Prufrock Drowns in a Sea of Insecurity Essay

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

Eliot uses allusions and imagery to make several references to characters—both real and fictional—to vicariously show how Prufrock feels. The first allusion is an epigraph from Dante’s Inferno:

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.

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

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.

In T.S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," the author is establishing the trouble the narrator is having dealing with middle age. Prufrock(the narrator) believes that age is a burden and is deeply troubled by it.. His love of some women cannot be because he feels the prime of his life is over. His preoccupation with the passing of time characterizes the fear of aging he has. The poem deals with the aging and fears associated with it of the narrator. The themes of insecurity and time are concentrated on. This insecurity is definitely a hindrance for him. It holds him back from doing the things he wishes to do. This is the sort of characteristic that makes Alfred into a tragic,

Images and allusions aren’t Prufrock’s only fragmented features though; Eliot also uses the rhythm, and the rhyme is irregular throughout this poem. Throughout the poem, the rhyming schemes differ and constantly changed and evolved. There are instances when it is an unrhymed free verse, and instances where it would go for a longer period of time, then to shorter periods. The rhyme scheme creates a chaotic feeling, as well as feelings of disorganization and confusion, just as the world Prufrock resides in, and it does a good job portraying the anxiety that is rooted in the social world. He is afraid to confront those talking pointlessly about Michelangelo as well as he is intimidated by the thought of engaging in a gathering, believing that “there will be time” (23), and that he has "time yet for a hundred indecisions, And for a hundred visions and revisions", indicating that his life and his social life is a bore, with repetitive routines that remains the same. Prufrock’s constant worrying is also shown in not merely the

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.

4. One of the most demanding aspects of this poem is its allusions, as Eliot expected his readers to be as well educated as he was. Some allusions are fairly accessible. The allusions to Michelangelo—an artist most people are familiar with—in line 14 and again in line 36 help us imagine the women Prufrock is talking about. The function of the less accessible allusions—such as “works and days of hands” (l. 29)—may serve a different purpose. Why might Eliot have included such esoteric allusions? How do they affect your reading of the poem?

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

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

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock is a uniquely styled piece of literature.  In this poem Eliot employs a literary method of writing called "stream of consciousness."  This is a difficult method to grasp outside of the literary genre to attempt to understand it within the context of the higher language of poetry can further confuse readers.

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 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.