What Connections Have You Found
Between The Ways that Eliot and Yeats Write about Uncertainty or Doubt? In You
Response you must include detailed critical discussion of at least two of
Eliot’s poems.
Doubt is a common theme in many of Eliot’s poems especially
in conjunction to love. Likewise in Yeats his poems are filled with doubts of
truth whether of emotion, personality or decisions.
Unconscious Doubt
In both ‘Journey of the Magi’ and ‘The Love Song of J.
Alfred Prufrock’ Eliot explores the way that the inner mind or subconscious
casts doubt over a person’s decisions. Prufrock is constantly changing his mind
about whether to profess his love or not, and is held back by his mind
supplying him with constant doubts like ‘how his arms and legs are thin’, and
‘how his hair is growing thin’. The repitition of the word ‘thin’ could perhaps
symbolise the way that he feels he is not enough for her, or that he feels
himself ‘thinning’ as he ages and becoming less of a man or less brave. Also
both of his worries are about his physical appearance, not about whether she
could love him for himself, illustrating how the mind is holding him back from
taking a leap of faith. Likewise in ‘Journey of The Magi’ Eliot portrays their
supposedly spiritual and mystical journey as it most likely was; doubt riddled
and anxious, as the Magi have ‘voices singing in their ears’. This could
represent others who are unable to trust to hope vocalising their doubt or that
the Magi’s minds were in a state of confusion and indecision, despite the great
spiritual rewards they hoped they would gain. In both of these poems, Eliot
locates the source of doubt as within a person, and the way that indecision and
doubt can create a state of paralysis, with Prufrock unable to make up his mind
and tell the truth to the women he loves, crippling him emotionally. The Magi
however, complete their journey, but are changed forever, with Eliot creating a
numb and lost voice for them. In this way, Eliot does not make it obvious what
to do with internal doubt; whether to hide of fight against it, but he shows it
as a hindrance and a barrier against an individual’s freedom of decisions.
Barrier to Another Person
Both Eliot and Yeats respectively explore the way that you
can never be certain what a person is thinking and feeling in their poems ‘The
Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’ and ‘The Mask’. Interestingly, both poets link
the theme of concealment and doubt of a person’s true nature with love. In ‘The
Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’ he is constantly putting off his moment of
declaration out of fear of what her response will be, living in fear of her
saying ‘That is not what I meant at all’. The ‘at all’ connotes the finality of
the statement, and part of his reluctance to act rises from the uncertainty
over what her reply will be, as either way it will change their relationship forever.
The fact that Prufrock asks of himself ‘how should I presume’ could represent
his feelings of unworthiness, or perhaps that he doubts whether he could win
her affections or even that he would be able to tell the things in his heart to
a younger and more attractive woman. This all indicates his complete
uncertainty as to her feelings, and her concealment of her feelings had lead Prufrock
into a state of agony, with his mind in turmoil, turning over the
same situation without any indication on her part of how he should act.
Similarly in ‘The Mask’ one of the characters is trying to dissuade the other
from altering the status quo of their relationship, saying ‘you make so bold/to
find if hearts be... cold’. Just like in Prufrock, Yeats’s character is
suggesting that it is impudence to try to explore a more romantic side to a relationship,
with the word ‘bold’ echoing ‘presume’ in Prufrock. Perhaps both Yeats and
Eliot are trying to suggest that relationships filled with doubt and
miscommunication are doomed to bring pain, and it is only when these doubts are
removed that a relationship can blossom.
Ridicule
Eliot explores the way in which ridicule exacerbates self
doubt, as in both ‘Journey of the Magi’ and ‘The Love Song of j. Alfred
Prufrock’ the main characters experience mockery from various sources. In ‘Journey
of the Magi’ the contrast between the luxury and splendour of their ‘summer
palaces’ and the ’villages dirty’ make even the reader doubt their quest, with
Eliot using heightened poetic word order to emphasize this contrast. All the
people they encounter on their journey are ‘hostile’ or ‘unfriendly’, ‘singing
in their ears’ of the Magi’s foolishness as they pass. The fact that other
people are ‘hostile’ to the Magi sticks with hem, and they remember that everyone
thought what they were doing ‘was all folly’. That the Magi can remember so
clearly what was said to them as they reminisce over their journey conveys a
sense of self-conciousness and that they themselves were inclined to believe
the nay-sayers. Prufrock however, is both worried by his own self-dislike and
other people’s opinions of him. He repeatedly frets over what ‘they will say’,
perhaps worried of their criticism dissuading his love’s opinion or that ‘they’
will not think him good enough. In both of the poems then, other’s ridicule and
poor opinion increases doubt, and perhaps Eliot is trying to convey the need to
be independent of others people’s opinions to make decisions, yet also
contrasting this with the practical impossibility of doing so.
The Inner Self
Eliot and Yeats both explore dangers of peeling back
uncertainty as there is yet more uncertainty to what you may find within. In
both ‘The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’ and ‘The Mask’ someone is trying to
delve underneath the polite veneer of the outer self that is presented to
society in order to discover the beauty and truth concealed underneath. In ‘The
Mask’ one character wants to look underneath the mask, but the other is
adamantly against it, as it would seem to mark the change in their relationship
to love from ‘fire’ which connotes passion and lust. This is similar to Prufrock
who wants to lead his love ‘to an overwhelming question’ that would transform
their relationship from friendship to love. Both of the poems seem to represent
the current state of the relationships within them by using physical descriptions,
as ‘The Mask’ is ‘burning gold with emerald eyes’ and Prufrock’s love has ‘arms
that are braceleted and white and bare’. In both the reader is allowed to see
the attraction of the outer self, with Yeat’s sounding like a goddess and Eliot’s
sounding like an elegant and refined angelic figure. Furthermore, the
characters in both the poems are also obviously infatuated, with the repetition
of the word ‘and’ making Prufrock sound like he’s gushing. The poets seem to
suggest that love drives or makes someone dissatisfied with only knowing the
outer self, or at least desirous to know whether the feelings are reciprocated.
Prufrock’s thought of ‘To wonder: Do I dare’ seem to echo in ‘The Mask’ where ‘I
must enquire’ ‘lest you are my enemy’. This representation of the pursuit of
truth seems to be restrained in some way, as both seem to be held back by
politeness, with the word ‘enquire’ lending the quest a feeling of reason.
Neither, however, comes to any fruition, as neither receives an answer or is
able to go beneath the outer self and discover what is there. Perhaps this is
to indicate that doubt can never truly be erased, and never completely gotten over,
and that all emotion is bound to uncertainty as long as other people remain a
mystery to us.
In conclusion, I think that both Eliot and Yeats explore the
restriction doubt places upon the individual, and Eliot takes it further,
showing how we imprison ourselves through our uncertainty.
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