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The Content, Themes, Diction and Imagery of 'The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock', 'Portrait of a Lady', 'Rhapsody on a Windy Night' and 'Preludes'
'The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock', 'Portrait of a Lady', 'Rhapsody on a Windy Night' and 'Preludes' deal with the psychological impasse of the sensitive person from whom life has been withheld. Both 'Prufrock' and 'Portrait of a Lady' depict self-conscious, philosophical characters who are unable to act and dare not chance acting. As portrayed in 'Prufrock' the character is hesitant and determines action as risky and difficult:
" Do I dare Disturb the universe?" (45-46).
In 'The Love song of J. Alfred Prufrock', the character Alfred Prufrock is struggling with the concept of asking the "overwhelming question …", (10). This may refer to one of the women in the room whom he is unable to ask to marry him. The male observer in 'Portrait of A Lady' also illustrates his inaction, apathy and numbness towards the older lady with whom he has a detached relationship. The imagery of the evening and fog that is personified in 'Prufrock' suggests some of the problems facing humans deciding to act. The fog curls around the house, the evening "sleeps so peacifully", "stretched on the floor" - or, like the etherized Prufrock, "malingers". Eliot is confronting the difficulty of action rather than its unpleasantness. 'Prufrock' and 'Portrait of a lady' convey specifically emotional inaction while 'Preludes' illustrates physical inaction, as a woman in the third section struggles sluggishly to awake and prepare to get out of bed. 'Preludes' also suggests the paralysis of the metaphysical, as the woman's soul is constituted by life's mundane "masquerade" (a "thousand sordid images).
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... researching one of the references, Henry James' 'Crapy Cornelia,' published in 1909, outlines some of the features of the poem. 'Crapy Cornelia' is a story of White-Mason, a middle-aged bachelor of nostalgic temperament, who visits a young Mrs. Worthingham to propose marriage but reconsiders owing to the difference between their worlds. It could have contributed a number of ornamental details and ideas. For example, at the crucial ending of 'Crapy Cornelia', White-Mason tells Cornelia, "I'm old", which is similar to the middle-aged Prufrock who says, "I grow old". When readers are aware of Eliot's references, the emotive tone and themes of the poems are intensified.
Bibliography:
A Student's Guide to the Selected Poems of T.S. Eliot - B.C. Southam.
The invisible poet T.S. Eliot - Hugh Kenner.
Casebook Series, T.S. Eliot - Edited by B.C. Southam.
Janie’s attempts at achieving her own pear tree and fails, nevertheless this is done so that she can find for herself that adventure and life experiences are more important than love alone. It didn’t take Janie long to learn her first lesson but after she left Logan “She knew now that marriage did not make love. Janie’s first dream was dead” (Hurston 25). Janie sought to have her own “pear tree” which meant that she wanted a perfect relationship with a man, defining her as a dependant early on. Once Logan began demanding more of Janie and stretching that thin fabric that is Janie’s loyalty she left him, Janie will experiment with Jody and learn the same lesson. Hurston personifies the extent of Janie’s dream by stating that it is “dead” showing that Janie chases her dreams extensively and she will do this continually until she achieves her own horizon. When Janie lives with Jody she is suppressed and her search for perfect love is shattered once more except this time she learns how to defend herself from this malice, “You ain’t tried tuh pacify nobody but yo’self. Too busy listening to yo’ own big voice.” (Hurston 87). We see once more that Janie is denied of her grand dream and is taught another valuable lesson, how to defend herself. Janie demonstrates her independence as a woman by living without a man for the
Unfortunately, his younger brother, Allie, passing away took a huge toll on his life. One night after being physically abused by Maurice the elevator operator Holden says “What I did, I started talking, sort of out loud, to Allie. I do that sometimes when I get very depressed” (Salinger 98). Clearly, he causes his own self-anxiety sometimes leading to sleep deprivation. Flashing back to unnecessary memories such as simply not allowing Allie to go shoot his BB gun with him, Holden puts himself through more pain than he already was going through. In the Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder article, it explains, “Some people get PTSD after a friend or family experiences harm.” Therefore, the death of Allie is most likely one of the main reasons for Holden’s not so ordinary
It is a mental illness that can sometimes occur in teenagers as a response to a sudden traumatic experience or abandonment. Symptoms of depression that directly relate to Holden’s behaviour include: loss of appetite, depressed or irritable mood, failing relations with family and friends, faltering school performance, fatigue, feelings of worthlessness or self-hatred and obsessive fears or worry about death. Holden lost his younger brother Allie to cancer when he was only thirteen years old. An event such as this is can be traumatic to a young person and cause feelings of sadness and/or depression. Thoughts about suicide is another common symptom of depression. Holden expresses thoughts about committing suicide in Chapter 14 after Maurice assaults him: “What I really felt like, though, was committing suicide. I felt like jumping out the window. I probably would've done it, too, if I’d been sure somebody’d cover me up as soon as I landed. I didn't want a bunch of stupid rubbernecks looking at me when I was all gory” (Salinger,
T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” tells the speaker’s story through several literary devices, allowing the reader to analyze the poem through symbolism, character qualities, and allusions that the work displays. In this way, the reader clearly sees the hopelessness and apathy that the speaker has towards his future. John Steven Childs sums it up well in saying Prufrock’s “chronic indecision blocks him from some important action” (Childs). Each literary device- symbolism, character, and allusion- supports this description. Ultimately, the premise of the poem is Prufrock second guessing himself to no end over talking to a woman, but this issue represents all forms of insecurity and inactivity.
On the surface, ?The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock? is about an older man who is distressed by his own inability to tell a woman of his desire for her. He tries to relay his feelings to her but comes up with all kinds of excuses not to, and ultimately does not. The speakers? real problem is not that he is just too timid to confess his love for this particular woman, it is that he has a somewhat unproductive, bleak life and has a lack of willpower and boldness to change that life.
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.
Eliot, T. S. "Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock." The Norton Anthology English Literature. 8th ed. Vol. F. New York: W.W. Norton &, 2006. 2289-293. Print.
Holden Caulfield suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder throughout the course of the novel. In fact, the root of all his problems come from Allie’s passing; he died from leukemia. Holden used to be extremely close with him and his imminent death changed his entire life and psyche. Holden seems to relive the event of his beloved little brother Allie’s death over and over. “What is clear, however, is that many of the symptoms Holden displays in the course of the novel mirror the classic symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. The death of his younger brother, Allie was a traumatic event in Holden Caulfield’s life and is perhaps at the root of the depression he battles in the novel. The death of a sibling can trigger post-traumati...
Price is overly consumed and unrelenting in his attempt to baptize the villagers. Mama Tituba, the Price family’s help becomes enraged as she communicates to Price why the villagers are so fearful of being baptized...
"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" is about a timid and downcast man in search of meaning, of love, and in search of something to break from the dullness and superficiality which he feels his life to be. Eliot lets us into Prufrock's world for an evening, and traces his progression of emotion from timidity, and, ultimately, to despair of life. He searches for meaning and acceptance by the love of a woman, but falls miserably because of his lack of self-assurance. Prufrock is a man for whom, it seems, everything goes wrong, and for whom there are no happy allowances. The emptiness and shallowness of Prufrock's "universe" and of Prufrock himself are evident from the very beginning of the poem. He cannot find it in himself to tell the woman what he really feels, and when he tries to tell her, it comes out in a mess. At the end of the poem, he realizes that he has no big role in life.
Elliot, T.S. "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock." Literature: Reading, Reacting, Writing. Compact 3rd ed. Eds. Laurie G. Kirszner and Stephen R. Mandell. Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace, 1997. 781-785.
Alfred Prufrock”indicates the spiritual emptiness and disillusionment of people , chaos, and futility of modern life and nothingness of human existence on a meaningless world. This is what the poet intends to disclose. And love songs, as many expect, must be very sweet and romantic. Love must be connected with something pleasant. Yet the love song of Prufrock seems very sentimental and sorrowful. The first stanza of the poem presents an unpleasant sight to us.“when the evening is spread out against the sky, Like a patient etherized upon a table”, Prufrock perceives the sunset as a patient oozing on the operation table. Through Prufrock’ s“stream of consciousness”,“ half-deserted streets, cheap hotel, dust restaurants”-the living conditions of the poor appear before him. The situations and the atmosphere are not in harmony with a real love song. This reveals the state of mind of Prufrock, who is not happy, but in a melancholy mood. There is a repetition of the line“In the room the women come and go Talking of Michelangelo”demonstrates the women of fashion pose as a lover of culture and show off their culture accomplishment. They pretend to be educated and converse with so-called civilized gentlemen to relieve their boredom. People in the genteel society in the party eat, drink, dance, and talk to kill much time. This description of the life of genteel society forms a sharp contrast to the poor district with its
Prior to reading the case list your set of criteria for evaluating new venture as an opportunity
In T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” the author is establishing the trouble the main character, Prufrock, is having coming to terms with middle age. He is deeply distressed over the fact that he is growing old, and feels that the prime of his life has passed him by. His preoccupation with time throughout the poem characterizes his fear of aging. He is a man experiencing a mid-life crisis, brought about by his perception of aging and his own feelings of inadequacy.
And “make our visit” indicates that he is on his way to social occasions. All of these settings and details in the second stanza does not seem to make any sense individually, but as a whole, they actually convey the narrator’s depression and loneliness toward his boring surroundings. In addition, in the next stanza, the speaker of the poem says, “the room the women come and go. Talking of Michelangelo.” At this plot, the narrator of the poem just skims over the communications among upper-class women. However, when to compare his preference toward the upper-class women who are trying to pose themselves as lovers of culture with the shantytown mentioned above, an obvious strong contrast is formed invisibly. Similarly, in the fourth stanza, the speaker of the poem asserts,,“The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes, The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window-panes”, the setting here indicates the speaker’s extremely empty and boring emotions, when the dusk comes. In conclusion, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock is a love song without love. It’s more like a realism of plain folks who live in the oppressive and depressing modern industrialized