Discuss Eliot’s treatment of the theme of the modern city in Essay exam

Discuss Eliot’s treatment of the theme of the modern city in Preludes. Also refer to The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock if you wish. In both ‘Preludes’ and ‘The love song of J. Alfred Prufrock’, the modern city is one of the main themes. Eliot’s fascination with the modern city could stem from the fact that he was an American, and so when he moved to England in 1915, the modern city was a part of England of which he was in awe. Eliot was also influenced by the French poet, Charles Baudelaire who explored the poetic possibilities of â€Å"the more sordid aspects of the modern metropolis.† I believe that this is what Eliot is doing in Preludes; I believe he is exploring the poetic possibilities of the city. In ‘Preludes’, Eliot begins the poem with â€Å"The winter evening settles down / With smell of steaks in passageways / Six o’clock.† Here, Eliot has personified the weather and made wide use of sibilance. By using sibilance, he makes the â€Å"passageways† seem eerie and mysterious. Eliot then continues with â€Å"The burnt-out ends of smoky days / And now a gusty shower wraps.† These two lines suggest endings, as life is firstly compared to a cigarette, where it burns away to nothing and then the line â€Å"And now a gusty shower wraps† makes use of pathetic fallacy, as the turbulent day in the city is over, just like the â€Å"gusty shower† has finished. The last two lines of the stanza create the impression of a city atmosphere which is dingy and dark; â€Å"And at the corner of the street / A lonely cab horse steams and stamps.† The cab horse could mirror people in the city, as many of them are lonely, and â€Å"at the corner of the street† suggests isolation and dinginess mixed with a familiar city image. In the second stanza, El... ... mirroring the harsh world which the city is. â€Å"The worlds revolve†¦Ã¢â‚¬  suggests that in cities people are living in their own different worlds, behind â€Å"masquerades†, which is a theme also present in ‘The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’ with the line â€Å"To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet.† In ‘Preludes’ and ‘The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’, Eliot illuminates the modern city in a very harsh light. Eliot seems to focus on the negative points of the city such as its darkness, loneliness and how threatening it can be. This could be due to the fact that Eliot was writing about these city themes after Darwinism, and just before World War One, when the city and civilisation were seen as the things which would eventually destroy man. Eliot discusses the theme of the modern city truthfully and writes about it in the stark way in which he views it.