Through his poem, The Preludes, T.S Eliot positions the reader to understand the complex nature of alienation and isolation. The Preludes describes the urban environment as a fragmented world where individuals are forced to go through a daily meaningless routine. Isolation and loneliness are discussed in his poem to emphasis the exhaustion that individuals are facing in an urban environment. T.S Eliot paints a depressing picture of the urban environment which effectively communicates how individuals are isolated in an urban environment as they are experiencing a life full of monotony and misery.
T.S Eliot uses various language techniques to highlight the loneliness felt by individuals in an urban environment. The Preludes confronts the reader by presenting the urban environment as a lifeless and depressing wasteland. T.S Eliot uses symbolism to give the reader an impression of a desolate, corrupt and exhausted society. The image of “the smell of steaks in passageways”, symbolises the polluted and mundane environment that individuals are forced to endure. This effectively communicates how the modern urban landscape is doomed for misery and explains how the urban environment has become a fragmented world. The Preludes portrays the isolation that individuals experience in a harsh society. T.S Eliot describes his feeling of despair at the decline and dissolution of modern civilisation in order for the reader to understand the emptiness felt by individuals. In the poem, The Preludes, the reader can visualise how individuals in modern society are forced to go through a meaningless routine where there is a lack of humanity and moral values.
T.S Eliot’s poem The Preludes provides the reader with an image of the sordidness, futility and hopelessness in an urban landscape. T.S Eliot uses imagery throughout his poem to metaphorically explore the nature