can be seen as a sort of hell. In these two works, the reader is exposed to the positive and negative aspects of being alone. Yeats' character desires to be alone because he longs to feel all of the comfort that lonesomeness has to offer; within his soul, the persona feels an intense desire to leave the fast-paced city and become one with nature (Yeats, 2093). He longs to go to is an island called Innisfree (2092) because he became infatuated with the idea of this place as a child when his father read him Thoreau's Walden. On this island he could live in a cabin, where he could grow his own food and experience all of the beauty that nature had to offer. Yeats allows his character to rationally conclude that he would rather be alone because his life is constantly being overrun by aspects of the city. Loneliness can be either positive or negative; in the case of Yeats' character, solitude was something to be treasured, while Eliot's character felt that loneliness was something to be loathed. Although Yeats' persona longs to be alone, so that he can leave behind his life in the city and become one with nature, Eliot forces his unstable character to desperately crave companionship.
What is loneliness? Loneliness is an intricate and usually emotional reaction to isolation or absence of companionship. In the book ‘Of Mice and Men’ by John Steinbeck many characters such as Crooks and Curley’s Wife have experienced loneliness. Crooks is lonely because he is black. Curley’s wife is lonely due to being the only female at the ranch and having no one to converse with.
examines the effects of Eliot’s first marriage on his views of love and time. She
In the story Cannery Row Loneliness is a main theme to the characters lives. One of these themes is Loneliness. 'He was a dark and lonesome looking man' No one loved him. No one cared about him'(Page 6). The severity of his solitude makes this theme one of the most important. The seclusion of this man can penetrate ones innermost thoughts and leave them with a sense of belonging after hearing of this characters anguish. In addition a man who was not entirely alone was still feeling secluded. ?In spite of his friendliness and his friends Doc was a lonely and set- apart man.?(Page 132). An individual could have many people around him but could still not have the one good friend that he needs. Seclusion comes in many different forms that can be d...
Loneliness is destructive as humans need company to survive. Loneliness is described through the characters in this story when Curley’s wife is treated poorly by all of the men as none of them want Curley to get mad at them. “Well I ain’t giving you no
Famous German physician Albert Schweitzer said, “We are all so much together, but we are all dying of loneliness.” In the novel Of Mice and Men, written during the Great Depression, loneliness is a very important theme. I am going to write about how loneliness has impacted the lives of George, Crooks and Curley's wife, in this essay.
The poem “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by T. S Eliot is a wonderful piece of modernist writing filled with dramatic monologue where the rhyming scheme of this poem is not random, however a bit irregular coupled with some free verse style. This poem speaks out about loneliness and isolation. It begins with the readers not knowing if the Prufrock is taking along a companion on his journey or is he taking along his readers, to support this claim, “Let us go then, you and I.” (Eliot 368)
Loneliness is the sadness resulting from being forsaken or abandoned. John Steinbeck brought up the theme of loneliness in many characters in Of Mice and Men. Crooks, Curley?s wife, and Candy expressed the theme of loneliness in many different forms throughout the story. Early in the novella George said, life working as ranch hands is about the loneliness of living, for these people finding friendship seems to be impossible. Crooks expressed feelings of loneliness throughout Of Mice and Men.
“Social” networks and loneliness are two very unlike things to be discussed simultaneously... The two are complete opposite of one another: “social” is associated to relating to one’s society, loneliness can be defined as “a complex and unpleasant emotional response to a feeling of isolation” (Ye and Lin 166). While loneliness can mean solitude, it also includes feelings of isolation and disconnection to other people (Ye and Lin 166). John Cacioppo is labeled as the world’s leading expert on loneliness. He proposed a thought provoking analogy: a car can be used to pick up friends, but one chooses to ride alone. Did the car make the person lonely? (Marche 68). Absolutely not. The car is simply a tool in the person’s everyday life. This relates
There are several other places and occurrences in these novels that show how much people unknowingly care for eachother and desire to socialize with one another. Although T.S. Eliot believed that modern society in the 1920’s lacked a vital sense of community and a spiritual center, character interactions, events, and places in Their Eyes Were Watching God and The Great Gatsby prove otherwise.
In life people are be alone by choice, no matter if it was flat out what the wanted or alone due to some kind of forced circumstance that grew out of a previous choice they made, but when it comes down to it loneliness is never truly desired. In the short stories A Painful Case and Eveline we see examples of each type of loneliness. In A Painful Case Mr. Duffy for the most part of his life chooses to be alone. In Eveline, Eveline seems to be lonely because she’s unable to leave her duties to her family. In both stories the main characters display their desire to have someone near but when they’re finally given the chance it’s inevitably taken away from them, and then they’re driven back into the entrapment of loneliness.
Of Mice and Men starts off as a happy and optimistic story that soon turns drury and depressing; it has multiple cases of isolation and loneliness that forces characters into doing things they didn’t want to happen.
Franz Kafka’s character Gregor Samsa and T.S. Eliot’s speaker J. Alfred Prufrock are perhaps two of the loneliest characters in literature. Both men lead lives of isolation, loneliness, and lost chances, and both die knowing that they have let their lives slip through their fingers, as sand slips through the neck of an hourglass. As F. Scott Fitzgerald so eloquently put it, “the loneliest moment in someone’s life is when they are watching their whole world fall apart, and all they can do is stare blankly”. Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis and T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” are both exceptional examples of such lonely moments. Both authors use characterization, imagery, and atmosphere to convey the discontentedness and lack of fulfillment in the life and death of both Samsa and Prufrock.
T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” tells the speaker’s story through several literary devices, allowing the reader to analyze the poem through symbolism, character qualities, and allusions that the work displays. In this way, the reader clearly sees the hopelessness and apathy that the speaker has towards his future. John Steven Childs sums it up well in saying Prufrock’s “chronic indecision blocks him from some important action” (Childs). Each literary device- symbolism, character, and allusion- supports this description. Ultimately, the premise of the poem is Prufrock second guessing himself to no end over talking to a woman, but this issue represents all forms of insecurity and inactivity.
It is said that George Eliot’s style of writing deals with much realism. Eliot, herself meant by a “realist” to be “an artist who values the truth of observation above the imaginative fancies of writers of “romance” or fashionable melodramatic fiction.” (Ashton 19) This technique is artfully utilized in her writings in a way which human character and relationships are dissected and analyzed. In the novel The Mill on the Floss, Eliot uses the relationships of the protagonist of the story, Miss Maggie Tulliver, as a medium in which to convey various aspects of human social associations. It seems that as a result of Maggie’s nature and of circumstances presented around her, that she is never able to have a connection with one person that satisfies her multifaceted needs and desires. Maggie is able, to some extent, to explore the various and occasionally conflicting aspects of her person with her relationships between other characters presented in the novel. “From an early age, Maggie needs approval from men...Maggie is not shown in any deep relationship with a female friend.” (Ashton 83) A reader can explore into Maggie Tulliver’s person and her short development as a woman in four primary male associations: her father—Mr. Tulliver, her brother—Tom Tulliver, her friend and mentor—Philip Wakem and her dangerous passion with Steven Guest.
Yeats and Eliot are two chief modernist poet of the English Language. Both were Nobel Laureates. Both were critics of Literature and Culture expressing similar disquietude with Western civilization. Both, prompted by the Russian revolution perhaps, or the violence and horror of the First World War, pictured a Europe that was ailing, that was literally falling apart, devoid of the ontological sense of rational purpose that fuelled post-Enlightenment Europe and America(1). All these similar experience makes their poetry more valuable to compare and to contrast since their thoughts were similar yet one called himself Classicist(Eliot) who wrote objectively and the other considered himself "the last Romantic" because of his subjective writing and his interest in mysticism and the spiritual. For better understanding of these two poets it is necessary to mention some facts and backgrounds on them which influenced them to incorporate similar (to some extent) historical motif in their poetry.