Compare and Contrast the Ways in Which the Theme of Isolation Is Presented and Explored by Sebastian Faulks and T.S Eliot in ‘Engleby’ and ‘Selected Poems’.
Compare and contrast the ways in which the theme of isolation is presented and explored by Sebastian Faulks and T.S Eliot in ‘Engleby’ and ‘Selected Poems’.
Throughout both ‘Engleby’ and ‘Selected Poems’ there is a prevailing sense of ‘apprehension of the tenuousness of human existence’ which is evident in the protagonists’ confining inability to communicate with the world around them, as seen in Prufrock’s agonised call, ‘so how should I presume?’. ‘The Wasteland’ was written by Eliot to ‘address the fragmentation and alienation characteristic of [contemporary] culture’, questioning mankind’s ability to move forward into cohesiveness despite the ‘more pronounced sense of disillusionment and cynicism’ which came about as a ‘direct consequence of World War One’. Similarly ‘Engleby’ questions the advancement of humanity: ‘something happened to this country, perhaps in the 1960’s. We lost the past’ indicating his thematic disappointment with the world around him because ‘significant things happen so slowly that it’s seldom you can say: it was then – or then’; his lack of impact on the world leading to self-isolation.
Both ‘Engleby’ and ‘Selected poems’ emphasise their protagonist’s isolation through a confining inability to reconcile themselves with the futility of their existence. It has been said that ‘in both texts there is a choice of both engaging with and accepting the world in which [the protagonists] live, or finding some way of transcending it’ yet it is evident neither is an option, with the only comfort found in ‘religion and death’ for Eliot, or ‘blue pills’ for Engleby.
In ‘The Waste Land’ Eliot creates a ‘dead land’ recovering from the effects of world war one; ‘a heap of broken images’ in ‘stony rubbish’- the barren landscape reflecting the war-torn, disintegrating society in which it was written. It mirrors the meaninglessness of human interaction and lack of inspiration emphasised through repetition in ‘Prufrock’: ‘In the room the women come and
Throughout both ‘Engleby’ and ‘Selected Poems’ there is a prevailing sense of ‘apprehension of the tenuousness of human existence’ which is evident in the protagonists’ confining inability to communicate with the world around them, as seen in Prufrock’s agonised call, ‘so how should I presume?’. ‘The Wasteland’ was written by Eliot to ‘address the fragmentation and alienation characteristic of [contemporary] culture’, questioning mankind’s ability to move forward into cohesiveness despite the ‘more pronounced sense of disillusionment and cynicism’ which came about as a ‘direct consequence of World War One’. Similarly ‘Engleby’ questions the advancement of humanity: ‘something happened to this country, perhaps in the 1960’s. We lost the past’ indicating his thematic disappointment with the world around him because ‘significant things happen so slowly that it’s seldom you can say: it was then – or then’; his lack of impact on the world leading to self-isolation.
Both ‘Engleby’ and ‘Selected poems’ emphasise their protagonist’s isolation through a confining inability to reconcile themselves with the futility of their existence. It has been said that ‘in both texts there is a choice of both engaging with and accepting the world in which [the protagonists] live, or finding some way of transcending it’ yet it is evident neither is an option, with the only comfort found in ‘religion and death’ for Eliot, or ‘blue pills’ for Engleby.
In ‘The Waste Land’ Eliot creates a ‘dead land’ recovering from the effects of world war one; ‘a heap of broken images’ in ‘stony rubbish’- the barren landscape reflecting the war-torn, disintegrating society in which it was written. It mirrors the meaninglessness of human interaction and lack of inspiration emphasised through repetition in ‘Prufrock’: ‘In the room the women come and