|
|
|
 |
浅析T.S.艾略特早期诗歌中的现代人形象 |
 |
时间：2009-8-8 16:56:54 来源：不详
|
|
|
exhausting of his body and also his spiritual strength. The image of Gerontion is just the modern men in the early twentieth century: feeble, decayed, humble and insignificant, he does nothing good for the society while vainly hopes to get the salvation from the God. From here we can see Gerontion is a little old man, who has little to boast of about his past exploits. Gerontion has neither notable exploits for the nation in the war time nor magnificent and earth-shaking feat in the peace time. Till he dies, he is still with a “dry brain.” However, he has seen much of the world (people like Mr. Silvero, Hakagawa, Madame de Tornquist, Fraulein von Kulp, and knowledge of “whispering ambitious”, “vanities”, “unnatural vices” and “impudent crimes”). He is now at the end of his tether.
The little old man’s personal feeling of sadness over his unimportance can be felt in every way “I an old man,(line15) / A dull head among windy spaces.(line16)” These lines suggest the general mood of despair for all people and all things in the western world. It’s Eliot’s personal feeling of disillusionment as well as the general despair of the people of Western Europe over the crisis of Western civilization.
This is also a contrast about the secular history of Europe between the splendid past and the dismal present. Gerontion symbolizes that the Western civilization has gone rotten. “Among whispers; by Mr. Silvero (line23)/With caressing hands, at Limoges (line24)/Who walked all night in the next room;(line25)/By Hakagawa, bowing among the Titians;(line26)/By Madame de Tornquist, in the dark room/Shifting the candles (line27); Fraulein von Kulp (line28)”. These mysterious foreign figures who rise shadow-like in Gerontion’s mind are the inheritors of desolation.
Gerontion has already described himself as “an old man in a draughty house,” and his “house” of history has its corridors and passages and issues. “She gives when our attention is distracted (line37)/ And what she gives, gives with such supple confusions(line38)/That the giving famishes the craving. Gives too late(line39)/What’s not believed in, or if still believed,(line40) /In memory only, reconsidered passion.(line41)” This is merely self-deception. Gerontion shifts the blame for his own situation from himself onto history: Gives too soon(line41)/Into weak hands, what’s thought can be dispensed with(line42)/Till the refusal propagates a fear. Think(line43)/ Neither fear nor courage saves us. Unnatural vices(line44)/Are fathered by our heroism. Virtues(line45)/Are forced upon us by our impudent crimes(line46). According to Gerontion, neither passive fear nor active courage will save us, because history has duped us, perverting our heroic intentions. However, Gerontion’s understanding of history is a rationalization of his own incapability to act or feel. The narrator of Gerontion does not understand that his knowledge of history is his own “ideal construction” that the vision of historical chaos is a product of the mind that cannot unify the present and the past, and that history is not something separated from the life of the individual in the present.
From this poem we can find some deliberate echoes of “Prufrock”. Prufrock’s hesitant movement towards the woman of his quest through labyrinthine streets is picked up in Gerontion’s movement through the labyrinth of history towards a protagonist who turns out surprisingly to be female and peculiarly sexual in the knowledge she promises: “I would meet you upon this honestly…(line54)/I have lost my sight, smell, hearing, taste and touch(line59)/How should I use them for your closer contact?(line60)” Prufrock’s dandy vision of mermaids by the shore being matched by Gerontion’s more isolated vision of gull against the wind, remote and lost to man.[15]
Gerontion was a tragic figure after the First World War--- the time Europe was greatly damaged. The little old man might lose his son or daughter and he became a lonely man in the world. He had to face the rotten world and the lost of relatives. He cannot see any hope but becomes dismal and passionless gradually. “I have lost my sight, a smell, heating, taste and touch(line59); How should I use them for your closer contact? (line60)” From here we know Gerontion has nothing left. We can see Gerontion is too serious about his “history”, and he is stuffed by his “history”. After the war, he lost everything. The only thing he has is “pain”. He is absolutely hopeless and in despair. The only thing he can do is to sit in the decayed house, waiting for death.
2.3 The Hollow Men --- scarecrow-like modern men
2.3.1 Brief introduction of The Hollow Men
The Hollow Men was written in 1925, a few years after the First World War. After we have observed Prufrock’s spiritual debate and incompetence to love, the little old man’s hopelessness, we will see the spiritual emptiness of modern men from The Hollow Men. This poem might be T.S. Eliot’s summar上一页 [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] 下一页
|
|
| |
|
