‘Portrait of a Lady’ is another poem in which Eliot explores the concepts of women belonging to the upper social classes but in ‘Portrait of a Lady’, unlike ‘Prufrock’, Eliot almost scorns the women, and looks at them in a very cynical light. ‘Portrait of a Lady’ has a very dramatic structure - a one-sided dialogue, in which the lady speaks and her visitor silently comments ably shows us Eliot’s clear views in this poem about women, and in ‘Portrait of a Lady’ the tone suggests that he feels women are ‘false note(s).’ The dialogue of the woman is very pretentious with lines such as “So intimate, this Chopin, that I think his soul / Should be resurrected only among friends” and “Without these friendships – life, what cauchemar!” By having the lady speak French Eliot suggests that he perceives this woman to be trying too hard and this makes us think of the woman as if she is putting on a mask rather than being herself; this is one of the main themes which is interwoven into Eliot’s poetry.
The poem ‘Preludes’ portrays women in a very different light to ‘Prufrock’ and ‘Portrait of a Lady’. In ‘Preludes’ Eliot draws influence from Baudelaire who wrote about ‘the more sordid aspects of the modern metropolis,’ and it would seem that in ‘Preludes’ women can almost be included in these ‘sordid aspects.’ Eliot talks about a woman in the third stanza of the poem, and it would appear that the woman is a prostitute. Writing about a prostitute, he presents to us a more sordid side of women. In ‘Preludes’, Eliot’s view is almost degrading and at times Eliot presents an ashamed tone when he says “The thousand sordid images / Of which your soul was constituted.”
In ‘Rhapsody on a Windy Night’, Eliot takes a stance similar to the one he took in ‘Preludes,’ where women are not seen as beautiful creatures as in ‘Prufrock’, but as being ‘stained’. Eliot, again, talks of prostitution with; “Regard that woman / Who hesitates towards you in the light of the door.” I believe that in the poem ‘Rhapsody on a Windy Night’, Eliot delivers a slightly negative view of women, and the tone is cold, and in some aspects, slightly threatening at times.
In the four poems; ‘Prufrock’, ‘Portrait of a Lady’, ‘Preludes’ and ‘Rhapsody on a Windy Night’, Eliot uses a profusion of imagery to enhance his description of the women, and many of the images are recycled in the different poems. Eliot uses the imagery of flowers in his poems. In ‘Portrait of a lady’, Eliot writes “who will not touch the bloom”. The word “bloom” presents to us images of bountiful flowers, but “bloom” is also a term that can be used to describe the growth of mould. By using this imagery Eliot could be suggesting that women look beautiful, but when you look closer they are riddled with dirt and mould and that all beautiful things go stale. In ‘Portrait of a Lady’ Eliot also mentions that “lilacs are in bloom / She has a bowl of lilacs in her room” this use of flowers as a fashion, shows the woman’s trivial want of fashionable objects. Eliot also writes “with the smell of hyacinths across the garden”. This image makes reference to the woman trying to bring her youth back to life with popular images as hyacinths are the flowers which symbolise resurrection. In ‘Rhapsody on a Windy Night’ Eliot also uses flower imagery with “her hand twists a paper rose”. As the rose is made of paper it is artificial, and this is perhaps another reference to Eliot’s theme of masquerades as the flower reflects the woman, who is artificial and false. A reccurring image of Eliot’s poetry is the idea of disjointed body parts.
Disjointed body parts are present in ‘Prufrock’ and ‘Rhapsody on a Windy Night’ with “arms that are braceleted and white and bare” from ‘Prufrock’ and “the border of her dress / Is torn and stained with sand” from ‘Rhapsody on a Windy Night.’
By focusing on specific body parts Eliot suggests to us that he has studied parts of the women very clearly and possibly over a long period of time which almost suggests voyeurism of the women on Eliot’s part. In ‘Preludes’ Eliot also focuses on specific body parts with the lines ”you curled the papers from your hair” and “clasped the yellow soles of feet / In the palms of both soiled hands.” The colour “yellow“ in the image suggests illness, and this idea of women and illness may stem from Eliot’s personal affairs. Eliot married in 1915, and later his wife became very ill before suffering a breakdown. Eliot had to witness his wife’s illness and this may have promoted Eliot to write about women in this way in ‘Preludes’.
Eliot uses many poetic devices which contribute to the subjects of his poems. In ‘Portrait of a Lady’ Eliot uses rhyme with “Now that lilacs are in bloom / She has a bowl of lilacs in her room”. By using rhyme, more commonly associated with children’s poetry, Eliot emphasises the innocent and childlike side of the woman. Eliot also writes his poems in a way which makes them multi sensory; We see “Is it perfume from a dress / That makes me so digress?” in ‘Prufrock and “Her hand twists a paper rose / That smells of dust and eau de cologne” in ‘Rhapsody on a Windy Night’. By appealing to our senses, Eliot draws us in to his poetry up to a point where we can almost smell exactly what he is describing, which brings us closer to the women in his poems.
Between the four poems “Prufrock”, “Portrait of a Lady”, “Preludes” and “Rhapsody on a Windy Night” Eliot provides us with a rounded view of women. He describes the beautiful and untouchable side of them in ‘Prufrock’, the darker, more sordid side of women in ‘Preludes’ and ‘Rhapsody on a Windy Night’ with a description of how false women can be in ‘Portrait of a Lady’. Eliot’s imagery is effective in the poems, as by using it he justifies his reasons for describing the women in the way he does. I feel that Eliot describes women in the way in which he views them, drawing from personal experiences and what he takes from poets who have gone before him.
Becky Harris 12G2
1,373 words
