The Love Song of Alfred J. Prufock
The Love Song of Alfred J. Prufock is a tale of a lonely man caught between an imaginary world and a realistic world. Within these two worlds he searches for someone to appreciate his true values and not have to put on the social mask that everyone wears amongst crowds. In this passage he wants to know if his efforts to make conversation amongst female company would pan out into something more than a one-night stand. He has been to many parties before and knows that there is a certain type of personality conformity that goes along with the social atmosphere. He does not like putting on this social mask to attract women and just wants someone to understand and appreciate him. The repetition of phrases using the words "worth while" portrays a sense of confusion for Prufock. His only question seems to be if putting on this type of mask will bring him a sense of love. He feels that it would only cause him to be misunderstood: "Would it have been worth while, If one, settling a pillow or throwing off a shawl, And turning toward the window, should say: "That is not it at all, That is not what I meant, at all. (lines 106-110)." He then realizes that he may not be the most elite man but he has something to offer to somebody if he had the chance: "No! I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be; (line 111)." He admits that he is not perfect and actually can be the furthest from at times: "At times, indeed, almost ridiculous—Almost, at times, the Fool. (lines 118-119)." He realizes that his time is slowly fading as he gets older and it depresses back into his fantasy world: "I grow old ... I grow old ...(line120).". Prufock has fantasies of mermaids singing The mermaids symbolize real women and how his feelings of rejection by them. Similar to real women he feels that they will reject him as well and will not sing to him: "I do not think that they will sing to me (line 125)." This passage and poem ends with Prufock falling out of his fantasy world and back into reality: "Till human voices wake us, and we drown (line 131)."
When our lives begin, we are innocent and life is beautiful, but as we grow older and time slowly and quickly passes we discover that not everything about life is quite so pleasing. Along with the joys and happiness we experience there is also pain, sadness and loneliness. Hemingway's "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place," and Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" both tell us about older men who are experiencing these dreadful emotions.
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.
prophet like Lazarus or a prince like Hamlet, and he slips into the safety of a
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.
T.S. Eliot’s breakthrough poem “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” is expertly crafted to have a complex structure with various hidden themes. The poem acts as an inner monologue for the titular character, appearing as lyric-narrative poetry. However, it does appear to lean towards a lyric poem, with the hazy plot consisting of Prufrock describing what his life has been like, in retrospect to speculating on what is to come next. The monologue throughout is melancholy in nature, with Prufrock dwelling on issues such as unrequited love, his frail body, his looming demise, and a dissatisfaction with the modernist world. Eliot uses a variety of metaphor within the poem to showcase Prufrock’s indecision, between being unable to fully live, while
Eliot’s The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock is unexpectedly not at all a “love song” like the title suggest. Eliot tells the poem through the eyes of a man by the name of J. Alfred Prufrock. Prufrock comes off as very awkward, especially when it comes to the opposite sex. For example, “And how should I presume… Is it perfume from a dress that makes me so digress? Arms that lie along a table, or wrap about a shawl. And should I then presume? And how should I begin? (Eliot 369).” Prufrock makes reference to trying to get the confidence to talk to a woman. Ultimately, he can’t find the courage and does not talk to the woman. The whole poem is ironic due to the fact that although the title suggest that it is a “love song” it is more Prufrock telling about his isolation and social awkwardness in his
Love has many definitions and can be interpreted in many different ways. William Maxwell demonstrates this in his story “Love”. Maxwell opens up his story with a positive outlook on “Love” by saying, “Miss Vera Brown, she wrote on the blackboard, letter by letter in flawlessly oval palmer method. Our teacher for fifth grade. The name might as well have been graven in stone” (1). By the end of the story, the students “love” for their teachers no longer has a positive meaning, because of a turn in events that leads to a tragic ending. One could claim that throughout the story, Maxwell uses short descriptive sentences with added details that foreshadow the tragic ending.
We see how the title of the poem gives us a hint on the meaning that Prufrock must be in love, right? It is true that he is in love, but his lack of confidence needed to speak with the woman makes this poem more of a sorrow regarding a love that never comes true. Prufrock’s reasoning behind his lack of confidence is that he fears that the woman could not love him back and
"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.
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.
In "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock", written by T. S. Elliot in 1917, J. Alfred Prufrock makes the reader privy to his innermost thoughts on an evening out. Prufrock wants to lead the reader to an overwhelming question, raising expectations, but he is a bitterly disappointing man; he never asks the question. He lacks self-esteem, women are intimidating to him, and he is too much of a coward to ever be successful with women. The title is "The Love Song,", not "A Love Song." So whenever Prufrock is around women, he behaves the same way. He always has and always will. Because of his inability to change he will die a lonely man.
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.
“The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” is hardly a love song at all. That irony is clear in that the narrator’s voice is anxious, self-conscious, and depressed. It seems he has wasted his life or that life was wasted on him, and he regrets not being born as a creature that lives on the bottom of the sea. The very last lines of the poem,
The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock, a poem created by the late T.S. Eliot who was a poet in the 20th Century (when Europe was its peak of industrialisation) and this is considered to be one of his highly regarded pieces alongside (The Wasteland). This poem is a monologue of the persona of J. Alfred Prufrock, (the speaker of the poem) a middle aged man, intellectual and described with little self-confidence with himself who has problems in dealing with self-image and anxiety. He’s a solitary man who is achingly shy and little courage, when being isolated, he isn’t subjected to a lifestyle of a social life and this halts him when it comes to speaking with a female. The title to me is ironic, Eliot titled it a ‘Lovesong’, therefore, the language
Eavan Boland’s poem “Love” comes from her collection entitled In a Time of Violence. In the piece Boland both reflects on the history of her and her husband’s love and ties it in with the story of a hero who travels to hell. The poem’s form is stanzaic, broken into 7 stanzas with 38 lines. “Love” is rich with metaphor, simile, personification and imagery. The poem makes constant allusion to Greek Mythology, and the author’s story runs parallel to that of Odysseus from Homer’s “The Odyssey” . Boland is able to convey the journey loves take throughout the course of a relationship and how it is affected during difficult times.