Rhapsody on a Windy Night Essay Example

Rhapsody on a Windy Night Essay Example Rhapsody on a Windy Night Essay Rhapsody on a Windy Night Essay Rhapsody on a Windy Night This modernist text reflects the conflicted emotions and perspectives regarding the war and its aftermath. The odd an almost non-sensual literature presented by T. S. Elliot is enhances by the detailed imagery he embodies. Corresponding with the modernist literature movement, Elliot manifests Surrealist notions of an unconscious, abstract and dream-like atmosphere within his poetry, utilising the subconscious mind as a medium. As Rhapsody on a Windy Night depict mainly the themes of isolation, hopelessness and lack or loss of affection without society, as does Rene Magritte’s Les profondeurs du plaisir, which translates directly into The Depths of Pleasure. The themes of isolation, hopelessness and insanity are heightened greatly through the use of imagery and allusions. As the opening of the poem originates at midnight ‘the gloomiest’ time of the night with the only source of light irradiating from the moon, the only things can be seen through the moonlight indicating the importance of the moon. In a traditional sense, the moon was seen to represent the womanly grace associated with physic, intuitive and mysteriousness yet also in a way presenting a dark nature welded in a realm between the conscious and the unconscious. The fragile wordings embody the compassionate feats of the feminine and motherly side of the moon as she tenderly ‘smooths the hair of the grass. ’ However there is a radical change in tone as ‘A washed-out smallpox cracks her face. As this line is ambiguous as to whether the persona was referring to the moon or a woman’s facial features or perhaps both. However in the artwork, a depiction of a crescent moon illuminates to a different notion of the beginning of a renewal cyclic change. The loss of affection throughout the poem is seen as a one of the most significant resulting in various forms of alienation. A prime example of such a theme can be seen through the image of the prostitute within the poetry. Although she may appear generally as a sexual predator attempting to lure degenerate men for their wealth, a surrealist interpretation may delve deeper into the latent and suppressed nature of the subconscious. The notion of the loss of affection is accentuated as the persona observes the woman with the ‘crooked pin’ eye. When observing a prostitute in a Surrealist circumstance it may initiate our sense of guilt and uncertainty or a sense of inadequacy of ‘prostituting’ our talents to the world. In this particular artwork, the woman characterized from Magritte’s Les profondeurs du plaisir, is seen exposing her bare self to the world in such a manner. As of this picture, the isolation of communication is fairly prominent as the woman stares out her window towards the waning moon residing in the horizon amongst the broad spectrum of water. Through her nudity, an almost certain assumption of her prostitution is almost inevitable. Her body physique in the artwork can be interpreted as stiff, perhaps in response from her supposed occupation accenting the theme of the deprivation of affection. Being deprived of such endearment causes alienation both personally and within a society. Elliots’ attempt to show such events can be witnessed as he describes the border of dress as torn and stained with sand. Overall. Elliot limits each viewer’s knowledge of the persona and his surrounding intending to materialise different emotional response from each in the layers of each subconscious mind.