Eliot 's The Love Song Of J. Alfred Prufrock

The first stanza introduces Prufrock’s isolation, as epitomized metaphorically by “half-deserted streets” (4): while empty streets imply solitude, Eliot’s diction emphasize Prufrock having been abandoned by the other “half” needed for a relationship or an “argument” (8). Hoping for a companion, Prufrock speaks to the reader when

When reading the title of T.S Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” it is believed we are in store for a poem of romance and hope. A song that will inspire embrace and warmth of the heart, regretfully this is could not be further from the truth. This poem takes us into the depths of J. Alfred Prufrock, someone who holds faltering doubt and as a result may never come to understand real love. “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” takes us through Prufrock’s mindset and his self-doubting and self-defeating thoughts. With desolate imagery, a tone that is known through the ages and delicate diction we see a man who is insecure, tentative and completely fearful.

American born poet, T.S. Eliot reflects modernistic ideas of isolation, individual perception and human consciousness in his many poems. His poems express the disillusionment of the post–World War I generation with both literary and social values and traditions. In one of Eliot’s most famous poems, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” which was published in 1915, a speaker who is very unhappy with his life takes readers on a journey through the hell he is living in. In this journey, Prufrock criticizes the well-dressed, upstanding citizens who love their material pleasures more than they love other people, while explaining he feels ostracized from the society of women. Eliot’s use of isolation, human consciousness and individual perception is quite evident in his dramatic monologue within the story of J. Alfred Prufrock. Prufrock wants to be seen as a normal citizen who can find friends or a lover, but his anxiety-driven isolation forces him to live a life that relates more to Hell than paradise. In over examining every fine detail of his life, Prufrock perceives himself as useless and even a waste of life. By using many poetic devices including repetition, personification, and imagery Eliot drives readers to feel the painful reality of Prufrock’s life. In “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” T.S Eliot uses modernistic ideas and poetic devices to portray how Prufrock’s life relates to Hell while simultaneously criticizing social aspects of the younger post–World War I generation.

In T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”, the speaker, Prufrock feels alienated

Poetry can sometimes allow one to explore the unknown. However, in some works of poetry, one can realise that some known ideas or values remain relevant to current society. This is certainly applicable to T.S. Eliot’s poems, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock and Rhapsody on a Windy Night. Eliot’s manipulation of poetic techniques in both these poems allows the responder to realise that some ideas prevail in both modern and post-modern society. These poems explore the unknown phenomena of the obscurity regarding the purpose and meaning of life. This unknown phenomena causes the persona in both texts to resort to a sense of isolation or alienation. Eliot uses poetic techniques such as metaphors and personification to convey his ideas.

T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” is an ironic depiction of a man’s inability to take decisive action in a modern society that is void of meaningful human connection. The poem reinforces its central idea through the techniques of fragmentation, and through the use of Eliot’s commentary about Prufrock’s social world. Using a series of natural images, Eliot uses fragmentation to show Prufrock’s inability to act, as well as his fear of society. Eliot’s commentary about Prufrock’s social world is also evident throughout. At no point in the poem did Prufrock confess his love, even though it is called “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”, but through this poem, T.S. Eliot voices his social commentary about the world that

T.S Eliot's The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock is an examination of human insecurity and folly, embodied in the title's J. Alfred Prufrock. Eliot's story of a man's "overwhelming question", his inability to ask it, and consequently, his mental rejection plays off the poem's many ambiguities, both structural and literal. Eliot uses these uncertainties to develop both the plot of the poem and the character of J. Alfred Prufrock.

Eliot). T. S. Eliot’s “The Love song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” is recognized as one of the most important poems of all time because almost everyone can identify with the insecurity of J. Alfred Prufrock at one time or other, which makes it very realistic.

“And indeed there will be time” (23). Prufrock is musing about all the time there will be for gossip later. Again the yellow smoke slides down the street, tempting Prufrock to give in. With the gossip goes the gossipers and as they arrive back at their homes you see the yellow smoke of gossip “Rubbing its back upon the window-panes” (25). Now, Prufrock has time to think about what he has to do. In the poem he seems to be in a dream-like state. He is wondering, the rhythm in lines 26-34 gives me the impression that he is pacing the floor. He is preparing to meet someone, a woman, and he is conflicted about how to tell her what he must tell her. Prufrock feels overwhelmed by what he must do, and yet he is trying his best to focus on the task at hand. Just as

'I have measured out my life with coffee spoons'; (line 51), shows how Prufrock thinks of his own life, unexciting and unheroic. In his mind he has nothing to offer these women. He returns to wrestling with his thoughts that allow him to desire the love the women have to offer but talk himself out of the task by gentile reminders of the risk. He tells the reader that he knows these women and even begins to rehearse an opening remark, 'Shall I say, I have gone at dusk through narrow streets / And watched the smoke that rises from the pipes'; (lines 70-71). This thought is quickly lost however as Prufrock imagines how easy it would be to be a creature that had no need for love, 'I should have been a pair of ragged claws / Scuttling across the floors of silent seas'; (lines 73-74).

The human psyche has perpetually been characterized by a nagging sense of doubt. When one makes the decision to follow through (or, rather, not follow through) with an action, it is unlikely that he does so without questioning whether he made the right choice; this is recurring theme in literature, evident in works such as Crime and Punishment and A Separate Peace. T.S. Eliot’s The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock explores the universal nature of hesitation and self-doubt as part of the human condition primarily through apt use of metaphor, syntax, and allusion.

Eliot’s earliest work, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”, set the bar for Modernisms exemplification of Man and his Modern Masculinity. This was done by incorporating Symbolism, and Imagism along with looking past the profound facts, and into the subconscious (Freud).

The first setting is the sky described “Like a patient etherized upon a table” (line 3). This meaningful illustration can also be used to describe Prufrock’s current dilemma. His hesitance causes his inability to act just as a patient would be if he or she was etherized or desensitized. Eliot’s depiction of the city is also done in a creatively, symbolic way. In “An overview of ‘The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’”, Marisa Pagnattaro states that the setting contains a “seductive feline tone”. He uses personification to give a yellow fog catlike qualities such as “Licked its tongue into the corners of the evening / Lingered upon the pools that stand in drains” (Eliot 17-18). This enticing mood is used to pair with the women that Prufrock is interested in. T.S. Eliot ends his poem with another use of imagery by saying “Combing the white hair of the waves blown back / When the wind blows the water white and black” (Eliot 127-28). This detailed description of Prufrock’s fantasy helps the readers visualize what he desires. It is also ironic to see how different his whimsical dream is to his lonesome

T.S. Eliot was an outstanding author and an exemplary representation of the ideas of modernism. "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," despite being one of T.S Eliot's earliest publications, still manages to remain one of the most famous. He uses this poem to not only draw out the psychological aspect of members of modern society, but also to draw out the aspect of the time that he lived in. The speaker of this poem is a modern man who feels alone, isolated, and incapable of making decisive actions for himself. Prufrock desires to speak to a woman about his love for her, but he continuously hesitates while attempting to do so. This poem demonstrates a theme of fragmentation, which is a theme that we can see throughout the entire

T.S. Eliot’s poem “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” is inhabited by both a richly developed world and character and one is able to categorize the spaces in “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” to correspond to Prufrock’s mind. Eliot uses the architecture of the three locations described in the text to explore parts of Prufrock's mind in the Freudian categories of id, ego, and super-ego; the city that is described becomes the Ego, the room where he encounters women his Id and the imagined ocean spaces his Super Ego.