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Zoë Edwards April 23, 2014 Dr. Vitanza English 3351 Essay III Written in two different literary periods “My Last Duchess” by Robert Browning and T.S. Eliot’s poem “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” share various similarities with one another. While Browning can not be credited for inventing the dramatic monologue himself it was his fondness and skill for it that raised it to a highly sophisticated level. He also helped increase its popularity both with poets and the general public. His huge success with dramatic monologues served as inspiration for Eliot years later. Based on his work, Eliot was clearly influenced by the dramatic monologue style used by Browning. However, despite their similarities there are stark differences between the poems by Browning and Eliot. “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” shows a clear movement away from the Victorian style found in “My Last Duchess” and goes towards Modernism. Browning’s works were the primary model for the basic form of the standard Victorian dramatic monologue which was based around a speaker, listener, and a reader. Browning’s poem “My Last Duchess” became a model for the dramatic monologue form primarily because of the strict approach he took while developing the poem. One of the aspects characteristic of this work is the authors level of consciousness. Each element in “My Last Duchess” is thoughtfully constructed with form and structure in mind. This poem is filled with dramatic principle that satisfied the Victorian period’s demand for an action and drama that were not overtly apparent in the work. In the case of “My Last Duchess” the drama of the poem is how his character, the Duke, is introduced. In dramatic monologues the character’s self is revealed through thoug... ... middle of paper ... ... by Browning, but he also sets himself and his consciousness apart from the modern society who remained. Shown by how Prufrock isolated himself away from the fakery of his society. Both Browning and Eliot seek to improve upon the nature of the dramatic monologue. Browning emphasizes structure and a separation between the poet and the character which is reiterated by Eliot’s poem. Browning’s influence on Eliot can be seen by the form and structure of “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” adding working intrinsically with the theme and subject of the work. However, Eliot deviates slightly from Browning by the portrayal of his characters, and the amount of information that he is willing to share with the reader. The intended message of Browning’s poem is much more apparent than Eliot’s who creates an open ended poem that can be interpreted differently by each reader.
Alfred Prufrock. The relevance of this poem stems from Eliot’s transformation of his own personal experience of alienation and isolation into a subjective and relatable narrative in which we can locate truths about ourselves. The poem is an acute fusion of modernity and self-consciousness that is debilitating and paralyzing. Prufrock metaphorically looks through his window but never engages meaningfully with the outside world. He is an ageing man who laments the vacuity of his life and lack of intellectual, sexual and spiritual fulfillment. His existential questioning engages us as a modern audience, provoking us to question the integrity of our own
Eliot, T.S.. "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock." An Introduction to Poetry. 13th ed. of the year.
Through their actions and personalities, they can correctly be regarded as representatives of the ‘modern man.’ During the time when both characters were created in the book and poems respectively, urbanization, immigration and industrialization were transforming the country (American Literature Since the Civil War - 2015 Edition). In modern works, struggles exist in adapting and taking a place in the rapidly transforming world. Likewise, Nick and Prufrock were undergoing struggles as each of them was faced with various predicaments that required deep decision-making (American Literature Since the Civil War - 2015 Edition). The ‘modern man’ is commonly caught up with irrational forces. Prufrock and Nick who makes irrational decisions out of societal demands rather than personal issues such as happiness demonstrate these scenarios. They also brought out the idea of self-consciousness and overcoming fear, which are essential in the ‘modern man’ to achieve
Eliot, T.S.. "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock." The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Ed. M.H. Abrams. New York: Norton, 1996. 2459-2463.
For Eliot, poetic representation of a powerful female presence created difficulty in embodying the male. In order to do so, Eliot avoids envisioning the female, indeed, avoids attaching gender to bodies. We can see this process clearly in "The Love Song of J. Prufrock." The poem circles around not only an unarticulated question, as all readers agree, but also an unenvisioned center, the "one" whom Prufrock addresses. The poem never visualizes the woman with whom Prufrock imagines an encounter except in fragments and in plurals -- eyes, arms, skirts - synecdoches we might well imagine as fetishistic replacements. But even these synecdochic replacements are not clearly engendered. The braceleted arms and the skirts are specifically feminine, but the faces, the hands, the voices, the eyes are not. As if to displace the central human object it does not visualize, the poem projects images of the body onto the landscape (the sky, the streets, the fog), but these images, for all their marked intimation of sexuality, also avoid the designation of gender (the muttering retreats of restless nights, the fog that rubs, licks, and lingers). The most visually precise images in the poem are those of Prufrock himself, a Prufrock carefully composed – "My morning coat, my collar mounting firmly to the chin, / My necktie rich and modest, but asserted by a simple pin" -- only to be decomposed by the watching eyes of another into thin arms and legs, a balding head brought in upon a platter. Moreover, the images associated with Prufrock are themselves, as Pinkney observes, terrifyingly unstable, attributes constituting the identity of the subject at one moment only to be wielded by the objective the next, like the pin that centers his necktie and then pinions him to the wall or the arms that metamorphose into Prufrock's claws. The poem, in these
In the poem, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, by T. S. Eliot, the poetic effects that he produces is that they all are refrains which are repeated twice in the poem. Therefore, I believe that the effects are there to get the reader’s attention to reflect the problems of dreariness and dullness that are displayed in the poem, which are going on in Prufrock’s life.
13- T.S. Eliot. “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.” The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Vol. II (New York, WW.Norton, 19860. pp. 2174 ff.
Allusions are used by many writers in order to further enhance their writing and give it a deeper meaning. The author of The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, T.S. Eliot, was one of those writers who used allusions to make his writing more complex. In this poem, Eliot alludes to many different figures, including a Biblical figure, mythological creature, historical person, and fictional character. All of the allusions are used to enrich the reader’s understanding of Prufrock’s thoughts and feelings. The most prominent allusions in the poem regard the themes that Prufrock does not think he fits in and thinks he is insignificant.
In conclusion, after exploring the theme of this poem and reading it for myself, Eliot has created this persona, in industrialised England or somewhere else. A man of low self-esteem, you embark his journey as he struggles with a rational fear of being rejected by a woman. Which gives the reader sympathy to Prufrock, as he lives within his own personal
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.
Analysis of T.S. Eliot's Poem “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” and Till Human Voices Wake Us
"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" by T. S. Eliot is one of most widely anthologized poems of the twentieth century. Upon reading the poem, this fact does not at all seem surprising. At first glance, the poem is extremely cryptic in its meaning and message. However, by analyzing the literary techniques that Eliot employs, such as diction, repetition, and allusion reveals the poems central message declaring that social rejection and a lack of initiative yields a life devoid of meaning and results in a lethargic and paranoid mental state, a mental hell. Another of Eliot's techniques is the use of repetition of certain motifs, which serves emphasize the ideas discussed previously.
As a conclusion, since he is a 20th Century Modernist poet, Eliot believes that readers should have knowledge about ‘’ dead poets and artists’’ so they could appreciate the value of an artist’s work truly and better.He is right in what he says and also he believes one can only be original if he/she combines past and present.His poem The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock obviously carries these characteristics of Moderist Poetry.
...yric in expression" (Longman, p. 1958) while Eliot's poem is "chaotic, irregular and fragmentary" (Longman. p. 2416). Both poems deal with loneliness, isolation and internal alienation, yet Browning's Bishop seems to be isolated from without, from the world, and Eliot's Prufrock is isolated from within, creating his own alienation from the world. These concepts, while not new, were carried over time, expressed in both the Victorian era and in the new Modernism, yet this theme, from these two poems, takes on a completely different viewpoint relative to the differing ideologies of the era's in which they represent.
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 Prufrock lives in.