Timeless Moments: The Pattern of Time in T. S. Eliot's Four Quartets

• Main Authors: Wang, Han-sheng, 王瀚陞
• Other Authors: Li-min Yang
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 1998
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/88763166173036067459

碩士 === 國立政治大學 === 英國語文學系 === 86 === Most critics would agree that time is a recurrent theme in Four Quartets.In each quartet, we have passages which deal with the theme of time. However,inspite of the significance of time as a major theme in Four Quartets. There are none the less few critics who take pains to study the theme of time systematically. Therefore, it still leaves, I think, much room for critical re-evaluation of the importance of time as a theme in Four Quartets. And this is the reason why I decide to do research on the concept of time in Four Quartets both thematically and systematically. In addition to the introduction and the conclusion, I will divide the body of my thesis into four chapters, following the sequence of the four quartets. Each quartet embodies a unique version of timeless moments. "Burnt Norton" will focus on the intensified moment in the rose-garden and the ambivalent center of time--the still point. "East Coker" will focus on the pattern of time as succession of the beginning and the end. "The Dry Salvages" will focus on the point of the intersection of the timeless with time. "Little Gidding" will focus on the immediate present and the timeless moment which culminates in the union of the fire and the rose. And finally I will conclude with the proposition that the timeless moment is the ultimate goal Eliot would like to achieve in pursuing the pattern of time in Four Quartets.