Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”and Arnold’s “The Buried Life” both address the relationship between a male speaker and women. Both literature pieces revolve around the theme of individual isolation and alienation. Both speakers are faced with an obstacle that they are trying to find an answer too, but can't seem to find it. Prufrock becomes isolated from his feelings, people, and love. In the third line, he describes the patient "etherized" and by doing so he is indicating that the person is deprived of their feelings. In other words, it's a person without emotions. This is indicating that the people he associates himself with, have no feelings. Another line that reveals to us that he has become isolated from his feelings is when …show more content…
We first see him encounter women in the tea party "In the room women come and go/ Talking of Michelangelo"(Eliot 2525). The women that come and go are the women that he might meet at the tea party and what they talk about is Michelangelo, since it is a safe topic to talk about that; it will not offend anyone. We get the image that Prufrock is just watching the women go inside the room and then leave without acknowledging him. The women seem to not pay much attention to him, which can reveal that they do not find him attractive. This uncertainty of his leads him to ponder his life and whether he should ask the question. He ultimately re-evaluates his decision which leads him to question if he should ask or not. We are implicitly revealed that he does not ask the question "No! I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be"(Eliot 2527). Prince Hamlet asks the big questions and by Prufrock stating that he was not meant to be Hamlet, he is saying that he was not meant to ask the big question. The big question can be "will you marry me?" or "would you like to go on a date with me?" He never tells us that the question is but through the actions of Prufrock when can assume that, that is the question he wanted to ask when he said "Do I dare! Do I …show more content…
In this poem, the speaker faces isolation of the self. We can see this isolation start to develop in the first stanza because the speaker is watching the way people hide their emotions from each other. The speaker thinks that most people hide their inner selves from the world because they are afraid that, if they revealed themselves, they would be ignored or made fun of “be met / With blank indifference, or with blame reproved”(Arnold 1375). This reflects on the way people are made to hide who they are from one another; hiding the same thoughts and feelings that those around them feel but, are also unable to
The speaker in this poem has suffered from the lack of care that her father gave to her. She is describing her regret over her father and what both of her parents did to her “you are going to do things you cannot imagine you would ever do”(Olds 439). When the speaker was a child she was abused and hurt by her parents. This isolated her from the rest of the people her age. Though she was surrounded by people she felt as if she couldn’t connect with any of them so she remained alone and isolated.
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.
From stanza 10, ‘Is it perfume from a dress/That makes me so digress?”Prufrock once again asks questions. Perfume and a dress, they are all possession coming from a woman. A heterosexual man should be feeling interested in a dress or a bottle of perfume but Prufrock does not feel this way. He feels as if those are the things that he is least interested in. He still does not know for sure that he is a homosexual. The last line of stanza 8 ,9 and 10 ,”So how should I presume?/And how should I presume?/And should I then presume?/And how should I begin?”It is seen that Prufrock is lost. He does not know his way. He does not know what to think. He is not sure if he should act base on how he feels or the rules from the
Having decided not to try, Prufrock questions whether his efforts would have been worthwhile. He believes that he can not relate to the women that which he feels, 'It is impossible to say just what I mean!'; (line 104). He rationalizes his fear by imagining that his speaking to the women would not have achieved any real response. He further imagines the women saying, 'That is not what I meant at all, /
He has come to his senses that he has feelings for one of these women. He decides to never tell the woman his feelings. Eventually he grows old and talks about walking on a beach. Prufrock moves to the beach where he now make inconsequential decisions like wearing white flannel trousers and what he wants to eat. While walking on the beach wearing his white flannel trousers he is thinking of eating a peach he talks about how he heard mermaids singing. He says but they will never sing to me. He says, “I don’t think that they will sing to me” (825). Prufrock now lacks any confidence he ever had. Prufrock is longing for relations with someone and he is deprived of that. He still blames his balding head and his thin arms for all his
He asks "do I dare" as a way of trying to escape the situation. "Do I dare, disturb the universe" (45-46). Prufrock's state of thought at this moment is that if he were to take a chance at something he would somehow change the direction of the universe. It can be considered as another excuse for Prufrock to back out and live his monotonous life. Prufrock feels he cannot hide from his own insecurities when stating :"My necktie rich and modest, but asserted by a simple pin—(They will say: “But how his arms and legs are thin!")"(43-44). Here, Prufrock states another reason as to why he should not step out of his comfort zone. He believes he cannot hide from his own insecurities which allow him to not do anything with his life. The question do I dare reflects Prufrock's second-guessing of himself when it comes to trying to fit in to places he deems not suitable for himself.
Prufrock is attempting to ground himself in reality when he says the he is “not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be”. He doesn’t have to “prepare a face” whenever he goes into society or interacts with women in general, because he accepts the fact that he has “seen the moment of [his] greatness flicker”. Prufrock is overcoming his constant paranoia that whatever he does is never enough. But all of his self-reassurance is torn down when he starts to overcompensate and become “full of high sentence”. Prufrock realizes that his job is to be an “easy tool” and that anybody
Loneliness is a feeling that we have all felt here and there. A man in the poem “ The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by T.S Eliot feels trapped which caused him to have disorders. Nothing has never changed from living in the same city and not using his time wisely. He tried numerous ways to approach women but his low self esteem stopped him from moving forward. Although Prufrock seems like a miserable person, Prufrock suffers from obsessive compulsive disorder, depression, and paranoia that caused him to feel this way.
The piece “Home Burial” by Robert Frost and “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by T. S Eliot is both memorable and riveting pieces of literature that deals with loneliness and sorrow. Although they both deal with sadness and very strong emotions it is for entirely different reasons. If a person cannot identify with their situation and be entirely truthful to their own identity, it can lead to a lifetime of unhappiness, regrets and self-doubt people should make decisions based on their internal belief and not necessarily what someone else or even society expects of them, being untrue to oneself will leave room for unrealistic expectations and failure. The poem “Home Burial by Robert Frost is very dramatic this poem uses free form dialogue,
Prufrock doesn’t dare approach the woman: In his mind he hears the remarks of others on his insufficiencies, and he scolds himself for presuming any emotional interaction that could be possible. Prufrock’s passivity is risky because it makes him hold on strongly to his status as a modern man. He is willing to go to great lengths to prevent things from changing. He tries to manipulate others in society to think of him in only good terms and doesn’t shine the light on any bad characteristics he may
Throughout The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock T.S. Eliot uses numerous methods to create a narrative for his character while he also enhances the significant meanings of his poem: unrequited love, lack of time and missed opportunities. By incorporating other acclaimed works of literature to resonate in sync with allusions cited, Eliot only strengthens the themes he’s trying to mention. The speaker of the poem Alfred Prufrock is characterized as a pessimistic, frail man “with a bald spot in the middle of his hair” (line 39) who holds many regrets towards his indecisiveness and lack of confidence when it comes to women in particular. The literary devices that are assimilated throughout the poem, ranging from imagery to personification, also help readers build a connection to real-life problems from the issues Prufrock is experiencing as introduced by Eliot. Altogether, each quote included in the poem holds minute components that translate to a bigger meaning of Prufrock’s self-conscious personality.
A major flaw that contributed to Prufrock’s fears of rejection and the future that would create his mid-life crisis was his lack of self-esteem. In the beginning of the poem, Prufrock tried to create an illusion of superiority and sophistication. However, his thoughts and actions later in the poem contradict this illusion to show his drastic low self-esteem. For example, the opinions of others showed to be a high priority on Prufrock’s list. He allowed the opinions of others to dictate his appearance. As Prufrock thought about socializing with others, he worriedly stated, “With a bald spot in the middle of my hair — (They will say: “How his hair is growing thin!”),” (Eliot 823). He also worried about his clothes, stating he may wear his pants
In “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”, Alfred Prufrock is a man who is trying to prove, to the reader and to himself, what a man he is by trying to “sweet talk” us. He has three personalities: elusive, boastful, and truthful. Throughout the poem, the speaker intentionally switches between the elusive and the boastful, but occasionally the truthful man shines through the shed light on the deception. In the beginning, Prufrock is walking us around and telling us about the scenery. He keeps alluding to a big question he wants to discuss, but never actually asks the question. He continues to talk about the London fog and happenings of life. He then tries to convince us he is an intelligent, worldly man. He reminds me of a politician filibustering
Throughout this famous poem, the main character presents many different characteristics of a modern man. One big thing that J. Alfred Prufrock presents are his feelings of insecurity and unworthiness. “With a bald spot in the middle of my hair --- [They will say: “How his hair is growing thin!”]” (Eliot 1915). This particular quote tells the reader that Prufrock is very concerned with the opinions of other people. It signifies the rejection that the character feels in his life, but also, this strengthens the fear of rejection from the woman he loves. Prufrock is a very self-conscious man. This obvious obsession with his self-image and confidence is truly what keeps Prufrock from living life to its full
As time passes, he enters scary, foggy streets where the reading feels mysterious as he keeps talking about the question, but procrastinating saying it and asking to himself if he dares. When he arrives to the whorehouse, which can be assumed by the description of the place and the women, Prufrock observes the women and boasts about knowing them all, but centers in describing the arm hairs of one specific woman and her perfume in the dress. The speaker keeps thinking to himself how should he presume. He tries to presume but does not know what to presume to impress her as he has not done anything worthy. Assuming he is watching the girl of his dreams, it can be assumed that he is on his way of confessing his love towards her but he never dares because of his insecurities; the question must be a love