Elliot tells this poem in a very fragmented style. He includes in this poem random rhyming, which is a classic Technique used by modernists. Fragmentation of the poem is broken including the theme, images, and characters because it is supposed to represent the broken and chaotic world the writers lived in. Throughout the poem, Prufrock swaps between using a formal and classic structure and a sporadic free verse. His imagery progresses from the general to the specific as he starts out with describing the skyline of the city in a vague way and then moves to talk about the sawdust covered floor of a restaurant. The character himself is broken because he is a moody and isolated thinker whose expressions of visually appealing ability and sensitivity do not seem to fit in …show more content…
Alfred Prufrock is an exemplary modern man. He is overeducated, expressive, anxious, and emotionally stilted. Throughout the poem he is stuck in his indecisiveness and unsureness. He wants to interact with the women in the room talking about Michelangelo, but in his mind he imagines them making fun of his inadequacies and short comings like his balding hair, thin arms, and modest clothes. In another paragraph he speaks of wanting to “force the moment to its crisis” by consummating his relationship with a woman but does not act on it because he hears the fictitious negative remarks in his head again. He even reprimands himself for presuming that that kind of interaction could be possible at all. Prufrock also says that “there is time for you and time for me, and time yet for a hundred indecisions and for a hundred visions and revisions…” This tells us that he overthinks a lot and that he uses the idea of having time to do something later as an excuse not to act in the present, furthering the problem of being stuck. The inconsistent rhyme scheme and varying sentence length during these parts create stress for the reader and in doing so transfer the anxiousness that Prufrock is feeling at these
"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.
The Love song of J. Alfred Prufrock is a poem that was written by T. S Eliot. The poem introduces the character, Prufrock, as a man who is very pessimistic about everything and is incapable of change. Prufrock sees the society he lives in as a place that is full of people who think alike, and he thinks he is different from them. Though Prufrock, realizes that the society he is associated with needs a change and have more people who think differently, but the fact that he is very concerned about what people would think of him if he tries to speak up to make a change or that he would be ignored or be misunderstood for whatever he says hindered him from expressing himself the way he would like to. Prufrock then decides not to express himself in order to avoid any type of rejection. In the poem, Prufrock made use of several imagery and metaphor to illustrate how he feels about himself and the society he is involved in. Prufrock use of imageries and
In his poem Eliot paints the picture of an insecure man looking for his niche in society. Prufrock has fallen in with the times, and places a lot of weight on social status and class to determine his identity. He is ashamed of his personal appearance and looks towards social advancement as a way to assure himself and those around him of his worth and establish who he is. Throughout the poem the reader comes to realize that Prufrock has actually all but given up on himself and now sees his balding head and realizes that he has wasted his life striving for an unattainable goal.
Eliot and Kafka characterize their respective characters as having negative self-images, a prior lack of success, and as being fundamentally lonely. Prufrock views himself as undesirable, and his self-image seems to grow worse with age. While Prufrock has the chance early on to make something of his life, he sits in a room, presumably one in which there is a display of artwork, and “the women come and go / Talking of Michelangelo” (ll. 13-14). Prufrock goes by unnoticed next to what could be the beautiful works of Michelangelo. It can especially be presumed that he feels inadequate next to the Statue of David, a sculpture for which Michelangelo is famous. As time goes on, his feelings of inadequacy increase when he begins to fear what others will think of his aged appearance, for “They will say: ‘How his hair is growing thin!’” and “They will say: ‘But how his arms and legs are thin!’” (ll. 41, 44). Prufrock’s lack of self-confid...
First, Eliot weaves several layers of symbolism into Prufrocks’s narrative. This ambiguity shows largely through the vehicle of the yellow fog, which Eliot personifies with cat-like characteristics using phrases such as, “…rubs its back…rubs its muzzle on the window-panes” and “…curled once about the house, and fell asleep” in reference to the mist (Eliot). This feline depiction of the city smog creates an eerie setting which serves to further the tone of unsteadiness in Prufrock’s ramblings. The seeping movements of the fog also mirror the uncontrolled movements of Prufrock’s thoughts and his polluted self-concept which causes him to question his every move to no end (Childs). The smog is uncontainable and indefinable, much like Prufrock’s emotions when dependent upon his non-existent actions (Childs). In another instance, Eliot breaks up the deep, incessant wanderings of the speaker’s mind with the phrase, “In the room the women come and go talking of Michaelangelo” (Eliot). These women symbolize the society in which Pr...
Prufrocks next thoughts tell of his old age and his lack of will to say what is on his mind. He mentions his bald spot in his hair and his thin arms and legs. This suggests that he knows he is growing old, and therefore contradicts what he had mentioned earlier in the poem about having plenty of time. Throughout the poem he is indecisive and somewhat aloof from the self-involved group of women. One part of him would like to startle them out of their frustratingly polite conversations and express his love for her, but to accomplish this he would have to risk disturbing their ?universe? and being rejected. He also mentions ?sprawling on a pin?, as though he pictures himself being pinned in place and viciously analyzed like that of an insect being literally pinned in place. The latter part of the poem captures his sense of overwhelming lack of willpower for failing to act daringly, not only at that tea party, but throughout his life.
...ing line the eloquently depicts the act of daydreaming and having a quiet fantasy abruptly disturbed by reality (131-133). It is only in his ruminations that Prufrock can escape the demands of society and the expectation of rejection.
T.S. Eliot has been one of the most daring innovators of twentieth-century poetry. His poem“The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”, is different and unusual. He rejects the logic connection, thus, his poems lack logic interpretation. He himself justifies himself by saying: he wrote it to want it to be difficult. The dissociation of sensibility, on the contrary, arouses the emotion of readers immediately. This poem contains Prufrock’ s love affairs. But it is more than that. It is actually only the narration of Prufrock, a middle-aged man, and a romantic aesthete , who is bored with his meaningless life and driven to despair because he wished but
Prufrock’s insecurities make him feel like an outsider. “In the room the women come and go talking of Michelangelo.” He wants to approach the young
"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" is one of the most influential poems of the twentieth century (Williams 49). It is certainly not a love song like any that had been written before. The second and third lines shock the reader because of their unusual imagery that would be out of place in a traditional love poem, describing the setting sunlit sky as looking "like a patient etherised upon a table" (Eliot 3). This "etherised" outside world is the key to understanding all of Prufrock's views. He is afraid of the increasingly industrialized and impersonal city surrounding him, and he is unsure of what to do and afraid to commit to any particular choice of action (Mays 112). Paralysis is the main theme of "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock."
He claims that there will be much time to do things in the social world. Prufrock is more of an anti-hero that is controlled by fear. T.S. Eliot uses tone, allusions, and imagery to explain a man’s inability to make decisions and his own self-confidence in life in which he is afraid of the outlook of his future by being misunderstood. The tone of the poem is described as a weary, self-depressed outlook.
T. S. Eliot's poem "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" reveals the unvoiced inner thoughts of a disillusioned, lonely, insecure, and self-loathing middle-aged man. The thoughts are presented in a free association, or stream of consciousness style, creating images from which the reader can gain insight into Mr. Prufrock's character. Mr. Prufrock is disillusioned and disassociated with society, yet he is filled with longing for love, comfort, and companionship. He is self-conscious and fearful of his image as viewed through the world's eye, a perspective from which he develops his own feelings of insignificance and disgust. T. S. Eliot uses very specific imagery to build a portrait of Mr. Prufrock, believing that mental images provide insight where words fail.
In conclusion,the cycle of this poem is wonderfully expressed in line 51, “I have measured out my life with coffee spoons." This signifies that he has broken down his entire life into small episodes. Prufrock's failure to act leaves him in fantasy world dominated by insecurity. Prufrock is afraid of himself and others; therefore, he is unsure of what to do and afraid to commit to any particular choice of action (Hart, pp. 174-80). He reveals his innermost thoughts to the reader, but ultimately accepts his own indecision and cowardice. McNamara's article articulates that the world of the poem is limited to a single consciousness.
Prufrock, the narrator of the poem, is a middle-aged man who is living a life void of meaning and purpose. His thoughts are depressing as he mulls over his dull, uneventful life. One of his most crippling traits is cowardice. He's v...
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