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The love song of j.alfred prufrock essay analysis conclusion
The love song of j alfred prufrock themes
The love song of j.alfred prufrock essay analysis conclusion
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The Love Song That was Never Sung
A love song or a profession of love usually includes a culminating point where the suitor finally professes his love toward the woman. However T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” is almost a guide on how to dissuade oneself from professing love to a woman. It does this by combining several different poetic methods to display a situation of desperation and trapped isolation. Basically, Alfred is clear on the fact that he wants to be a part of this woman’s –whom he loves- life, but he cannot bring himself to the complete the act, to say “I love you.” The poem itself consists of all of the reasons, going through Alfred’s head, why he should not profess his love. Imagery, literary allusion, and structure are prominent tools used by Eliot to convey the man’s feelings in the poem. Eliot’s criticism of the modern man of his time is another strong theme in this poem. A demonstration of this is clear when Eliot presents Alfred as a modern man, and then he criticizes modern men’s being with Alfred’s thoughts. The inability of taking action, or cowardice, is evidently the over arching theme in this presentation. One of the minor themes that play well into the all encompassing theme is Eliot’s interpretation of the modern man.
The modern man, according to Eliot, is someone who lacks the ability to take a leap of faith or risk something no matter the importance. Prufrock is an extreme representation of the modern man and Eliot demonstrates this with these lines, “There will be time, there will be time...To wonder, ‘Do I dare?’ and ‘Do I dare?” (26, 38). Time and doubt create a barrier between Prufrock’s heart and his actions which yields him from displaying his tr...
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...role of the “Fool” found in line 118. Once again, Alfred has found even more excuses for not taking any action by relating how he believes he will fail because of his lack of great status. Therefore, he never did take that leap of faith that he earnestly wanted to.
No one can ever have courage without fear because then courage would not require so much heart and strength to muster. Even though Alfred possessed a certain fear, he did not have enough heart to be courageous and take a step bigger than those “measured in coffee spoons.” Therefore, with the use of, imagery, literary allusion, and structure, Eliot was able to create a poem that criticized the modern man that affected his heart. Just think--why men said to themselves--that they finally had a noble and courageous cause to fight for when The Great War began only a few years after this poem was published.
"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.
As one can see, Prufrock was a relatively pathetic man. Eliot demonstrated this fact numerous times but could best be summed up by line 51, "I have measured out my life with coffee spoons;" showing there is no excitement going on in his life. Prufrock never progressed in this poem and lead a pitiful life until his death.
Self-doubt is a constant emotion people in society face at some point in life. Some may struggle with it more than others. It is unavoidable and often ignored. Self-doubt is the lack of confidence in one self and one’s abilities. It is a difficult emotion to face head on and deal with, so it is simply pushed to the back burner. This becomes very dangerous because it has the ability to take over one’s life in the blink of an eye, much like Prufrock in T.S. Eliot’s poem “The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock”. The longer Prufrock pushes off confronting his issues, the more powerful his self-doubt becomes. He is afraid to act without knowing the outcome, which is why he is never moving forward, and stepping outside of the box. The poem is based on a man’s inability to act and venture into the real world simply because Prufrock doubts he will ever be able to succeed in life, resulting in him ending up alone and unhappy. This is demonstrated through the alienation Prufrock experiences, the comparison Prufrock
Eliot, T.S.. "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock." The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Ed. M.H. Abrams. New York: Norton, 1996.
The ironic character of "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," an early poem by T.S. Eliot (1888-1965) in the form of a dramatic monologue, is introduced in its title. Eliot is talking, through his speaker, about the absence of love, and the poem, so far from being a "song," is a meditation on the failure of romance. The opening image of evening (traditionally the time of love making) is disquieting, rather than consoling or seductive, and the evening "becomes a patient" (Spender 160): "When the evening is spread out against the sky / Like a patient etherized upon a table" (2-3). According to Berryman, with this line begins modern poetry (197). The urban location of the poem is confrontational instead of being alluring. Eliot, as a Modernist, sets his poem in a decayed cityscape, " a drab neighborhood of cheap hotels and restaurants, where Prufrock lives in solitary gloom" (Harlan 265).
T. S. Eliot uses The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock to highlight the everyday anxiety which stops humans from living meaningful lives. A few ways in which Eliot exemplifies this everyday anxiety is through the suppression of important thoughts or questions, a mundane hyper-focus on the trivial, and a crippling fear of other’s opinions.
This poem by T.S. Eliot is not all about a love song, rather quite the opposite. This poem, however, may be interpreted in a different form as it is quite open. J. Alfred Prufrock, who is the narrator of the poem, is quite disappointed with the kind of society he lives in. Looking at different aspects of literature used such as imagery and the intended audience, one can easily tell the view of Prufrock on life. The interpretation the narrator has about life can be deduced to be bleak, vacant and repetitive.
Impotent, pathetic, inadequate, timid. Everyone knows a J. Alfred Prufrock, and everyone has a bit of him in himself or herself. Just like Prufrock we readers have been witness to the pretentious triviality of others, the women who "come and go/ Talking of Michelangelo" (lines 13-14), and the lack of confidence which prevents the realization of desires. Eliot's careful choice of epigraph from Dante's Inferno reverberates throughout this poem as the logic behind Prufrock sharing his feelings with his listener. Just as Guido da Montefeltro is certain his listener shares a similar fate as himself, so to does Prufrock believe that his listener is like himself, and will never "turn back and descend the stair" (line 39). Prufrock's insecurities mirror our own. "He is", as Harold Bloom states in his thematic analysis, "insecure about his thinning hair and his attire, paranoid that he is being mocked. For Prufrock `there will be time,' not to experience life, but `to prepare a face,' to pose and to equivocate" (Bloom 18). Eliot's use of literary device such as imagery and repetition in the poem serve to emphasize Prufrock's hesitation, repression of desire, and indecisiveness.
In deeper tragedy Prufrock is defeated by his knowledge of his inadequacies and states quite sincerely, 'And in short, I was afraid'; Two of the minor themes of 'The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock' concern the frustrations felt by the individual towards their society. Specifically the individuals insignificance in their society and the individuals inability to express themselves and be understood as an individual within that society. Repetition plays a crucial role in conveying the theme of insignificance. The repetition of, 'They will say:..';, conveys Prufrock's feeling of insignificance and reveal a man totally absorbed in the judgments of others and not at all concerned with his worth as an individual. Eliot's repetition of 'Do I dare?'; within the sixth stanza emphasises Prufrock's feeling of insignificance. 'Do I dare/ Disturb the universe?'; Despite the superficial judgments his society passes on him, Prufrock is still hesitant in speaking out against their empty lives.
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.
Prufrock's anxiety due to his fear of aging draws the reader's attention to the theme of self-consciousness or fear of aging and mortality. “And indeed there will be time/To wonder, “Do I dare?” and, “Do I dare? /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!”) (Eliot 222 37-41). He is also worried about aging with dignity: “I grow old … I grow old … / I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled. / Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach?” (Eliot 224 120-22). Prufrock understands the folly existence despite his concerns. He admits, “No! I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be” and seems content with his role in life as an “attendant lord, one that will / To swell a progress, start a scene or two,” in short, to play a supporting role to the more dynamic m...
Eliot’s use of metaphors and similes in The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, are effective in that they take concrete, yet simple, ideas and parallel it to that of something rather organic. This, in essence, gives the elements of the poem authenticity in that it makes alive Eliot’s main themes through his creation of Prufrock’s character as a very complex, yet ordinary, man with a fragmented view of love, time, and life itself. From something as simple as love and relationships with women, to things more complex like death and decisions, Prufrock’s disconnection from the modern world is elevated through Eliot’s literary elements. Through his comparison to seemingly attainable ideas and his use of metaphors and similes, Eliot highlights Prufrock’s fragmented character and core internal dilemmas.
The author’s during the modern movement were able to capture the shift in attitude that was caused by a rapidly changing society. These attitudes inspired new techniques that had never been used before, with Eliot leading the way. In an age of concern and doubt he was considered a poet of worry and used that as a creative engine when most would be deterred. His personal pessimism and concerns were motivating factors used to create his work. His demons were not only debilitating, but inspiring and were captured with lines like “Time to turn back and descend the stair, With a bald spot in the middle of my hair-(They will say: “How his hairs is growing thin!”)” (40). These lines show the lack of confidence and paranoia men had at the time. Anxiety and uneasiness were at an all time high and his poetry didn’t hide what many felt was embarrassing. Eliot did a great job of steering into the emotions of society and was awarded with the Nobel Prize for Literature as well as the Order of Merit, which is England’s most prestigious civilian award.
The title T. S. Eliot chose for his poem "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" is ironic. Mr. Prufrock does not love anyone, nor does he believe he is loved. He has disdain for the society of which he wishes he were a part, and he believes society views him no differently. The imagery of Mr. Prufrock's thoughts provide the audience a more detailed insight into his character than had Mr. Eliot simply listed Mr. Prufrock's virtues and flaws. Mr. Prufrock is seen as an exaggeration or extreme for the sake of literary commentary, but the world has many Prufrocks in many differing degrees, and T. S. Eliot has made them a little easier to understand.
I also picked to write about T. S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock” because I have written a discussion lead post of the text. The brief summary I used for the discussion lead post helped me write this midterm essay too. It took me a while to find a well written essay or critical essay regarding T. S. Eliot’s poem. However, with the aid of Professor Carlacio’s reference websites on where to find good texts, I have succeeded in finding a proper critical essay that allowed me to further understand T. S. Eliot’s poem. The critical essay allowed me to