Prufrock by Eliot

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Prufrock by Eliot

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.

The beginning of the poem is pre-empted by an excerpt from Dante's Inferno which Eliot uses to begin his exploration of Prufrock's self-consciousness. By inserting this quote, a parallel is created between Prufrock and the speaker, Guido da Montefeltro, who is very aware of his position in "hell" and his inability to escape his fate. Prufrock is also very aware of his current status but doesn't realize until the end that he is unable to rise above it. The issue of his fate leads Prufrock to an "overwhelming question..."(10) which is never identified, asked, or answered in the poem. This "question" is somehow associated with his social status, but both its ambiguity and Prufrock's denial to even ask "What is it?"(11) gives some insight into his state of internal turmoil.

Prufrock's dissatisfaction with his personal appearance is evidence of an underlying lack of self-confidence. Not only is he unhappy with the way he looks, having "To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet;" but he is constantly afraid of what others will have to say about him: "(They will say: 'How his hair is growing thin!')"(41) and "(... 'But ho...

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...all tell you all."(94-95) Unfortunately for Prufrock, he pessimistically assumes that even if his dream came true, he still wouldn't know what to tell them all, or how. Eliot doesn't give any sense of hope for Prufrock in the poem. He remains a doomed character until the very end. Prufrock even admits that he has "seen the moment of my greatness flicker,"(84) He is a victim of time and natural selection.

In the end Prufrock realizes that the life he dreams of is out of his reach. He still imagines attaining his desired position but realizes that he isn't recognized in that world. "I do not think that they will sing to me." (125) He is in effect a man with no place in society and no identity. His "overwhelming question" remains unanswered and he can only dream about being part of that society he idolizes, "Till human voices wake us, and we drown." (131)

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