As stated earlier, the lady in Portrait of a Lady is depicted externally. We see in this another strategy of Eliot’s for effective characterisation. She is effectively characterised by direct speech. The nagging, repetitious, insistent voice of hers (“And how, how rare and strange it is, to find / In a life composed so much, so much of odds and ends”) conveys the neurotic edge to her character, as well as her loneliness and desperation.
Because, in the dramatic monologue poems, the narrator is characterised by the way in which he perceives his surroundings, an evocation of scene is often really an evocation of character. Thus, another technique for evoking character is the evocation of scene. Eliot makes use of simile, metaphor and the objective correlative technique. For example, in …Prufrock, the evening is described as “Like a patient etherised upon a table”. This sets the scene, as well as conveying Prufrock’s enervation with the world.
Rhapsody on a Windy Night is perhaps the poem in which scene is most important. Here, the ethereal scene is set in the opening stanza, with lines such as “held in a lunar synthesis / Whispering lunar incantations”, and the scene is added to throughout the rest of the poem. The lines:
Along the reaches of the street
Held in a lunar synthesis
Whispering lunar incantations
are an especially effective evocation of scene. The use of suggestive vocabulary, such as “reaches”, gives ominous undertones to the streets. The positioning of “held in a lunar synthesis” is ambiguous: the line could be referring to the lunar incantations or to the street. In fact, the ambiguous positioning allows it to refer to both, emphasising the idea of a “synthesis”. The assonance and sibilance of “Whispering lunar incantations” mimics the sound of incantations, rendering the narrative more vivid. The line “whispering lunar incantations” does not make logical sense: incantations cannot whisper, rather they are themselves whispered. This inversion, and the other subtle effects, serve to heighten the otherworldly nature of the scene.
Eliot often adds to the evocation of scene by stressing the time of year. For example, in Prufrock, the night is “soft October” – a time of decay, but a time of beauty. In Portrait…, it is first “December” – a barren, as well as a romantic time – and then “April” – a time of new life. But here, the boundary between scene and moral atmosphere merges: the month sets the scene, but the scene is a reflection of the mood. Thus, the evocation of scene, as well as being an evocation of character, is an evocation of moral atmosphere. Often, moral atmosphere is a product of scene and character. For example, in …Prufrock, the atmosphere of being trapped is evoked by the evocation of scene (“streets that follow like a tedious argument / Of insidious intent”), as well as the evocation of character – Prufrock’s language is trapped in a circular never-ending crisis of indecision (e.g. frequently returning to the question “…should I…”).
The moral atmosphere is further intensified by Eliot’s use of the objective correlative technique. For example, the “old crab with barnacles on its back” in Rhapsody…, which “gripped the end of a stick”, evokes a sense of yearning and desperation for escape (with death encroaching), which is a theme of the poem. The moral atmosphere of Eliot’s poetry is often similar in its gloom. Therefore, Eliot is able to use recurring images and motifs that further enhance his evocation. One such recurring image is that of being stretched. We see it in: “when the evening is spread out against the sky”, “slowly twisting the lilac stalks”, and “his soul stretched tight across the skies”. It is an image of torture, and exposure. Another such image is that of smoke or fog, present in …Prufrock, Portrait…, and Rhapsody…. This image evokes feelings of being trapped.
Eliot’s poetry often appeals to multiple senses in order to be more evocative. For example, in Rhapsody…, “the reminiscence comes…[of] female smells…and cocktail smells in bars”. This appeals to the sense of smell. In Portrait…, the sense of hearing is played upon, with “attenuated tones of violins / mingled with remote cornets”. Finally, the sense of touch is also appealed to, with such tactile descriptions as “smoothed by long fingers”.
A further method used by Eliot to render his poetry more evocative is that of allusion. Alluding to other literature allows Eliot to capture a vast amount of meaning in relatively few words. For example, “an atmosphere of Juliet’s tomb” is something very hard to describe fully. In fact, to gain an appreciation of the full range of its meaning, one must be familiar with Romeo and Juliet. Eliot is able to use the allusion to add the full range of meaning to his poem. Another example of allusion is Prufrock’s “I have seen my head…brought in upon a platter”. Here, knowledge of the circumstances surrounding John the Baptist’s death adds meaning to the poetry. Eliot often includes epigraphs at the beginning of his poems. These are evocative by suggesting one of the main themes of the poem. For example, in Portrait…, the inclusion of the line “and besides, the wench is dead” from The Jew of Malta add to the characterisation of the man in the poem as cruelly dismissive and detached.