Outsider_Area_of_Study

Lack of conformity may lead to an outsider Appearance, Attitudes, Choices, Individual experiences, Ideas Lack of conformity may lead to an Outsider. In T.S. Eliot’s Rhapsody on a windy night, Eliot mirrors his own opposition to modernity with the symbol of ‘night’. The world in the poem is completely dependent on night for its survival, night being representative of the ‘modern’ age. Eliot ‘regard[s] the moon’ showing that it is this what provides safety against the darkness of night as ‘la lane ne garde aucune rancune’; translated to ‘The moon bears no grudge’. The moon light exposes the events of the night, endangering some but providing refuge for others. Eliot’s unpoetic diction and lexicon reflects the complexity of the modern world and highlights his inability to conform to societal expectations. The last stanza brings the poem back to a rational landscape as the character returns home to a familiar environment; ‘Memory!’ The last line follows an anapaestic pentameter with emphasis on the words 'last, twist and knife' stressing the word 'knife.' Two heavy beats, side by side, in a spondee with 'last twist' describing something dark and horrible leaves the reader with an extremely modernist attitude of no 'hope'- no way to stop the knife twisting leaving embedded a lingering dark attitude. This suggests that even after coming back to reality, the images of darkness and opposition remain, emphasizing Eliot’ outsider nature in his inconformity to fully accept what has happened to him. Similarly in Frank Kafka’s Metamorphosis, extensive symbolism is used to relate the surreal and the absurd, alienating the effects that conformity forms. Gregor’s family rejects him due to his inability to conform to the expectations of society and appear normal as ‘he [realizes] that his appearance [is]...constantly intolerable.’ However the picture of the woman in furs is used as a symbol of Gregor’s former humanity and he clings to it desperately as his family threatens to dispose of it, ‘revealing the Samsa family's blatant disrespect of Gregor’. The picture reinforces memories of humanity parallel to the ‘memory’ evident in Rhapsody of a windy night. The family’s rejection of Gregor is subsequently evident where his father locks him in his room and later wounds him, his mother faints at the sight of him and Grete tires caring for him suggesting that “He must go…It is the only solution [to their poverty.]” His family conforms to societies expectations of normality and they do not think about Gregor’s psychological state through his metamorphosis, instead worrying only about how it affects them. When he is enticed to enter the living room by Grete’ violin playing, he is spotted and forced to retreat “hardly inside his room [before]  the door was hurriedly slammed shut, firmly bolted and locked”. In contrast to Eliot’s lexicon of opposing constants to conclude words ‘bears’ and ‘grudge’, the succinctness of the words “shut”, “bolted” and “locked” as well as the finality and harshness of the words “slammed” and “firmly”, demonstrate the sharpness of the total estrangement that Gregor comes to encompass. The prevention from simply enjoying his own sister's music, can be interpreted that any remaining vestiges whatsoever of humanity have been severed, intensifying Gregor's feelings of alienation and growing isolation. Lack of communication may lead to feelings of exclusion Isolation, Otherness, Separation, Living outside of Society Lack of communication may lead to feelings of exclusion. In T.S. Eliot’s The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock the characters inability to connect with the society leads to questions of existence. He is an introverted outsider opposing the conformities yet still abiding by them, seeking a ‘way out’. He tries to communicate with society to fulfil his ultimate goal of finding ‘love’ yet he his continually held back by his inability to act. Eliot’s continual repetition regarding ‘the women [who] come and go, talking of Michael Angelo’ highlights the shallow consciousness of a modern, neurotic individual, emphasised by the rhyming couplet, through it being the only topic talked about by these ‘women’. Actions are discussed as either future possibilities or as things already done and the past; “Do I Dare'...How should I then presume' And how should I begin'” These are hardly existential questions, yet they are fatal to the development of his character. Whichever attempt he makes to communicate he identifies his inability to converse regarding ‘important’ issues, reclaiming his sentences; “That is not it at all, that is not what I meant, at all.” The fragmented sonnet form of the poem creates a bleak contrast between statements regarding modernism, with opposing syllables being stressed. His inability to communicate with other individuals is representative of his inability to communicate with society, leading to a self-perceived exclusion and isolation. In Ionesco’s Bald Prima Donna the characters have an inability to communicate with one anoter. They speak in clichés and non-sequiturs such as; ‘Don’t be a silly goose, kiss the conspirator instead’; at random intervals to perceive conversations that go no-where. The timeless setting of the play sees no individual character as an outsider within their society, but an outsider within themselves. Similar to the Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, the play protests against the present-day, mechanical, bourgeois civilisation and the loss of values through random combinations of reconstructed clichés, facts and aphorisms. The cliché ‘It’s a vicious circle’ is deconstructed to ‘Take a circle, caress it, and it will turn vicious’ rearranging the context to invent an inherent meaning. Similarly in the Bald Prima Donna every character is so removed within themselves that they forget who is around them and where they are. As Mr Martin speaks to Mrs Martin, it is clear he is so removed from his life that he does not recognize his own wife; ‘How bizarre, curious, strange! Then, madam, we live in the same room and we sleep in the same bed… perhaps…we have met!’ It is thus evident that characters feel isolated within society, relationships and themselves leading to barriers to communication. Separation from society may lead to feelings of exclusion Relationships, People * Love song – he is alone Separation from society may lead to feelings of exclusion. In T.S. Eliot’s The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock the characters inability to communicate with society leads to feelings of exclusion. The character rationalises that he will join society, saying to himself ‘indeed there will be time [to achieve something.]’ The iambic pentameter stresses emphasis on the words ‘indeed, will and time’ to portray a certainness regarding communication being evoked. However this repetitive statement is meaningless with the character failing to communicate with others- leaving him as an outsider. He can ‘measure out [his] life with coffee spoons’ emphasising the empty, dreary and insignificant role he has played to society thus evoking his separation. He seeks love and companionship referring to ‘arms’ he has already known, both ‘white and bare’ but is unsatisfied with as they are ‘downed with light brown hair!’ This is representative of the tainted consciousness of the looming modern era, with the skin representing what is thought as a ‘perfect’ society yet when inspected closely, it is ‘tainted’ with light brown hair symbolic of its true ‘imperfection’ and ‘ugliness.’ Similarly in Frank Kafka’s Metamorphosis, Gregor’s separation from humanity leads to severe isolation and alienation. With his metamorphosis Gregor no longer has the ability to develop normal relationships, thus becoming the bane of his separation. In contrast to Eliot, Gregor involuntarily losses all communication abilities. Music is used as a symbol of his means of communication surpasses his physical barrier. Listening to Grete play music makes Gregor feel ‘as if the way to the unknown nourishment he craves was revealing itself’ however he is punished for his act of ‘normalcy’ as he ventures out of his room to listen to music when his father chases him back, “hardly inside his room [before] the door was hurriedly slammed shut, firmly bolted and locked”. Eliot’s sonnets form to stress specific words is similar in the succinctness of the words “shut”, “bolted” and “locked” as well as the finality and harshness of the words “slammed” and “firmly” used by Kafka to demonstrate the sharpness of the total estrangement Gregor comes to encompass. This separation from even ‘normal’ actions abolishes any remaining vestiges of humanity, intensifying Gregor’s feelings exclusion. His metamorphosis literally separates him from mortality, essentially excluding him from society and those he ‘cares’ for. The story concludes with his escape from society through death or more accurately suicide, ‘His head sank all the way down, and from his nostrils his last breath flowed weakly out’. The juxtaposition of ‘flowed’ against ‘weakly’ emphasis his unwelcome surrender to full exclusion. Acceptance of exclusion may lead to ambivalence * Journey of the magi- understanding leads to sadness * Gregor commits suicide as he understands he will never be loved * Love song- hears people in the other room ‘Beneath the music from a farther room’- hears the voices but can’t go ‘So how should I presume'’- repeated Acceptance of exclusion may lead to ambivalence. In T.S. Eliot’s Journey of the Magi, the ‘Birth’ he had sought for for so long, instead leads to the disturbance of the peace he encapsulated. It is evident that he has searched for this ‘birth’ extensively through his use of polysyndeton and accumulation in the first stanza and the understatement of ‘Finding the place’ and it being ‘satisfactory.’ However while is hope of finding it is fulfilled, his peace is disrupted presenting ‘hard and bitter agony…like Death, our death.’ This loss of peace is emphasised where he states he ‘should be glad of another death.’ The succinctness of the ‘d’ constant, emphasised by repetition, stresses the word ‘death’, ending the poem with a lingering dark attitude embedded in a reader. He accepts the new birth and returns to ‘alien people clutching their gods’ representative of his lack of conformity which he accepts and again leads to his ambivalence; ‘no longer at ease here’.