The Love Song Of J Alfred Prufrock Analysis

He came off as very insecure with all of his stalling. He was so down on himself that he even believed his question could “disturb the universe” and thought that his potential lover would take his question the wrong way. The poem was centered on the insecurities of man and the inability to act. The speaker was a coward and made excuses so he wouldn’t have to ask the question he so wanted to ask. Everything seemed to make him anxious and his anxiety stopped him from getting what he really wanted.

“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.

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.

He also says such things as the of his thinning hair and his resulting bald spot in order to indicate the passage of age and the importance he feels now that he is past his prime: "Time to turn back and descend the stair,/ With a bald spot in the middle of my hair--/ (They will say: 'How his hair is growing thin')"(39) This shows Prufrock's fear of being laughed at.

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 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.

Prufrock's dilemma represents the inability to live a meaningful existence in the modern world.[24] McCoy and Harlan wrote "For many readers in the 1920s, Prufrock seemed to epitomize the frustration and impotence of the modern individual. He seemed to represent thwarted desires and modern disillusionment."[22]

Eliot). T. S. Eliot’s “The Love song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” is recognized as one of the most important poems of all time because almost everyone can identify with the insecurity of J. Alfred Prufrock at one time or other, which makes it very realistic.

I don’t think Prufrock is paying the gossip any attention. The gossip just “rubs its back upon the window panes.” (15). The gossip doesn’t seem to affect him, he walks through it and it tries to tempt him, but is unsuccessful, and as the evening wares on the people at the party shake off the gossip. “Let fall upon it’s back the soot that falls from chimneys.” (19). Just when you think that the coast is clear, the gossip is gone, it shows up again and decides to stay for the night. This only adds to Prufrock’s feeling of isolation and hopelessness. His unwillingness to take part in the gossip surrounding him has made him an oddity.

Prufrock's fear to live never allowed him to accomplish anything. The issue of death emerged again in lines 26-27. In these lines Eliot said, "There will be time, there will be time to prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet."(ll. 26-27 Eliot) This statement showed that Prufrock spent the majority of his time preparing for death. In lines 37-39 Eliot said, "And indeed there will be time to wonder, 'Do I dare?' and 'Do I dare?' time to turn back and descend the stair."(ll. 37-39 Eliot) This line showed that Prufrock felt that he was bound to Hell. Prufrock constantly lived in fear of death. This fear caused him to not be able to live. In the second section Prufrock realized the error of his ways. He came to the understanding that being afraid to live was no way to live his life. Eliot summed up the entire reasoning of Prufrock in the following line, "And in short, I was afraid."(l 86 Eliot) Prufrock spent his entire life in a wasteland, because he did not have the courage to live. At this point he knew that there was no opportunity to regain the years that he lost. In lines 92-98 Eliot said, "To have squeezed the universe into a ball To roll it towards some overwhelming question, To say: 'I am Lazarus, come from the dead, Come back to tell you all, I shall tell you all'- If one, settling pillow by her head, Should say: 'That is not what I meant at all. That is not it, at all.'"(ll. 92-98 Eliot) These lines showed how

The human psyche has perpetually been characterized by a nagging sense of doubt. When one makes the decision to follow through (or, rather, not follow through) with an action, it is unlikely that he does so without questioning whether he made the right choice; this is recurring theme in literature, evident in works such as Crime and Punishment and A Separate Peace. T.S. Eliot’s The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock explores the universal nature of hesitation and self-doubt as part of the human condition primarily through apt use of metaphor, syntax, and allusion.

The attitude of the Prufrock is very depressing and sad. His attitude is almost as if he feels so sorry for himself that he expects other people to make a change for him, instead of getting out into the world and making a life for himself. The Author makes Shift changes in the poem when he asks the question “Do I dare?” This changes the attitude for a while because his thinking goes from “no I’ll never be able to change” to “ well should I at least try to?” This attitude change soon ends when he decides that no one will ever notice him, so what is the point?

This lack of willpower is displayed in line 111 where Prufrock states: "I am not Prince Hamlet." He will not, like Shakespeare's famous character, shake off his doubts and "force the moment to its crisis" (80). Prufrock feels more like the character Polonius from the same Shakespearian work. He feels that he is only able to dream of romance, and never truly experience it for himself. Instead he will have his trousers rolled at the bottom as a statement of fashion and "walk upon the beach" (123). He follows up with a romantic vision of mermaids singing to him from the sea, but deep down he knows they will not sing to him. Prufrock is caught in a sort of paralysis where no matter how much he wishes to, he finds himself unable to act on his own impulses and desires. Because of this affliction, Prufrock will continue living in a world with daydreams of romance until he finds himself awakened by the human voices of real life in which, as very grimly states in the final line of the poem, he will drown.

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.