More Than "Prufrock," Less Than "Gerontion": The Moment of Knowledge in Inventions of the March Hare (Critical Essay‪)‬

The important theme of T.S. Eliot 's early poems is "observation," especially what the narrators fix their gaze upon, as we can guess from the title of his first collection of poems, Prufrock and Other Observations. (1) They observe and fragmentally sketch sterile daily scenes and people acting as clowns or in masquerades in urban cities. It is not clear whether the narrators wandering in urban cities know what they are seeking for and where they are heading. Their endless wandering is a process necessary for them to grasp their identity or gain self-knowledge. However, a barrier against this is their own know-it-all attitudes. Prufrock is afraid of establishing a real contact with other people and of facing his own inner self, while he pretends to have a perfect self-knowledge, saying, "I have known ..." or "I have measured out my life with coffee spoons." The narrator of "Portrait of a Lady" is weighing the timing of breaking off the relationship with his woman. However, what he is actually interested in is just his masked self and his real self, though he is gazing upon her. His masked self appears to maintain his equanimity, have a sense of superiority and know everything perfectly. On the other hand, his real self is influenced and disturbed by her words and attitudes and afraid of admitting that he doesn't have perfect knowledge. Both narrators' glances are cast toward just themselves after all, though they face up to others. The narrator is trapped by his own extreme self-consciousness and can't face up to his true self. And he is tightening, loosening, manipulating and toying with a string tied to his masked self or his real self, as if he is a manipulator of a marionette. Like this, the narrator's self-consciousness never arrives at a true self-knowledge. **********