Materialism In Morning At The Window, By F. Eliot

Furthermore, Eliot further expresses his dissatisfaction with contemporary life emphasising the hopeless toxicity of industrialisation and materialistic tendencies evident within society. Eliot’s concepts on the bleak essence of the industrial world are present throughout Prufrock and other observations. In ‘Morning at the window’, Eliot describes “brown waves of fog” consuming the decrepit, machinated street. It seems that the narrator is in fact ‘mourning’ at the window, portraying the ruination of a country he once adored in the rise of materialism. Eliot presents a similar image of modern civilisation in ‘Preludes’, where he portrays the squalor of the industrialised city. Yet, Eliot is not alone. Once again, all three writers seem to analyse …show more content…
Eliot, Fitzgerald and Waugh utilise fatalistic imagery to hint at the characters’ inevitable downfalls, which are clear not only to the reader but also to the other characters in the novel. Gatsby leads a life which would later be referred to as “The American Dream”. He becomes prosperous and lives a lavish lifestyle which he illustrates through his expansive parties. However, the fact that his dream remained unfulfilled illustrates the unrequited nature of his life. Gatbsy’s downfall seems to be his ever-present desire for more. This hubris is a common narrative technique, which often supports the fatalistic demise of a character. Kathleen Parkinson expresses this fatalism stating “Fitzgerald creates a sombre undertone of death from the start”. A similar undertone is also expressed by Waugh. The prologue of Brideshead Revisited depicts a decrepit war-torn country. We see fragments of the old world: “spoiled old trees” and the “walls of a fruit garden” which have become covered with ivy. The destruction of an idyllic place is symbolic of the destruction of Sebastian’s once beautiful nature and looks. Sebastian is unable to grow up. We see the damaging nature of his attempts at clutching onto his youth and the debilitating consequences. Eliot, too, illustrates fatalistic imagery throughout his collection. He frequently refers to the cyclical nature of life and intertwines it with imagery of hopelessness. ‘La Figlia Che Piange ' translates as young girl crying and Eliot’s discussion of “Autumn”, and solar activity seems to suggest that this misery is inevitable. Similar seasonal imagery is used throughout the collection notably “lunar incarnations” in ‘Rhapsody on a Windy Night’ and further imagery of the moon in ‘Conversation Galante’. The collection seems wholly melancholic and the connection with recurring natural events illustrates that the passage of time is inexorable and the downfall