Prufrock Allusions

429 Words1 Page
bulb-icon

Recommended: Symbolism in TS Eliots poems

According to the incoherence of the poem, Eliot shifts it to the allusion to prince Hamlet of Denmark, whom father was killed by his uncle eventually hamlet wanted to take revenge, but he is caught in a ‘to be or not to be’ situation, and that his hesitation becomes a fact. The affinity here with Hamlet is also ironic, as Hamlet was not a modern man or a regular middle aged man from London & St. Louis who is indecisive timid, and hesitant. Eliot’s style of mock hero the two characters are caught in a situation of must take an action in which Prufrock must go and approach his lady, and Hamlet must face his uncle and take revenge upon him. But one can feel the disability and the claim in Prufrock; the words “I m not prince Hamlet” then who is to be …show more content…

The servant or attendant is silly and braggart who uses a lot of proverbs, means a man of words and not actions. This allusion serves to reflect the futility of Prufrock with a comparison to that of the classical time of Denmark, thus the theme of futility and anarchy is originated in the personality of man in all times. Moving towards the end of the poem, Eliot deepens the state of despair and hopelessness in the personae Prufrock, as he gives an account of his future situation, again jumps between tenses; past present, and future. Prufrock predicts his coming days pessimistically, the thinks of himself as grown old, he explains that he would go weak as he progress in age and wonders if he will still be able to eat peach a little bit hand to bite with teeth fruit, and again he wonders whether he would have the ability to walk upon the beach. These are some of the hardest things for old man to do, Prufrock regrets the wasted power of his

Show More
Related

  • Comparing Winterbourne and Prufrock

    594 Words  | 2 Pages

    "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.

    Read More

  • Comparison: Marriage, by Gregory Corso & The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, by T. S. Eliot

    2128 Words  | 5 Pages

    "Eliot's The Love Song Of J. Alfred Prufrock And Shakespeare's Hamlet. Critical Essay - "The. The Explicator 1 (2004): 43. Academic OneFile. Web.

    Read More

  • T.S. Elliot's The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

    1115 Words  | 3 Pages

    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...

    Read More

  • Response to The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock

    452 Words  | 1 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The Love Song Of Prufrock

    1044 Words  | 3 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Middle Age in The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

    526 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Emotion in T.S. Eliot's The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

    1454 Words  | 3 Pages

    The first stanza introduces Prufrock’s isolation, as epitomized metaphorically by “half-deserted streets” (4): while empty streets imply solitude, Eliot’s diction emphasize Prufrock having been abandoned by the other “half” needed for a relationship or an “argument” (8). Hoping for a companion, Prufrock speaks to the reader when saying, “Let us go then, you and I” (1), as he needs to address his lament to an audience; conscious of the reader’s curiosity regarding the “overwhelming question,” (10) Prufrock answers, “Oh, do not ask, ‘What is it?’” (11). (The likely explanation for Eliot’s inconsistent use of you in this stanza is Prufrock probably meaning you as “To lead one,” as he refers to himself and not the reader in line 10.) Eliot continues the metaphor of Prufrock’s lonesomeness by anthropomorphizing the “yellow fog” and “smoke” (15, 16) to signify Prufrock, who interacts not with people, but only the environment in the third, fourth, and fifth stanzas. Clearly it is Prufrock who “rubs [his] muzzle on the window-panes” (15, 16), passively lets “fall upon [his] back the soot that falls from chimneys” (19), “slides along the street” (24), and performs the actions also described; also, the opacity of “fog” and “smoke” symbolizes the difficulty with which readers perceive Prufrock’s true character, further separating ...

    Read More

  • An Analysis Of The Lovesong Of J. Alfred Prufrock

    723 Words  | 2 Pages

    In conclusion, after exploring the theme of this poem and reading it for myself, Eliot has created this persona, in industrialised England or somewhere else. A man of low self-esteem, you embark his journey as he struggles with a rational fear of being rejected by a woman. Which gives the reader sympathy to Prufrock, as he lives within his own personal

    Read More

  • Examples Of Allusion In The Love Song Of J Alfred Prufrock

    1471 Words  | 3 Pages

    Throughout the poem, Prufrock spends the entire poem wondering if he should "disturb the universe" by asking an "overwhelming question" to a woman; he lets the question float around in his mind along with his fear and uncertainty. He wonders if it "would have been worth it, after all," to have asked the question just to have her respond, "That is not what I meant at all. That is not it, at all.” Prufrock states “No! I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be;Am an attendant lord.”(Love Song.111-12) meaning, he is not a royal, or brave, like Hamlet was. Instead, he says that he was "deferential, cautious, a bit obtuse, almost ridiculous, a fool."(Love Song.115-19) Alluding to Hamlet helps one understand that he feels enormous stress.

    Read More

  • Prufrock Themes

    1136 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the poem “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” T.S Eliot uses a man named Prufrock to describe the uncertainties in life and how they affect a person views. Prufrock does not have the confidence to give or receive love. There is an equally amount of unhappiness to the concept of time and space. He is unsatisfied with life and with the decisions to think rather than act. 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.

    Read More

  • J Alfred Prufrock Allusions

    778 Words  | 2 Pages

    (Ecclesiastes 3:1) Eliot then uses Lazarus in lines 94 and 95 and states “I am Lazarus, come from the dead, Come back to tell you all, I shall tell you all”— (Perkins 179). In these lines, Prufrock is exclaiming once again, his despair by comparing himself to Lazarus who comes back from the dead. Although not dead, Prufrock is living like death. Eliot also uses the similarity of Shakespeare’s Hamlet to describe his indecisiveness and imitative hero, but then turns it around and calls himself an “attendant lord”.

    Read More

  • The Character of J. Alfred Prufrock

    956 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Frustration and Disillusionment in T.S. Eliot's The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

    740 Words  | 2 Pages

    Eliot paints a picture of the opening scene that depicts a drab neighborhood of cheap hotels and restaurants where Prufrock lives in his solitary gloom. He invites the reader to make a visit with him to a place that Prufrock imagines is filled with women having tea and engaging in conversation. Prufrock procrastinates on the visit and says, 'There will be time, there will be time / To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet:'; (lines 26-27) indicating to the reader that he is afraid of showing his real self to these participants. He further indicates his hesitation by stating, 'Time for you and ...

    Read More

  • Hamlet Indecisiveness

    1068 Words  | 3 Pages

    Hamlet/Prufrock Analysis The poem “The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock” by T. S. Eliot and the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare both clearly ask a simple question of “to be or not to be?” Indecisiveness comes from many things, whether it is from the future you have ahead or just your own worthiness. In Hamlet, Prince Hamlet constantly goes back and forth on what he should or should not do what he is told to do by his father. Just like in “Lovesong” where the speaker is reluctant in asking a women a question from his self doubt.

    Read More

  • T.S. Eliots use of Poetic techniques in The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock and The Wasteland

    1309 Words  | 3 Pages

    The theme of Prufrock is the negative, individuality repressing effect that society has on its people. The Prufrock persona illustrates this, he is alienated by the inane social rituals that define his life, “I have measured out my life with coffee spoons” and make it insignificant and useless. The Waste Land’s theme is that the world, in particular western civilisation, is a culturally and spiritually barren place. Society is portrayed as a pile of “…stony rubbish…”, the ruins of a once great city now reduced to rubble where nothing can grow. Lives mean nothing, but the poem also offers hope through a return to basic religious values, ending with the repeated chant of “Shantih shantih shantih”, which means, “the peace which passeth understanding”. The poems both portray the same basic idea, but they have two main differences. Firstly, there is the way in which the themes are expressed. In Prufrock , Eliot uses a persona as an example of the debilitating effect of living with so many expectations, rules, standards and meaningless rituals has on a the individual. In many ways, this is a very effe...

    Read More

More about Prufrock Allusions

Open Document