The Lovesong Of J Alfred Prufrock Analysis Essay

T.S. Eliot was one among few poets and authors that dominated the years between the First and Second World Wars. Eliot showed his use of modernism techniques through “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”, creating a powerful reputation around the world, particularly as a member of The Lost Generation in the 1920s. Eliot moved to and settled in London where he worked with famous poets including Ezra Pound, and published his first collection of poems (McMichael 1358). “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” is a famous work that was almost a mockery of the romance-driven main character of the story, as it represented the indecisiveness of a personality and the superiority of an anti-romanticism ideal.

T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” draws attention to the idea that time is of the essence. On the surface, Prufrock is portrayed as a man who is incapable of making decisions and lacks self-confidence. This is evident through his passive nature, where he continuously delays having to talk to women because he believes there is enough time. Written in the era of modernism, the reader is capable of unraveling that the poem’s true purpose was not only to show Prufrock’s inability to make decisions when it comes to love, but to show the desolation that one faces in times of a modernistic transition. Eliot depicts Prufrock’s transition phase through a gloomy and solemn tone, incorporating imagery, metaphor and synecdoche to

T. S. Eliot's poem "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" is a dramatic monologue in which the poet Eliot speaks in the voice of a middle-aged man who is in love with a woman he is afraid does not love him back. Over the course of the poem, Prufrock pines for the woman, even while he satirizes the social circle in which the two of them dwell. The poem is both humorous and tragic. Prufrock sees the absurdity of his condition: "No! I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be; /Am an attendant lord, one that will do /To swell a progress, start a scene or two." However, because Prufrock is able to take such an ironic and detached view of himself and his affection for his unnamed beloved, it is unlikely that Prufrock will ever be able to reveal himself to the woman he loves. [THESIS]. Cowardly and afraid of taking an emotional risk, he hides behind literary references, similes and metaphors.

Unlike other forms of literature, poetry can be so complex that everyone who reads it may see something different. Two poets who are world renowned for their ability to transform reader’s perceptions with the mere use of words, are TS Eliot and Walt Whitman. “The love song of J Alfred Prufrock” by TS Eliot, tells the story of a man who is in love and contemplating confessing his emotions, but his debilitating fear of rejection stops him from going through with it. This poem skews the reader’s expectations of a love song and takes a critical perspective of love while showing all the damaging emotions that come with it. “Song of myself”, by Walt Whitman provokes a different emotion, one of joy and self-discovery. This poem focuses more on the soul and how it relates to the body. “Song of myself” and “The love song of J Alfred Prufrock” both explore the common theme of how the different perceptions of the soul and body can affect the way the speaker views themselves, others, and the world around them.

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

Just by reading the title of this poem, the theme of love is obviously present. Although, when reading the title you may think this poem was about a love story about a couple or something along those lines but it turns out different then the reader would expect. The love song of J. Alfred Prufrock is weakly imbedded with love. Prufrock’s unsure attitude causes him to miss out on opportunity. He never actually acts upon his feelings for the women talking about Michelangelo. In the poem he asks, “Do I dare?” as if he has something to risk. He almost overcomes his fear and talks to the

T.S. Eliot’s, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, tells the depressing journey of Prufrock’s mental battle to tell a woman how he feels. Prufrock is a man of high class. He is educated, as seen with his literary references to Hamlet. In addition, his “morning coat” (43) implies that he is wealthy, as he is able to afford an elite jacket. Prufrock is surrounded by women of high class, as he observes “the women [that] come and go Talking of Michelangelo” (35-36). Discussing the art of Michelangelo pertains to a noble crowd, which emphasizes the wealth of the women. Although Prufrock claims he has a great deal of experience with women, he struggles to gather the courage to ask a girl out. Prufrock’s fear of rejection, which stems from his lack of confidence, hinders his ability to say how he feels.

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 poem “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” examines a single character, Prufrock, who has been influenced by three very different modes of thinking: Romanticism, Realism, and Modernism. These influences cause inner conflict within the character that he struggles to overcome throughout the course of the poem. Eliot’s Prufrock is both psychologically and socially crippled because he embodies both Romantic and Realist ideals, i.e. the heroism of the individual and the awareness of insurmountable, objective realities, respectively, while possessing the self-conscious mind of a man influenced by a culture of Modernism.

In T. S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”, the title alone is ironic because throughout the poem Prufrock struggles with being unable to talk to anyone, yet the poem is supposed to be a “love song” (Eliot). The epigraph of the poem is quoted directly from Dante’s “Inferno”, the translation says “If I thought that my answer were being made to someone who would ever return to earth, this flame would remain without further movement; but since no one has ever returned alive from this depth, if what I hear is true, I answer you without fear of infamy” (qtd. in Eliot). This quote correlates to the way Prufrock tells us his fears and feelings due to the reader being unable to tell the people in the poem what Prufrock says. In the first line, Prufrock says “Let us go then, you and I” (Eliot, ln. 1), the you in the poem is not directly referred to as the reader or the recipient of the “love song” (Eliot). The first stanza sets in place that this is not a love song like the title says. It begins by comparing the sky to “a patient etherized upon a table” (Eliot, ln. 3) and offers to take the “you” in the poem down “half-deserted streets, …. Restless nights in one-night cheap hotels and sawdust restaurants with oyster shells” (Eliot, ln. 4-7) which are not places you go for a romantic setting. These thoughts lead him to “an overwhelming question,” but begs “do not ask, ‘What is it?’” (Eliot, ln. 11-12).

The general fragmentation of "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" is obvious. The poem seems a perfect example of what Terry Eagleton calls the modern "transition from metaphor to metonymy: unable any longer to totalize his experience in some heroic figure, the bourgeois is forced to let it trickle away into objects related to him by sheer contiguity." Everything in "Prufrock" trickles away into parts related to one another only by contiguity. Spatial progress in the poem is diffident or deferred, a "scuttling" accomplished by a pair of claws disembodied so violently they remain "ragged." In the famous opening, "the evening is spread out against the sky / Like a patient etherised

The love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock is a poem that tells the story of a man who once had the confidence to talk to women. The man loses confidence because of him getting shot down by women. The main dilemma of the poem is that Prufrock no longer has the confidence to talk to women and he becomes old and lonely because of this. The main dilemma is expressed through the speaker’s voice and the unusual syntax of the poem. The unusual syntax of the poem makes it so that it there is not a definite rhyme scheme and the repeated patterns to help emphasize the main dilemma. Throughout the poem the speaker’s voice changes as it shifts from Prufrock having the confidence to talk to women to him lacking the confidence to women.

Typically of T.S.Eliot fragmented and personal innovations the poem has the devices of the Dramatic Monologue, blended Meters, , sordid images and real life metaphor. Refrains

As T.S Eliot writes “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”, he gives insight into a “modern man”. This modern man is recognized not only by his looks, but also by his boredom and isolation with the subject of love. As this song progresses it is easy to see that these aspects play a part into his whole life. Prufrock is not only searching for love, but is also learning much about himself during the process.

Individuals create their own fate, and those who think negatively, tend to carry out their negative thoughts. It is said, that those who think negatively are the obstruction of their own success, and literature mimics this ideal through many different forms. T.S Eliot’s famed poem, “The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock” represents this ideal, where its main speaker, J. Alfred Prufrock, is unable to carry out his goal of courting a woman, because of his insecurities and fears. “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant, portrays the same theme, but instead the main character, Madame Loisel’s, selfish actions lead her to her ultimate destruction. Finally, Franz Kafka’s “Before the Law” reveals a character, who’s timidness leads him to his unfulfilled death. Together, all three of these pieces reveal the idea that self loathing and insecurities leads to even greater problems and consequences, and ultimately the character’s demise.