Art and its Relationship to Life and Death:
In Mrs. Dalloway: The modernist theme of life and death is symbolized in the quotation Mrs. Dalloway reads in a book from Shakespeare. The quotation is a funeral song sung by two boys and is obviously symbolic of death. Other art that could be symbolic of death are flowers that recur throughout the novel; first Mrs. Dalloway goes to town to purchase flowers for her party, then Lady Bruton is the recipient of a flower at a dinner meeting, Rezia and Septimus astutely place a flower on a hat as a gift, and finally, Mr. Dalloway purchases a bouquet of flowers for his wife. Because flowers are representative of the natural beauty in life, but only last awhile before wilting and dying, their symbolism of life and death is acute.
In The Dead: Art and it’s relation to life and death is portrayed through the music at the dinner party; specifically when Mr. D’Arcy sings The lass of Aughrim (which itself is a song about a girl who commits suicide). The song reminds Gretta of an old love who died for her.
In Eveline: As Eveline reflects on her childhood past, her dead childhood playmates and her dead mother, we are introduced to her surroundings. The yellowing portrait of the priest which hangs in the drawing room is symbolic of the passing of time and of encroaching death as it sits and collects dust.
In The Shield of Achilles: Great detail of the artistic work on the shield relates to life and death. The artistic nature of the shield in which the women intends to see beauty (vines and olive trees, men and women dancing, white flowers etc.) instead portrays the imagery of horrific war images: barbed wire and men being executed. The images of beauty and celebration the woman looks for, is the author’s way of contrasting the heroic world of Achilles with the depraved world the author alludes to. Death is symbolically portrayed in the shield, and is the author’s idea of the drudgery, pain and suffering prevalent in the mid-twentieth century.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading the poem, Burnt Norton, by T.S Eliot. Its complexities and imagery as well as thought provoking lyrical verse tweaked my interest. At times I found it difficult to comprehend what Eliot is relaying to his readers- what point of information we are intended to discover. Line 145, “the stillness, as a Chinese jar still/moves perpetually in its stillness is a beautiful portrayal of the cyclical flow between life and death (or past/present) through art. Eliot continues to use art –the note of a violin, as a form of symbolism of beginnings and endings (which precede and succeed each other, all the time, ongoing and always ever-present). The ways in which Eliot illustrates the idea of cyclical time, simply by his word choice and programmatic practises, makes a reader inclined to believe that it is the only way time should be thought of.
In Sailing to Bryzantium, art symbolizes immortality. Imagery of a person being reborn as glittery and shiny art in order to “sing to lords and ladies of Byzantium/Of what is past, or passing, or to come” is also symbolical of time, of life and death.
In response to Michelle Dailly’s Discussion thread, I fully agree with her sentiments on distraction. It may be slightly ridiculous, but I actually wrote down line 104, “Distracted from distraction by distraction” and sticky tacked it onto my computer. So often is the case as I stare blankly, at a blank computer screen, mind completely distracted, from every distraction by some other distraction ( like the non-stop gurgling/regurgitating noise my computer makes in protest every time I try to use it) . Now the line is a reminder.
