J Alfred Prufrock

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.

The reader can find the speaker relatable; Prufrock shows multiple sides to his character. In one way, Prufrock is trying to seem cool, calm, and collected; he wants the reader to think that he knows everything; however, the reader can tell that Prufrock is trying to be somebody he is not. Prufrock later lets his walls drop and he says that he has let “the moment of greatness flicker…” He is talking about his greatness; Prufrock wants his life to be stagnant, and with very little struggle. This means that his life will be complete boredom. I believe that people should take Prufrock’s life as a lesson of how not to live; his emotional distance reveals that he is a sad man and that life should not be motionless and focused on maintaining the status quo.

Detail 2: As can be deduced from the poem, Prufrock spends all of his time pondering how to behave, and to act in society, as he wants to become a man of action. Prufrock imagines himself achieving great things for himself and having everything he desires. Nonetheless, he cannot find a way to realize his wishes. Prufrock is well aware of his tragedy, and he makes sure the audience understands that he is a flawed man full of fears, whims and self-fancies. Again, just as we find in Hamlet’s character, Prufrock’s personality makes him cautious of acting towards any goal he might have, and his over-analytic persona makes him incapable of taking control of any situation. Prufrock explains his problems through a simple example from one of his failures. He recounts that he was incapable of asking a girl to date him, and despite his loving for her, he did nothing to make his love count.

While having an perception on life and a wise priority set, Prufrock is unable to push himself to obtaining happiness. A change would be rough, but it would afford him the opportunity to live his life in a way that exemplifies his wisdom, not societies demands of him. Yet, due to his fear, he continues to give in to society and avoid his chance at happiness. Later on in his monologue, he is afforded a second chance to attain happiness. Now it is within the limitations of society – a relationship with a woman – but because of his fears of rejection, he ponders having the strength to force the moment to its crisis? and watches as happiness passes him by. Happiness can be attained, through self-government or a relationship, his fear hinders his action on both occasions. Furthermore, he incorrectly assumes that there will not be another chance to attain happiness. Prufrock’s failure is caused by his fear, which shatters his proven rationality and wisdom and renders him

Throughout the entirety of the poem, Prufrock struggles with paralyzing inaction stemming from his self-doubt. This holds a large portion of Prufrock’s inability to gain clarity. An example of this self doubt is expressed when he stated, “[They will say; ‘how his hair is growing thin!’]... [They will say: ‘But

The poem's setting is one that conjures up images of vagueness. It is filled with "yellow fog" and "yellow smoke", both of which suggest a certain denseness and haziness. Similarly, Prufrock is faced with another kind of mist - "perfume

“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).

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

J. Alfred Prufrock appears to be a man who is unhappy with life, love, and aging. He starts off right away talking about “restless nights in one-night cheap hotels” and “Streets that follow like a tedious argument” (Eliot 176). His view of the world in which he lives does not

The allusion made is a reference to bug collecting where the insect is pinned down and further inspected. Prufrock feels he is scrutinized in such a way that he cannot escape, hence his being pinned to the wall. He stills wriggles because he is uncomfortable, but it is to no avail. Due to this severe social anxiety, allowing even one person to know of the extreme vulnerability he exposes through the thoughts in the poem would be too stressful for him. The only person who Prufrock could be certain would never betray these thoughts is himself. Thus, the text of the poem represents his own stream of consciousness. Despite the fact that Prufrock appears to refer to another person in lines one, 11, 31, 78 and 90, it could be argued that this is a rhetorical method employed by him to express his thoughts. It is as if another person were listening. Acknowledging this as true further explains his solitude, for it displays his longing to express these feelings

“The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by T. S. Elliot is a poem that tells a character’s story with the use of emotions and imagery. The character J. Alfred Prufrock is first introduced as taking a walk and describing the surroundings such as vacant streets and dreary sights. Women are also introduced as talking about Michelangelo. The setting is covered in a yellow fog that stretches over every detail of the town. Prufrock’s emotions at first seems to be confident with the ladies. As the poem progresses, Prufrock is seen more as an average middle-aged man, but also a sad honest man. He seems to stick to a routine and does not stray from it much. His bland personality is not much of an appeal to the women, thus making him pathetic. In “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”, T.S.

Prufrock’s inability to show and portray love is shown through the refrains and rhetorical questions,” there will be time” and “how should I presume?” which structurally reveal his inability to make progress in life as they recur regularly. Imagery of crab-like features such as, “a pair of ragged claws,” symbolizing his inability to move forward as crabs scuttle sideways while the synechoche stresses him as incomplete and broken. As a modernist poet, Eliot was contextually influenced by Freudian psychoanalysis with the portrayal of the character’s subconscious, enhancing my ability understand Prufrock’s inertia. His hyperbolic statement, “I have measured out my life with coffee spoons,” metaphorically signifies his fear of being into mundane social situations and routines if he joins his lady’s world, while the metaphor of being “pinned and wriggling on the wall” reveals his paralysis. This leads Prufrock to exist in a very imptent state which Cleanth Brooks argues is Eliot’s judgement on the whole culture”. Hence the context, language and perspectives of other on ‘Prufrock shape my personal view of the human experience of paralysis givng the peom an enduring

In the poem, The Love song, written by T.S. Elliot, J Alfred Prufrock is a man who is very lonely and insecure. He goes throughout his life wishing for a change, but never stepping up to the plate and actually making a change. The title of the poem portrays to the reader that the poem is going to be full of love and romance. The reader soon found out later that the poem is just the opposite from the title, a sad, lonesome man who is not only lacking love, but also lacking self confidence and self esteem.

Prufrock is a man with many contradictive and fragmental characteristics. While one part of him would like to shake startle these characteristics out of his life, he would have to risk disturbing his peaceful universe in order to do so. The latter part of the poem