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The love song of j alfred prufrock questions
Use of symbolism in the poem love song of j alfred prufrock
‘The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’
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“The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by T. S. Eliot is proof of entirely modernist English when the comparison is made to other famous writers such as Shakespeare. In the poem, Eliot is dealing with an exceptionally personal subject matter that makes use of indirect, fragmentized, ironic and equivocal style. By making use of modernist English, Eliot calculative does this in a manner that is giving a picture of complete objectiveness as well as detachment. Also, as a well-versed writer, the Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock sets the proceeding and the scenes in the protagonist psyche. Unlike, the romantic era that is preceding it, the modernist literary movement reflects the feelings of a lost generation impacted by war trauma and industrialization (Mandal, p.14). Throughout the Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, disillusionment as a modernist theme is expressed with the theme of indecisiveness being recognized as modernism symptoms in society. This essay will be based on whether Eliot used modernist literary canon by exploring stagnation and personal feeling of the speaker through various literary styles.
Eliot’s poem involves incorporation of numerous
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Alfred Prufrock” is used in expressing the speaker’s insecurity and self-doubt in a changing and a modernized society. Primarily the poem will focus on the inability of the speaker in talking to women, and how this is having a relation to his weak self-esteem. It is important to note that throughout the poem, the speakers demonstrate repetition, words like “In the room, the women come and move talking Michelangelo” (Wei, 12-14). Through such observation of women going and coming, it serves as a disruption of the hypothetical dialogue of the speaker, with the lady he was in love with. He didn’t have the confidence in approaching ladies since they could intimidate him more so in the society where women are independent and are so
A common practice when faced with a difficult choice, self-examination, is the centerpiece of two popular poems: Gregory Corso’s Marriage and T. S. Eliot’s The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock. Both poems are dramatic monologues in which the speakers address the similar situations that they find themselves in. While the speaker of Eliot’s poem has a nervous and bashful approach in his attempts at romance, the hesitant postmodern speaker in Corso’s poem makes use of sarcasm to attack the institution of marriage. When these two monologues given by similar personas are analyzed together, the result is a dialogue which discusses two distinguishing views on the ideas of romance and love. Despite the similarities between these two poems, Corso and Eliot shared little in common.
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.
The experience of Prufrock is set against that of unnamed "women" (13), collectively representing womankind. Their unattainable status is represented by their constant movement- they "come and go"- and their "polite chitchat about Michelangelo, who was a man of great creative energy, unlike Prufrock" (Harlan 265). We cannot imagine that they would listen to any love song by Prufrock, any more than they would find his name or his person attractive. "A man named J. Alfred Prufrock could hardly be expected to sing a love song; he sounds too well dressed" (Berryman 197)."J. Alfred Prufrock" indicates his formality, and his surname, in particular, indicates prudery. The powerful metaphor, a visual image of the "yellow fog" (15) in the fourth stanza, represents the jaundiced environment of the modern city, or Eliot's "infernal version of the forest of Arden" (Cervo 227). The image is ambiguous, however, because Eliot also makes it curiously attractive in the precision he uses in comparing the fog's motions to that of a cat who "[l]icked its tongue into the corners of the evening" (17). We also hear the fog, disquietingly, in that image, in the onomatopoeia of "licked."
In the modernist poem, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, T.S. Eliot chooses to criticize society’s deterioration as a result of industrial advancements, while exploring the idea that habitual acts, although unnoticed throughout most of life, may well end up being all there is to show for it when old age presents itself. Throughout the poem, Eliot pioneers themes which a hundred years later still remain greatly present in works of literature and art, Charlie Kaufman’s Synecdoche New York being a prime example.
T.S. Eliot’s poetry masterpiece, The Love Song of Alfred J. Prufrock, follows the compositional experience of a man named Prufrock. Eliot’s work laments the corporal and intellectual inertia that deprives Prufrock of opportunities in life through the recurrent theme of lustful love unaccomplished. The use of fragmentation and disconnected devices are applied to create a sense of disruption to mental focus, and to avoid conforming to a nihilistic style. Eliot attracted fame was initiated from his poem The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock (1915), which is seen as a the chef d'uvre of the Modernist movement. Although the character Prufrock gives indication that he was middle aged, Eliot actually wrote most of the poem in the 1990s when he was himself twenty-two.
The images of the opening lines portray a dreary neighborhood with cheap hotels and restaurants. This is where Prufrock calls home. He invites the reader along on his journey. Specifically, in line 12 he is making a visit somewhere. Immediately this conjures images of the places that he and the reader will go together. He gives ideas about occasions like an afternoon tea party where women talk about Michelangelo. The correlation betw...
Eliot’s experiences help him to be able to write, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, in which he infers personal feelings into his disturbed shadow known as Prufrock. The relation to the epigraph in the poem is not only suitable, but it elaborates on how an uneasy and hesitant character such as Prufrock is able to relate what he is trying to articulate in a poem without being present in the scenery. This gives Eliot the advantage of writing in first person. This in addition with his unusual, subtle, and impelling method, he is able to hold the attention of his readers.
“The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by T.S. Eliot is a widely studied and analyzed modernist poem. This poem is one that many high school students are subjected to, leading to an overall displeasure for “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.” However, those that revisit the poem are more inclined to enjoy and analyze the poem, finding an interest in the character of J. Alfred Prufrock. Charles C. Walcutt is one of the many individuals fueled to provide a deeper analysis of this text and in his contribution to the November edition of College English, an essay entitled “Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,"” he addresses his impression that the “Love Song” portion of “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” has been neglected and what that could mean to the context of the poem.
Stravinsky was a Russian born composer, who composed in the early 20th century, contemporary to TS Eliot’s work. TS Eliot’s poem is the main topic of this critical analysis essay and will be analyzed in terms of its textual relationship with Stravinsky’s works. More specifically, Prufrock and Stravinsky textually converse in The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock which creates an effective emotional response from its audiences because of the sincerity of the verses. The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock is a modernist poem written before the onset of the World War I when Eliot was just 22 years of age. It is a poem of
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.
T.S. Eliot was able to capture the essence of the "Lost Generation" during a time when rapid change was taking hold of society. His unique style and his variety of free verse and rhythm made him one of the most well-known and respected writers of this era. Many considered "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" to be "the first masterpiece of English modernism" (Perkins 175). The modern viewpoint is best represented through the writings of Eliot as well as his ability to capture the complexities of living in an Urban environment, the internal struggles of man as an after effect of war, and the despair many were feeling as a result.
From the twentieth century modernism has established and expanded concepts that both progressed and clarified literature. Fragmentation, anxiety, hopelessness, and a sense of meaningless are all examples of modernism that can be used and are especially utilized in the works of T.S. Eliot who was very well known for use of modernism throughout his career. The poem's narrator, “Prufrock” suffers from anxiety and a hopeless heart considering the consequences he fears to face. The readers get an understanding of Prufrock’s thoughts as he suffers from social anxiety and discouragement pondering how his actions and thoughts don’t match others because of his age. Disturbing others and the peace is a fear for Prufrock who wonders, “Do I dare,
T.S. Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 6th ed. Vol. 2. ed. M. H. Abrams New York, London: Norton, 1993.
The poem, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, by T. S. Eliot, is in the unpleasant modern world era. Eliot portrays Prufrock as a middle-aged man who is aging and becoming bald. Prufrock is similar to Hell. The poem is a dramatic monologue that helps sets the personality. Prufrock takes us on a journey through a city that seems a lot like London. In the poem, he shows some imagery of “one-night cheap hotels” (line 6) and “sawdust restaurants” (line 7). He states women coming and going talking about Michelangelo, a famous painter from the Renaissance. Eliot uses much imagery as he allows the yellow fog to be vivid through the city. Prufrock is nervous, but sharp-looking. The poem requires involvement. The reader must observe with the mind’s
T.S Eliot, widely considered to be one of the fathers of modern poetry, has written many great poems. Among the most well known of these are “The Waste Land, and “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”, which share similar messages, but are also quite different. In both poems, Eliot uses various poetic techniques to convey themes of repression, alienation, and a general breakdown in western society. Some of the best techniques to examine are ones such as theme, structure, imagery and language, which all figure prominently in his poetry. These techniques in particular are used by Eliot to both enhance and support the purpose of his poems.