In the poem “The Love Song of J. Prufrock” by T.S. Eliot, the use of symbolism is very prevalent and used to capture the feeling of life on the outside of society and wishing to be in. It also makes a statement about the marching of time and the question of relationships within someone’s life. The themes of isolation, alienation, and indecision play an important role in this work through symbolism, and Eliot’s purpose of this work is to make the reader question the importance of roles within society.
The themes of isolation and alienation have many symbols throughout the story, and play an important role in the story of J. Prufrock’s life. The first symbol Eliot uses to symbolize the isolation Prufrock feels is the “etherized patient”. This symbol is used to create the powerful imagery of a man looking at himself from outside of his body, a clarity most never get. This is a hard reality for Prufrock to face, because he is not happy with what he sees. Scrutinizing himself wholeheartedly, he is very disappointed with what he sees and he is beginning to get to the truth behind why he is abandoned by society. The yellow fog, or the cat, also symbolizes society’s isolation of those who are different, misunderstood, or lower class. This yellow fog that “curls around the house” and looks through the window at the women. This “cat” symbolizes Prufrock’s desire to be included in society with his peers, specifically women. He also uses the imagery of a bug “sprawling on a pin” being dissected to describe the way he feels in society’s eyes. He feels that any time he is looked at, people are picking apart his flaws, such as his balding head or his older age, much like a bug is dissected for its body parts. This is the second of two animal symbols Eliot uses to convey the isolation and alienation that is felt by Prufrock. The final symbol used to describe the feeling of isolation and alienation, and the final animal symbol used, is the crab. Because Prufrock is so insecure about himself in every facet, he believes he is something even lower than a human being, like a crab crawling along the bottom of the ocean. Not only does he believe he does not deserve to be a human, but he believes he should be an animal on the bottom
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
“The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by T.S. Eliot is not a love song at all—but an insight into the mind of an extremely self-conscious, middle-aged man. Prufrock struggles in coping with the world he is living in—a world where his differences make him feel lonely and alienated. Eliot uses allusions and imagery, characterization, and the society Prufrock lives in to present how Prufrock partly contributes to his own alienation. Our ability of self-awareness separates us from other species, making humans more intelligent and giving people the upper hand in social settings, but, like Prufrock, it can sometimes cause us to feel alienated.
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.
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.
In T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”, the speaker, Prufrock feels alienated
Poetry can sometimes allow one to explore the unknown. However, in some works of poetry, one can realise that some known ideas or values remain relevant to current society. This is certainly applicable to T.S. Eliot’s poems, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock and Rhapsody on a Windy Night. Eliot’s manipulation of poetic techniques in both these poems allows the responder to realise that some ideas prevail in both modern and post-modern society. These poems explore the unknown phenomena of the obscurity regarding the purpose and meaning of life. This unknown phenomena causes the persona in both texts to resort to a sense of isolation or alienation. Eliot uses poetic techniques such as metaphors and personification to convey his ideas.
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
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.
He and his yet unidentified company, presumably the love interest later addressed in the poem, go "through certain half deserted streets...that follow like a tedious argument with insidious intent," while recounting "restless nights in one-night cheap hotels and sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells." The memories of oysters and nights spent together juxtapose the cheap hotels and sawdust restaurants in a way that sets the tone for the rest of the poem-- a reasonable desire and pursuit of happiness, with an inevitable realization of inadequacy. This inadequacy is Prufrock's ultimate fear. The "patient etherized upon a table" represents Prufrock wanting to divulge his secret desires to his companion, but being prevented from doing so by his own woeful insecurities.
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.
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
In line 57, Prufrock refers to himself as “sprawling on a pin.” This is a reference to the practice of sticking pins through live insects and watching them squirm, which was a common amusement for children at the time (Napierkowski 122). By establishing this comparison between Prufrock and an insect, Eliot describes the scrutiny that Prufrock believes himself to be under by relating it to a familiar, yet morbid childhood pastime. Not only does Prufrock feel the sting of a puncture wound that he is wriggling to be free of, but he is under the lens of his captors, painfully self aware and self conscious. The idea of “sprawling on a pin” also implies that Prufrock sees himself as a mere insect, a pest, lacking human capacities of expression.
The first setting is the sky described “Like a patient etherized upon a table” (line 3). This meaningful illustration can also be used to describe Prufrock’s current dilemma. His hesitance causes his inability to act just as a patient would be if he or she was etherized or desensitized. Eliot’s depiction of the city is also done in a creatively, symbolic way. In “An overview of ‘The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’”, Marisa Pagnattaro states that the setting contains a “seductive feline tone”. He uses personification to give a yellow fog catlike qualities such as “Licked its tongue into the corners of the evening / Lingered upon the pools that stand in drains” (Eliot 17-18). This enticing mood is used to pair with the women that Prufrock is interested in. T.S. Eliot ends his poem with another use of imagery by saying “Combing the white hair of the waves blown back / When the wind blows the water white and black” (Eliot 127-28). This detailed description of Prufrock’s fantasy helps the readers visualize what he desires. It is also ironic to see how different his whimsical dream is to his lonesome
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.