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Emily: Mr. Gordon, its really nice to meet you. I'm really excited to talk about T. S. Eliot, his poetry, and his life, because he has always been one of my FAVORITE poets. Mr.
Gordon: Emily, the honor is mine. I am a fan of anyone who is a fan of Eliot's. Now, where would you like to start? First, let me buy you a drink.
Emily: Ill take water with lemon, please. Mr. Gordon, I have heard a lot about Eliot's thoughts on the idea of head and heart. What exactly does he mean by this? Mr.
Gordon: Well, as in the Wasteland and Four Quartets, they enact a classic opposition between the head and heart. It is re-cast in the light of medical science as an opposition between brain and nervous system and heart and blood; between the flickering and circulating; between what the doctors of Eliot's youth had discovered about the way we work and what King Charles doctor had discovered; between a modern age of nerves and an older, nobler age of blood. Emily: Wow, I never knew that Eliot was at all interested in medicine and how the body worked. I thought he only wrote poetry. Mr. Gordon: Yes, Eliot was a very deep man.
There is a lot about him that people dont know or never realized. Emily: In Wasteland, the wife says My nerves are bad tonight, and later she seems distracted and says, I can connect/Nothing with nothing. Where did Eliot come up with all of this, or what does it mean? Mr. Gordon: This nerves passage relates to Eliot's life at the time with his wife, which he is referring to the state of his and his wifes nerves which are upsetting, troubled, and worried. In this poem, it is apparent that the womans nerves are bad because she is constantly concerned and worried with them.
Emily: So where does this whole concept of head and heart come into play, Mr. Gordon? Mr. Gordon: The woman seems as though she hates facing reality. There is a force represented in poem in terms of heart and blood in which the realities are discounted.
Wasteland begins with an ironic reminder of that season when sap and blood stir in the veins of Chaucer's flowers, birds and pilgrim. Eliot states that April, with his stores site. Emily: Very interesting. In some of my classes in which I have studied Eliot, I have been told that he had a nervous breakdown. Can you tell me a little about this and how it impacted his poetry? Mr.
Gordon: Well, Eliot wrote most of Wasteland while under treatment for a nervous breakdown. He read a lot about mental disorders and their causes as well. The Wasteland reflects a lot about his understanding of what having a mental disorder was, as he wrote a lot about how the mind functions and malfunctions. Emily: Can you tell me a little more about this functioning and malfunctioning? Mr.
Gordon: Of course, Emily. Anything having to do with Eliot, I would be glad to share with you. The brain malfunctions both because it is overcharged from the outside with what the behaviorists called stimuli, from the inside with excess of electrical vitality, and because it is starving for blood. This poem was actually written against the advice of Eliot's doctor who feared that the writing would overtax his patients brain. Emily: You know what? I remember that!
It was the doctor who told Eliot that he has the thinnest blood that hes ever tested. I think he was talking nonsense, but I guess it was taken to heart because from what I understand, Eliot became quite a hypochondriac. Mr. Gordon: That he did. He also believed that there is an innate tendency for the brain to become over-bred, growing insulated, disembodied, and super subtilized by the pathological growth of its specialized functions at the expense of what is called heart and blood. Mr.
Gordon: Eliot's prescription for this disembodiment was an extremely blood and painful surgery to restore a proper balance between head and heart. Emily: Wow, so he was not only having a nervous breakdown, but with this he was going crazy as well I see! Why have a surgery, especially on the brain, if you really dont need it? Theres so much about Eliot's life that I didnt know! I'm so glad I got to talk to you today.
Mr. Gordon: The feelings are mutual Emily. Anytime you would like to get together and talk about Eliot I would be more than happy to get together. To learn more about him and how is life reflected on his writing, try to read Four Quartets, and a book by Janet Oppenheim called Shattered Nerves: Doctors, Patients, and Depression in Victorian England. It talks a lot about Eliot's life and his breakdown. Thanks so much, Mr.
Gordon! I will go read those as soon as I can. I appreciate everything you have shared with me and I look forward to talking to you again. Have a great day! Mr.
Gordon: Thanks, you too Emily. Goodbye. Annotated Bibliography Gordon, John. T. S. Eliot's Head and Heart.
ELH 62. 4. (1995): 979 - 1000. Project MUSE. 28 Mar 2002. This criticism about T. S. Eliot by John Gordon gave me a lot of information his life, and how is life reflected on his poetry.
Eliot's work is written in a Freudian style as he writes about the subconscious of character, and the psychological aspects in a characters mind. He writes about their fears, motives, compulsions, and neurosis. Using ones life as an example and portraying it into his or her poetry is a big element of Freudian work. John Gordon concentrates on Eliot's idea of head and heart, and as he relates it to his poetry and characters.
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Research essay sample on Creative Writing Assignment On Ts Eliot The Wasteland
