Themes in Modern Literature Essay Sample

Modernism in “Aunt Helen” . by T. S. Eliot and “Eleanor Rigby” . by John Lennon and Paul McCartney “Aunt Helen” . by T. S. Eliot and “Eleanor Rigby” . by John Lennon and Paul McCartney are poems which comprise options of modernism. Loneliness. societal disaffection and isolation. twin criterion and delegating of religion are the chief topics emerge from these literary items. Miss Helen Slingsby. the poet’s aunt in “Aunt Helen” . was an single grownup feminine who lived totally. aside from her retainers and pets. Aunt Helen was distant and stray. and after her decease there was silence on Earth and in Eden. The repeat of the phrase “silence” represents the deficiency of involvement in her. Not merely that her decease resulted in indifference however she had no impression on anybody’s life however her parrot. which “shortly afterwards…died excessively. ” “Eleanor Rigby” is in addition to roughly societal disaffection and isolation. Each Eleanor Rigby and Father McKenzie have been lonely individuals.

who lived in the identical alienating society. labored in a church however did not do any vital contact with individuals round them or with one another.

Eleanor was the cleaning agent of a church. dreamed to amass married however needed to accept selecting up the rice after different’s nuptialss and “ready on the window” for one who would non demo up. Father McKenzie was a priest who wrote discourses to trusters that wouldn’t hear ( “nobody will hear” ) and spent his darks repairing his socks so he may look noteworthy in the eyes of people that excluded themselves from church ( “Nobody semen close to. ” ) Double criterion is one other topic in these two verse varieties. Aunt Helen “lived in just a little home close to a classy sq.” and “cared for by servants” . She was a “correct Bostonian” . a societal class who had been the vanguard of American idealism and progressive thought and set the criterions for gustatory sensation and good judgement. She didn’t have a family of her ain. and due to this fact she left her bequest to her Canis familiariss and parrot ( “The Canis familiariss have been handsomely supplied for” ) . She cared merely for her pets and left nil to her retainers who cared for her and externally abided by her laws.

The retainers have been ‘cautious’ whereas the aunt lived however after she was gone. they have been prosecuting in the form of sexual exercise she would maintain despised. Eleanor Rigby was a grownup feminine who needed to have on the “face that she retains in a jar by the door. ” She set on the face of a pleasant religious particular person. symbolically she hid her true empty ego. Father McKenzie. by “darning his socks in the darkish when there’s cipher there” . was ashamed and conceal himself merely as Eleanor did. Each “Aunt Helen” and “Eleanor Rigby” jest paradoxically on the futility of non secular pursuits. The verse varieties evoke non secular vacancy. Within the first. “the mortician wiped his ft—He was cognizant that this type of factor had occurred earlier than” and the footman “holding the 2nd maidservant on his articulatio genuss – who had ever been so cautious whereas her stored girl lived” symbolizes the touring off from religion each bit good because the breakage of previous values. Within the latter the names of Eleanor Rigby and Father McKenzie recommend they each have been Irish. and the church. as a scene. implies on their Catholicity. Harmonizing to the Christian philosophy. redemption refers back to the phenomenon of the psyche being saved from some unlucky destiny by Godhead bureau. Father McKenzie in “Eleanor Rigby” .

Nonetheless. Eleanor Rigby ended up lifeless ” in the church and was buried alongside along with her identify” and non merely her. however “nobody was saved” . The final line of stanza three symbolizes the interruption of religious faith and the alienation of contemporary society T. S. Eliot and Lennon and McCartney make utilization of from and method in order to convey their message. In “Eleanor Rigby” . the sequence of building is inconsistent. The diminishing size of traces 2 and four in the three stanzas. each bit good because the questions in the shutting line of every. assemble tenseness till the inevitable terminal of Eleanor Rigby and the crucial assertion that “nobody was saved” . It appears as if solitariness is declining as clip base on balls on. and ends in a forlorn decease. In a primary glimpse. “Aunt Helen” offers the sensation of a paragraph consists of 5 tallies on sentences and no type. The signifier. which doesn’t appear to be poetic in stanza signifier and lacks type. accentuates the absence. or vacancy. in Miss Helen Slingsby’s life. Though each poems’ signifier expresses the same topic of solitariness. they’re actually totally different in their building.

Whereas “Eleanor Rigby” is split into three stanzas. consisting of a poetry and a refrain. which can be rhymed in the identical type – the primary and the 2nd traces rime each bit good because the third and the Forth. “Aunt Helen” has a extra free signifier. The 5 sentences assembled in the verse type are differed in size and the rhyming technique is inconsistent – the final phrase of the 2nd sentence rimes with the final phrase in the undermentioned line ( “road” and “ft” ) . and it’s the identical in the next sentence. Nonetheless. the next rime has a distinct type – the primary line in the final sentence rimes with the third line of the sentence ( “mantelpiece” and “on his knees” ) . Aunt Helen’s life and decease are described in a barely formal method. as largely temporary and to the factors phrases are used. There are commas and full Michigans and no inquiry marks or exclaiming Markss. Whereas “Aunt Helen’s” enlightening nature emphasizes the deficiency of metaphors. Eleanor Rigby “Lives in a dream” . wears “a face she retains in a jar” and is “Buried alongside along with her identify” .

“Eleanor Rigby” opens with boding the debut of two alone individuals “Ah. have a look at all of the alone individuals! ” The terminal of the verse type – the decease of Eleanor Rigby – is about anticipated. whereas the formality used in “Aunt Helen” avails in making an sudden disclosure – the rejection of “previous” morality. expressed in the act of the 2 retainers on the eating room. The authors use symbols to go on their messages. Eleanor Rigby “picks up the rice in a church the place a nuptials has been” . This image of fusion of two individuals in a nuptials ceremonial contradicts the chief topic of the verse type – solitariness.

In “Aunt Helen” the point out to the Dresden clock go oning after her decease symbolizes the disaffection of a society in which individuals don’t depart a vital consequence. Time continues with out them. The overexploitation of “nobody” and “no person” in “Eleanor Rigby” intends to arrange the topic of solitariness and disaffection. The storyteller mocks each Eleanor Rigby. who “was buried alongside along with her identify” . and Father McKenzie. who meant nil to cipher. and whose merely achievement was the burial of Eleanor Rigby. In “Aunt Helen” it’s the repeat of “silence” that conveys this topic. T. S. Eliot and Lennon and McCartney commerce in their verse varieties with fashionable topics – purdah and faith attenuation. In “Aunt Helen” and “Eleanor Rigby” the authors show theses points by using modern-day free signifier and linguistic communication.