In the following essay I compare and contrast the poem Self-portrait with Rembrandt Self-portrait (2003) by C.K. Williams with an extract from George Eliot’s Middlemarch (1871-2). This close-reading task was performed in preparation for the English Literature Admissions Test, and is a response to the 2008 past paper available on their website. This was written in timed conditions so is by no means perfect, but thought it might help someone else who is preparing for the exam to see my take on the two texts. While I am unable to print the texts on here due to copyright reasons, the poem can be found here: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2003/nov/22/featuresreviews.guardianreview35 and the extract from Middlemarch can be found on page 7 of this PDF: https://www.admissionstesting.org/Images/47481-elat-past-paper-2008.pdf .
The idea that art imitates life and vice versa is explored in a literal sense in both ‘Self-portrait with Rembrandt Self-portrait’ and the extract from ‘Middlemarch’; both writers blur the line between the two. While Williams’ poem comments on the preservation of the human condition in art, Eliot’s text expresses the idea that beauty, although seemingly transient, is what can be preserved in art. They differ in this sense, but both establish the idea that portraits can immortalise us.
There is an ambiguity between life and art in both texts that suggests this concept that art is living in some way. Williams’ poem begins with syntactical clarity, the first line separating the face of the living from the portrait, as the pronouns “I” and “his” are at opposite ends of the line: “I put my face inches from his”. However, this becomes increasingly vague as the poem goes on; the phrase is repeated but followed by other phrases which cloud the meaning and confuse Rembrandt and his admirer. For example, the break to a new line after “his” i “my face inches from his face neither frowning” leaves us unclear on who the “expression” then described belongs to, perhaps implying that the admirer has imbued life in the subject of the portrait simply by “look[ing] into his eyes”. This initially implies a sense of immortality in Rembrandt himself as he is preserved in his self-portrait, but the poet asserts that this is not the case through the repetition of “eludes me” as the onlooker searches for character in the portrait. Instead, the onlooker finds a “suffering” that is universal, that connects anyone - Williams conveys how universal this connection is as the protagonist remains anonymous in the poem - to someone like Rembrandt: the suffering of the human condition.
Eliot creates a vagueness similar to that of Williams between life and art in the passage from Middlemarch, but to a different end; the reader is bombarded with portraits of people in the passage, be it the “young man” as his appearance is depicted through the visual imagery of his “not immoderately long” hair, or the portrait of the “dark-eyed, animated German...with a strong accent”. These depictions remain clear until the protagonist is led to “the reclining Ariadne”. The description of her “beauty” is the language of transience - the “petal-like ease” of her “drapery” in particular - and yet we are aware that she is preserved in “marble”. This in itself begins to blur the bounds of art and life, which is further confused by the admiration with which the protagonist treats the “breathing, blooming girl” - the language of transience is also used here - which is akin to the admiration with which he treats the statue. She parallels “Cleopatra”, with her “drapery” and her “fixed eyes”. Eliot’s parallels between the two - starkly obvious as the object of this admiration “turn[s] away”, noticing that she is being admired “as if” she is “Cleopatra” - explore the same concept as Williams’ poem does. Art preserves life, offering immortality, this time not to the suffering of the human condition (which seems immortal as it is; a portrait of the human condition is one we all inhabit) but preserving seemingly transient beauty. The “antique beauty” of the marble mirroring the beauty composite in “breathing life” and brought into the “consciousness” of the contemporary time, suggests an eternal life in art, which comes alive and can change “its pose” with each “regard” (Williams) of the onlooker.
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