The Paralysis of Prufrock in The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

Images and allusions aren’t Prufrock’s only fragmented features though; Eliot also uses the rhythm, and the rhyme is irregular throughout this poem. Throughout the poem, the rhyming schemes differ and constantly changed and evolved. There are instances when it is an unrhymed free verse, and instances where it would go for a longer period of time, then to shorter periods. The rhyme scheme creates a chaotic feeling, as well as feelings of disorganization and confusion, just as the world Prufrock resides in, and it does a good job portraying the anxiety that is rooted in the social world. He is afraid to confront those talking pointlessly about Michelangelo as well as he is intimidated by the thought of engaging in a gathering, believing that “there will be time” (23), and that he has "time yet for a hundred indecisions, And for a hundred visions and revisions", indicating that his life and his social life is a bore, with repetitive routines that remains the same. Prufrock’s constant worrying is also shown in not merely the

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.

In "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," T. S. Eliot reveals the silent insecurity of a man, for whom the passing of time indicates the loss of virility and confidence. Throughout the poem, Prufrock struggles with his fear of inadequacy, which surfaces socially, physically and romantically. The desire to ask some "overwhelming question," of the one he wants is outweighed by his diffidence, reinforcing his belief in his shortcomings. Ultimately, this poem is the internal soliloquy of someone who attempts to know what he wants and how to get it, but whose social paralysis and lack of self-assuredness prevents either of these possibilities.

1. How does the epigraph from Dante’s Inferno help Eliot comment on the modern world in“The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”? What does it tell us about the setting of this poem? How is Montefeltro’s miscalculation related to the poem?

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.

'I have measured out my life with coffee spoons'; (line 51), shows how Prufrock thinks of his own life, unexciting and unheroic. In his mind he has nothing to offer these women. He returns to wrestling with his thoughts that allow him to desire the love the women have to offer but talk himself out of the task by gentile reminders of the risk. He tells the reader that he knows these women and even begins to rehearse an opening remark, 'Shall I say, I have gone at dusk through narrow streets / And watched the smoke that rises from the pipes'; (lines 70-71). This thought is quickly lost however as Prufrock imagines how easy it would be to be a creature that had no need for love, 'I should have been a pair of ragged claws / Scuttling across the floors of silent seas'; (lines 73-74).

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

Eliot also uses syntax to establish thematic concepts. In stanzas 7 to 9, Prufrock muses about how he has “known them all,” (lines 45, 59,62) referring to the people and

The Story of Prufrock starts out with him deciphering with himself if he should make this “change” in his life; he has always been a loner who only observes the world, instead of joining it, but

Prufrock is a man with many contradictive and fragmental characteristics. While one part of him would like to shake startle these characteristics out of his life, he would have to risk disturbing his peaceful universe in order to do so. The latter part of the poem