When thinking about someone that is insecure, Gabriel Conroy, from The Dead, and T. S. Eliot, from The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock does not come to mind. Throughout these two works, Gabriel and Eliot both have a habit of looking over what might not happen to their situation to what might happen which turns into over thinking every decision or action they take. While the way they confront their situations is the same, the way they imagine their outcome of their situation and how affects them is different. Gabriel Conroy shows his insecurity throughout The Dead while trying to hide it at the same time from his family. During his alone time in the hallway, he goes over his speech to give at the annual Christmas party. While he looks over his speech, he is unsure whether the people at the party will understand his overwhelming words and superior knowledge of Literature such as, the lines from Robert Browning (pg.10). They will think of him as, he is has had a better education than them and thinks that he is showing off so that he can show of his wealth even though he knows that they will recognize some quotes from Shakespeare and from Melodies (pg.10). He is also insecure around his wife, Gretta, when she told her reason behind the song that was played towards the end of the party. He felt that he could not admit that “her face was no longer beautiful” (pg.74) Although he thinks that she had probably told the whole story about her past love life he is still nervous whether
“The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by T.S. Eliot is a poem unlike any I have ever read before. The poem starts off with the speaker taking what seems to be a potential lover along for a walk. The speaker first describes their surroundings and says that “the evening is spread out against the sky like a patient etherized upon a table” and that “the streets follow like a tedious argument”. The sky is described as someone who has been anesthetized, someone who can’t feel anything. The streets are like an argument, something that can tear two people apart. The similes used make the setting seem dark and dreary. The speaker then brings up that he has a question he wishes to
James Joyce’s short story, “The Dead” depicts characters that all are seemingly alive, yet, on the inside, are very much dead. The main character, Gabriel Conroy, is more concerned with himself and how he is perceived than anyone else. His conceited nature plays a major role in his epiphany at the end of the story. After his wife, Gretta, divulges her childhood to Gabriel and the first young man who ever loved her, Gabriel come to the realization that “he had never felt like that himself towards any woman but he knew that feeling must be love (p. 628). With Gabriel’s sudden epiphany, the issue the readers knew, but he did not, surfaced. Gabriel was dead inside and only cared about himself. Any form of love he ever gave was to himself to boost his own egotistical personality.
We may never be given a second chance to do something daring ever again so we seize the day! However, people like in J. Alfred Prufrock make the attempt to do but it doesn’t work. “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” written by T.S. Elliot, essentially is about a simple man that wishes to ask a question, although the question is never revealed, the reader is taken on journey the with the speaker, only to find that they have spent a lengthy amount of time of their lives without ever asking the question. Even more so, this poem is illustrates the idea that we must confront reality and take advantage or never take the chance. This claim is supported through poetic and rhetoric elements, such as repetition, and symbolism.
“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.
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
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 use of allusions bring a sense of intimacy between reader and author. Prufrock wishes to be comforted.
The dramatic monologue “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock was written by Thomas Stearns Eliot and published in June of 1915. Eliot was born in St Louis, Missouri on September 26, 1888, where he grew up and lived until the age of eighteen. After high school, Eliot studied at Harvard University in Cambridge, MA and the Sorbonne in Paris, France. Eventually, Eliot ended up in England where he married his wife Vivien and spent the remainder of his life.
Prufrock begins his “Love” song with a peculiar quote from Dante’s Divine Comedy. It reads: “If I believed that my answer were to a person who could ever return to the world, this flame would no longer quiver. But because no one ever returned from this depth, if what I hear is true, without fear of infamy, I answer you.” In the Divine Comedy these lines are spoken by a damned soul who had sought absolution before committing a crime. I think that Eliot chose this quote to show that Prufrock is also looking for absolution, but for what he is unsure.
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 editors of anthologies containing T. S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" invariably footnote the reference to Lazarus as John 11:1-44; rarely is the reference footnoted as Luke 16:19-31. Also, the reference to John the Baptist is invariably footnoted as Matthew 14:3-11; never have I seen the reference footnoted as an allusion to Oscar Wilde's Salome. The sources that one cites can profoundly affect interpretations of the poem. I believe that a correct reading of Eliot's "Prufrock" requires that one cite Wilde, in addition to Matthew, and Luke, in addition to John, as the sources for the John the Baptist and Lazarus being referenced. Furthermore, the citation of these sources can help explain Eliot's allusion to
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 dramatic monologue, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock", is a short poem written by the Nobel Prize winner, and scholar T.S. Eliot. He wrote this poem and published it in the Poetry Magazine in 1915, while he was still in college at Washington University in St. Louis. Eliot is one of the most important English- language writers of the 20th century, and he lived in St Louis at an early age being raised by his mother. His mother was both loving and manipulative, and from that, a lonely and strict adolescence came a man with an immense desire to be independent (Gladstein). Eliot's poem is about a man by the name J. Alfred Prufrock, who is a very awkward man, telling us the story of him trying to open himself up to his lover. Prufrock is
While exploring his fantasy of a night out in “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” by T.S. Eliot, Prufrock encounters insecurities he has developed with his age and experience. After knowing the thoughts and hearts of women, Prufrock fears rejections and wonders if he should even consider pursuing romance. Furthermore, Prufrock contemplates his chances of winning a romantic relationship with a woman and concludes that it would be a waste of time to attempt love because of his age and overall irrelevancy.