J Alfred Prufrock Allusion

1. How does the epigraph from Dante’s Inferno help Eliot comment on the modern world in“The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”? What does it tell us about the setting of this poem? How is Montefeltro’s miscalculation related to the poem?

J. Alfred Prufrock constantly lived in fear, in fear of life and death. T. S. Eliot divided his classic poem into three equally important sections. Each division provided the reader with insight into the mental structure of J. Alfred Prufrock. In actuality, Prufrock maintained a good heart and a worthy instinct, but he never seemed to truly exist. A false shadow hung over his existence. Prufrock never allowed himself to actually live. He had no ambitions that would drive him to succeed. The poem is a silent cry for help from Prufrock. In each section, T. S. Eliot provided his audience with vague attempts to understand J. Alfred Prufrock. Each individual reader can only interpret these

Carol Emshwiller didn’t start her writing until she was thirty, a mother, and married. Emshwiller, “was just learning the lessons of feminism on the front lines of domestic lines” (539). In Carol Emshwiller’s short story during the 1980’s “Abominable”, Emshwiller shows how men, in their sexual confusion, ethnic inexperience, and self-disasters, are not capable of understanding women and their needs, anger, and bitterness. The unnamed and self-styled man in the story shows his stereotypical, phallocentric attitudes to understand women becomes more humorous, rather than angry. From transforming the battle of sexes into the man’s search for an misleading species akin to

T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” is a modernist poem about an old man conjuring up the courage to ask the woman he loves possibly to marry him. The Dante’s Inferno quote at the beginning of the poem is the key to understanding how J. Alfred Prufrock is feeling because the speaker of that story, Guido da Montefeltro, has been imprisoned in the flames of hell and is trapped in hell for eternity. J. Alfred Prufrock is in his own kind of hell, like Guido da Montefeltro, by describing a bleak, depressed city with skies that send out messages of sorrow and hopelessness all over. Prufrock is paralyzed in his own mind by his overanalyzing thoughts and he cannot act, “Like a patient etherized upon a table…”

T.S. Eliot, a notable twentieth century poet, wrote often about the modern man and his incapacity to make decisive movements. In his work entitled, 'The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock'; he continues this theme allowing the reader to view the world as he sees it, a world of isolation and fear strangling the will of the modern man. The poem opens with a quoted passage from Dante's Inferno, an allusion to Dante's character who speaks from Hell only because he believes that the listener can not return to earth and thereby is impotent to act on the knowledge of his conversation. In his work, Eliot uses this quotation to foreshadow the idea that his

I. Introductory Paragraph -In the time of Chaucer, people had very patriarchal ideas about marriage and women. -They thought that women who remarried so many times were ‘wicked.’ -People believed that men should be in control of the relationship and women should be held in subordination to their husbands. -‘The

The origin of the Greek polis has been disputed to be either of religious or economic association. The arguments rest on the foundation that societies go through different stages. Primordial (clan/tribe) societies evolved into political (city-state) societies and then into industrial (modern) societies. Both sides provide credible arguments, but their arguments are lacking details that overlap both associations. The combination of religion and economics is what molded the Greek city-state and not just one or the other. Writers with an economic point of view claim of the Greek city-state as one where its people began to move from only being consumers to becoming producers and building friendships for the purpose of self-preservation. Even though the economy was a large portion of the city-state, religion cannot be discarded due to the various artifacts and buildings that demonstrate how it became a crucial part of society. To only claim religion led to the creation of Greek polis also does not

Eliot begins “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by using an epigram from Dante’s Inferno to set the theme of the poem. By alluding to a story about a journey through Hell, readers can infer that Prufrock will also take readers on a journey through Hell, only this time it is a living hell. Upon examining the first couple of stanzas, it is clear that Prufrock is afraid of living his life, so much so, that time has become illusory to him. Eliot writes, “Time for you and me, and time for a hundred indecisions, and for a hundred visions and revisions, before the taking of a toast and tea” (369). The poetic device of repetition to portray never-ending time proves Prufrock fools himself into believing he has all the time in the

Eliot also uses syntax to establish thematic concepts. In stanzas 7 to 9, Prufrock muses about how he has “known them all,” (lines 45, 59,62) referring to the people and

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

We will also see questioning come up many times throughout the poem. By questioning himself so much, the reader may infer that he is very indecisive and doubtful. Thirdly, another line that the author will repeat throughout this poem is "In the room, women come and go/Talking of Michelangelo.” This can perhaps tell the reader that the author is living in a society in which the talk of popular artists is something common.

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.

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.

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.

Prufrock begins his “Love” song with a peculiar quote from Dante’s Divine Comedy. It reads: “If I believed that my answer were to a person who could ever return to the world, this flame would no longer quiver. But because no one ever returned from this depth, if what I hear is true, without fear of infamy, I answer you.” In the Divine Comedy these lines are spoken by a damned soul who had sought absolution before committing a crime. I think that Eliot chose this quote to show that Prufrock is also looking for absolution, but for what he is unsure.