TS ELIOT

            T.S. Eliot, one of the most influential poets in American history, alludes to death and loneliness in his poetry.  Within the poems “The Hollow Men”, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”, and “The Wasteland”, Eliot incorporates his universal themes of war, dead soldiers, and emptiness.  His style depicts a sense of darkness and despair which is persuasively well done.  Death is a common example of Eliot’s conviction within all three works of literature. 

            In “The Hollow Men”, T.S. Eliot conveys a story post World War I about soldiers and death.  His first lines read, “We are the hollow men, we are the stuffed men.”  He is displaying an image of empty soldiers who are literally “stuffed”.  Eliot then writes “…to death’s other kingdom, remember us—if at all—not as lost violent souls, but only as the hollow men…”  Eliot refers to death in these lines and how the soldiers should be remembered because they are given orders to be followed which make them “hollow”.  There are countless images of hell.  For example, “death’s twilight kingdom”, “death’s dream kingdom”, etc.  “The Hollow Men” explains the emptiness of soldiers and death they witnessed in the most devastating war in history.

            Comparing to “The Hollow Men”, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” also alludes to death and emptiness’ differentiating, however, by the conscience of one man.  “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” is an example of a man who overanalyzes his life and how people view him.  The poem is a monologue and a perspective of J. Alfred Prufrock’s mind.  Eliot writes this poem giving the reader a sense of the emptiness his character experiences.  In a stanza of the poem Eliot writes, “…The muttering retreats, of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels…”  By this quote you can see Prufrock is lonely and uses strange women to satisfy him.  A different example, one of Prufrock’s low self-esteem, is, “And indeed there will be time, to wonder, ‘Do I dare?’ and, ‘Do I dare’?, time to turn back and descend the stair, with a bald spot in the middle of my hair.”  Prufrock is extremely conscious of himself that he won’t speak to other women because he believes they will judge him.  All of these bottled emotions lead to Prufrock’s ultimatum.  The last stanza of the poem reads, “We have lingered in the chambers of the sea, by sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown, till human voices wake us, and we drown.”  Prufrock considers suicide in this excerpt.  Eliot’s allusion to death describes the extent of depression that Prufrock experiences and adds to Eliot’s universal theme.

             “The Wasteland” is a poem written by T.S. Eliot that views the world post World War I in retrospect to depression and death.  There is a sense of emptiness in “The Waste Land” also.  In the lines, “A heap of broken images, where the sun beats, and the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief, and the dry stone no sound of water.”  This excerpt is an example of the helplessness people felt after the war and the emptiness shown.  Eliot goes on to say, “I had not thought death had undone so many.  Sighs, short and infrequent, were exhaled, And each man fixed his eyes before his feet…With a dead sound of the final stroke of nine.  There I saw one I knew, and stopped him, crying: “Stetson! You who were with me in the ships at Mylae!  That corpse you planted last year in your garden, Has it begun to sprout?”  This section is a gathering of ghosts and a man who recognizes a dead man from the war.  This morbid image describes Eliot’s usage of death in his poetry and the dark times post World War I.

            T.S. Eliot’s amazing contributions to poetry have affected American literature immensely.  Themes like death, emptiness, and loneliness are incorporated in his poems “The Hollow Men”, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”, and “The Waste Land”.  War, especially WWI, is a commonality within Eliot’s poems.  The use of these themes enhances Eliot’s poetry and has made him one of the most well-known poets in American history.

 

 

 

 

A Streetcar Named Desire

Blanche becomes the victim in the play “A Streetcar Named Desire”.  Blanche is extremely neurotic and mentally ill.  After her family has died, their estate Belle Reve is lost, and her husband Allan commits suicide, she cannot be deserving of her fate.  Blanche deceives everyone that she is a prim, proper, Southern belle.  She hides her sketchy reputation in Laurel and that she has had a “break” from her job as a teacher; however, she did not deserve to be raped by Stanley and finally left by the only family she has.  As a result of Blanche’s husbands suicide her entire outlook and mindset are different.  Since Blanche loses her youth due to an early marriage, she tries to seem young and attractive, because she has a low self-esteem and no man figure in her life.

Stella and Stanley should not have been responsible for Blanche’s well-being, regardless of her mental disabilities due to her tragic life. The mental hospital was the only plausible option where Blanche would receive the attention and care needed.  This does not justify Stanley raping her.  She may have enticed Stanley’s aggression but he should have been able to control his anger.  Blanche knows Stanley will become the person who ruins her when she says in scene six, “He hates me or why would he insult me?  The first time I laid eyes on him I thought to myself, that man is my executioner!  That man will destroy me.”  Blanche’s deceitfulness and fantasies to cover her life do not compare to Stanley’s ultimate victory over her.  It is evident Blanche is seriously delusional and the victim in “A Streetcar Named Desire”.

 

 

 

      

The Crucible: John Proctor

 

John Proctor, from the play The Crucible by Arthur Miller, as a man, a husband, a citizen, and a friend relies on human weakness and strength as judgment on his goodness as a person.  Taken place in the Salem witch hunt, his weaknesses show throughout when his family and his life are at risk.  Like every man, strength is a virtue in order to be successful and content.  While the hunt progresses Proctor displays more of his weaknesses than strengths. 

When the girls in Salem accuse witchery on a number of villagers, Elizabeth Proctor, John Proctor’s wife is mentioned in the court.  John struggles with the embarrassment of not being able to save his wife from prison.  When Proctor isn’t in control he feels it displays a weakness on him.  He becomes angry when he is not in control of his fate, or his wife’s.  After Elizabeth is taken away, Proctor knows he has to save his family and be the strength holding it together for his wife’s freedom.  He goes to the court to fix the outrage.  His character depends on keeping his “good name” reputable in the town.  Throughout the play this known quality in him diminishes.

          John is accused of witchery after he brings Mary Warren to confess the pretense the girls have been playing on everyone. When Abigail is in the court he explains the adultery he committed with her, which is humiliating for him.    Proctor knows confessing lechery will ruin his name but he does it to free all the accused in Salem, including his wife.  This, however, backfires on him.  The court asks if Elizabeth would be able to account for his adultery and Proctor says, “In her life, sir, she have never lied…my wife can’t and is asked if she knew of lechery, she lies and says ‘No.’” Now John is sent to jail.  Elizabeth lied attempting to not put shame on John, unknowing that he confessed.  Elizabeth realizes that John survives by being a respectable member of Salem’s community, which is the reason for her mistruth.

          Towards the ending of the final scene, on the morning John Proctor is to be hung, Elizabeth and John speak to each other.  She tries convincing John into confessing to witchcraft, even though this is a lie.  While John is talking to her he considers pleading guilty.  When John does this it makes him feel weak, for he doesn’t want his wife or the town to judge him.  While the document explaining the accusations on Proctor to be pretense are written, John is asked to sign and decides he will not when asked to sign his name.  He says, “…How may I live without my name? I have given my soul; leave me my name!”  During this last act,  Proctor denies the charges and decides to be hung.

The strength involved in making this decision is a quality most men do not have.  Through all the hardships John Proctor had to face his choice to be sentenced to death was the strongest throughout the entire play.  He ultimatley saves his reputation even though he does not save his life.

 

 

 

Me.

Hi, I’m Vanessa.  I’m an only child and I like my friends.  I need to have coffee every morning and I can’t live without Burt’s Bees chapstick.  I love Sean Kingston, Andy Samberg, Lil Wayne, and Milan Lucic.  I don’t hate too many things, other than cheese.  I’m pretty laid back.  My sign is Capricorn so if our signs are a match made in the stars talk to me.