Prufrock Depersonalization

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?

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

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

T.S. Eliot’s poem, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” illustrates the poet’s fear of the fragmentation of modern society. In the poem, Eliot creates the persona of his speaker, J. Alfred Prufrock. Prufrock is speaking to an unknown listener. The persona of Prufrock is Eliot’s interpretation of Western society and its impotency at the beginning of the Twentieth Century. His views are modernistic, which idolize the classical forms while incorporating new ideas about psychology and the subconscious. Eliot illustrates his contempt for the faithlessness of modern society by illustrating its fragmentation with synecdoche, characterization of Prufrock, and allusions to literary traditions throughout the narrative. In his poem, Eliot illustrates his view of a great tradition that he is witnessing as it falls apart.

Elliot highlights the rapidly changing world that encapsulates a major concern of modernism, through describing the bleak and industrialised world that surrounds prufrock as he observes, ‘the smoke that rises through the pipes.’ Prufrock’s utterances throughout the poem promote his social entrapment and his alienation from the modern world as each consciousness is a cloudy domain on which Prufrock has no hope of being understood by others, ‘that’s not what I meant at all.’ The use of fragmentation further develops this notion as he can only describe parts of people, ‘I have known the arms already’ in turn dehumanising their features and emphasising how he is detached from society as he only changes for the sake of changing, ‘to prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet.’ As Prufrock describes the women in the poem, the vague description and Synedoche, ‘arms that are braceleted..’ suggests that his is socially incapable of making a personal connection with anyone highlighting his social awkwardness in a modern world. Furthermore, Elliot portrays the rapid social change for the people of the nineteenth century by exploiting the mundane tasks

T.S. Eliot characterizes his speaker in “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” based on his own personal experiences. In 1915, Eliot wrote one of his most famous poems as a skeptic (Schneider 1103). He constantly questioned the meaning of human life and the reasons why human beings were created at all. In the same way, Prufrock also has a difficult time in finding the purpose of his long life. The speaker of this poem takes the reader on a journey so that maybe the listener can aid him in finding meaning to his life. Throughout T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” the narrator is overwhelmed by the nothingness in his life through the characterization of himself, the wandering to many different settings, and the feeling of death approaching him.

T.S. Eliot was one among few poets and authors that dominated the years between the First and Second World Wars. Eliot showed his use of modernism techniques through “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”, creating a powerful reputation around the world, particularly as a member of The Lost Generation in the 1920s. Eliot moved to and settled in London where he worked with famous poets including Ezra Pound, and published his first collection of poems (McMichael 1358). “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” is a famous work that was almost a mockery of the romance-driven main character of the story, as it represented the indecisiveness of a personality and the superiority of an anti-romanticism ideal.

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 hesitates the entire way there. In this poem, the theme I have chosen is fragmentation, which we can see throughout the entire structure of the work. It 's evidenced by not only his writing style, but the use of space and time and the personality of Prufrock.

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.

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

To many, the allure of poetry lies in the chance to draw our own understandings and conclusions. In this paper, I will be discussing T.S Eliot 's "The love Song of Alfred Prufrock” in comparison to Allen Ginsberg 's "A Supermarket in California." The first poem, "The Love song of Alfred Prufrock" by T.S Elliot, talks about a man who is quite doubtful and insecure about himself who kept questioning whether or not breaking out of his comfort zone was worth it. The second poem, "A Super market in California" by Allen Ginsberg follows a trip to a supermarket in California that the author takes while addressing his friend with questions. This paper will include an extensive analysis of my own interpretation of these two poems as well as the

The poem “The Love Song of J.Alfred Prufrock” by T.S Eliot is one extended metaphor depicting the trials the character must go through in his attempt to achieve his quest for the ideal. In this case, the ideal is the world inhabited by the ladies he wants to talk to. The perils the character, Prufrock, has to contend with are low self-esteem and his fear of rejection. The poet illustrates his character’s low self-esteem with the image that Prufrock paints of himself as a man “With a bald spot in the middle of my hair” (39). Prufrock’s poor self-image is also evident in his

In this text entitled Charlotte Eliot and "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock", the author attempts to explain how Charlotte influenced the works of his son, especially the one mentioned in the title of this article.

Heroes are admired for their achievements and their qualities, which include their courage, determination and responsibility; but not all heroes portray these characteristics. The poem, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”, written by T.S Eliot, demonstrates a lonely middle-aged man’s frustration, regarding his useless and meaningless life, due to his lack of self-esteem. He wishes to seek answers to his questions, but his fear of rejection prevents him from moving forward. Even though, Prufrock is the main character in the poem, he does not display the qualities associated with a hero, rather he expresses a personality of a coward, because he fears rejection, he is inexpressive and he values others judgement, causing him to lose contact with society since he is incapable to defend himself.

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.