Stream of Consciousness
Thoughts, emotions, and motives make up whom a person is. These are the same things that make up the characters in some of the most famous literary works. Stream of consciousness shows the thoughts, feelings, and ideas of a character through the character’s point of view. Stream of consciousness is a writing tool used most notably in the early twentieth century, during the rise of modernism. Another description for stream of consciousness is interior monologue. This interior monologue gives the reader a look into the thoughts that drives the character to their actions. William James explains the term in The Principles of Psychology, stating, “Consciousness, then, does not appear to itself chopped up in bits. Such
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Alfred Prufrock”. In “Prufrock”, Eliot uses a combination of stream of consciousness and imagery to tell the story. The imagery is evident by the amount of descriptive language the speaker uses, while stream of consciousness is represented by the story being told entirely through the speaker’s mind. In “Prufrock”, the thoughts are of Prufrock himself, not of the author, T. S. Eliot. The use of stream of consciousness in “Prufrock” opens the mind of the character, allowing the thoughts and feelings of the character to be exposed. This exposure makes the character more relatable because it shows the strengths, and more primarily, the insecurities of the character. Prufrock’s insecurities are on full display during the entire poem, and are apparent in the fifth stanza, line 39, as he thinks “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!’)” (39-41). The parenthesis indicates a break in his original thought. As he notices the bald spot in his hair, he seems to immediately think to himself what “they” will say. He adds, “My morning coat, my collar mounting firmly to the chin, / My necktie rich and modest, but asserted by a simple pin- / (They will say: ‘But how his arms and legs are thin!’) (42-44). Again, his thought is broken by a worry. He realizes that his clothes do not fit him as well as they used to, and
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
Eliot uses allusions and imagery to make several references to characters—both real and fictional—to vicariously show how Prufrock feels. The first allusion is an epigraph from Dante’s Inferno:
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
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 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.
The title is actually the only place where Prufrock’s name is mentioned – in the poem he talks about himself in the first person. Eliot is clearly poking fun of himself with this title – as a young man he signed
“And indeed there will be time” (23). Prufrock is musing about all the time there will be for gossip later. Again the yellow smoke slides down the street, tempting Prufrock to give in. With the gossip goes the gossipers and as they arrive back at their homes you see the yellow smoke of gossip “Rubbing its back upon the window-panes” (25). Now, Prufrock has time to think about what he has to do. In the poem he seems to be in a dream-like state. He is wondering, the rhythm in lines 26-34 gives me the impression that he is pacing the floor. He is preparing to meet someone, a woman, and he is conflicted about how to tell her what he must tell her. Prufrock feels overwhelmed by what he must do, and yet he is trying his best to focus on the task at hand. Just as
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.
Prufrock laments his inability to act or communicate and Eliot used the animal image. Here it shows the hope that Prufrock aims to make him underestimated, he is fed up with his inadequacy, and irresolute spirit, he would rather be a crab that would naturally by instincts run to its prey and cease it without much waste of time or prior thinking.
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
Unable to "force the moment to its crisis" leaves Prufrock emotionally impotent. Unlike Marvell and his coy mistress Prufrock does not have all the time in the world to malinger, "stretched on the floor." Trivializing his message of desire, as in the rhyme of lines 79-80 or referring to himself as John the Baptist only further hinders the expression of his desire. And we can only imagine in Eliot's use of religious images in which Prufrock "wept and fasted, wept and prayed" that Prufrock is fervently hoping for the self-confidence to express his desires. Yet after the social banter/conventions of "the cups, the marmalade, the tea", "the porcelain" and "some talk of you and me" Prufrock is still unable to seize the moment, to turn desire into action. Presuming that Prufrock is largely reflecting on these issues himself rather than to another listener one notices that he is unable to even mention his desires to himself, so deeply
T.S. Eliot's use of allusion is fundamental to the structure and themes of his early poetry. In the poem ‘The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’, Eliot uses gripping literary allusions and thought-provoking reflections, specifically influenced by Eliot’s extensive reading of Dante, the poem’s epigraph being an extract from the Inferno, a work that describes a journey through Hell. This poem also makes several references to the Bible with Prufrock comparing himself to John the Baptist and Lazarus, suggesting that he, too, has something acute to reveal to the world, although admitting he is ‘no prophet’ --neither a John the Baptist, nor a Lazarus, nor is he even a hero. One can postulate that it is probable that ‘Prufrock’ may not be a poem about good people, but about bad ones professing to be good. ‘The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’ resembles a form of a dramatic monologue, the words of an individual speaker, who is revealing their inner thoughts and concerns to the audience. Accordingly, Eliot makes use of a number of metaphors to convey Prufrock’s lack of confidence and self-disgust, with Prufrock correlating his ‘days and ways’ to cigarette butts to convey his
The stream of consciousness in literature can give the main idea of the story in a multitude of different ways while being represented in different formats.