T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” is a dramatic monologue. In the same vein as Robert Browning’s “My Last Duchess”, this poem is represents modernity – it can be considered a modern metaphysical poem – and a long for the past. This is especially suggested through the use of allusions in the poem. The title is ironic, as the poem is not, nor is it similar to, a love song. J. Alfred Prufrock is additionally ironic in that it is an anti-heroic name that can be considered an amalgamation of the words ‘prude’ and ‘frock’ – frock being a pastor’s wear. The narrator, presumably the eponymous J. Alfred Prufrock, is a complex man who, through this ‘love song’, discusses the things he sees as he attends what is seemingly a party. This essay analyses two poetic techniques that show Prufrock to be intelligent, frightened, and lacking self-esteem. These traits are shown through the use of metaphor and metonyms, and allusions. In some lines of this poem, metaphors become metonyms. The first of these, “(t)he yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes” (15), shows a cat a...
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
The editors of anthologies containing T. S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" invariably footnote the reference to Lazarus as John 11:1-44; rarely is the reference footnoted as Luke 16:19-31. Also, the reference to John the Baptist is invariably footnoted as Matthew 14:3-11; never have I seen the reference footnoted as an allusion to Oscar Wilde's Salome. The sources that one cites can profoundly affect interpretations of the poem. I believe that a correct reading of Eliot's "Prufrock" requires that one cite Wilde, in addition to Matthew, and Luke, in addition to John, as the sources for the John the Baptist and Lazarus being referenced. Furthermore, the citation of these sources can help explain Eliot's allusion to Dante's Guido da Montefeltro.
Eliot, T.S.. "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock." The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Ed. M.H. Abrams. New York: Norton, 1996. 2459-2463.
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.
prophet like Lazarus or a prince like Hamlet, and he slips into the safety of a
As Ernest Hemingway once stated, “It’s none of their business that you have to learn to write. Let them think you were born that way.” Here, Hemingway illustrates that no one should dictate how a person writes, for the reason that it’s all about self expression. Elliot understood this completely, he wrote during World War one when the world was in turmoil. Throughout “The Love song of J.Alfred Prufrock” T.S. Elliot uses vivid diction to intensify his imagery. Sprinkled throughout the poem, Eliot gives the story character by applying symbolism and rhyme. While the structure of the poem contains transition sentences, in order to establish repetition. Multiple responsibilities of a writer would be that they want to leave the reader with an impression.
The poem “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” written by T.S. Eliot is a depiction of sadness and a disillusioned narrator. While reading this poem, one senses that the narrator is disturbed and has maybe given up hope, and that he feels he is just an actor in a tedious drama At the very beginning of the poem, Eliot uses a quote from Dante’s “Inferno”, preparing the poem’s reader to expect a vision of hell. This device seems to ask the reader to accept that what they are about to be told by the poem’s narrator was not supposed to be revealed to the living world, as Dante was exposed to horrors in the Inferno that were not supposed to be revealed to the world of the living. This comparison is frightening and intriguing, and casts a shadow on the poem and its narrator before it has even begun. J. Alfred Prufrock is anxious, self-concsious, and depressed.
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
Prufrock’s ongoing appeal is catalysed by Eliot’s unique exploration of emotional paralysis as a conveyor of futility. The poem’s epigraph, from Dante’s Inferno, foreshadows Prufrock’s mental stagnation and suggests
Asking someone out might seem a little hard for a group of people, but most couples start happy lives easily. On the other hand, some do not have enough social skills to start an exciting conversation, or they are too shy to start a conversation. Meanwhile, some people have enough social abilities, but they do not have a stunning appearance. Eliot in “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” decided to create a character named J. Alfred Prufrock who is one of the most unfortunate characters who is afraid of socializing with women because he is not confident enough, so it makes a great sense of dissatisfaction and loneliness in him.
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
“Just Do It.” In 1988, these three words became the slogan of the Nike Footwear Incorporation. Since then, the slogan has been described as one of the best taglines of the 20th century. Its success can be attributed to the fact that it attempts to push people out of their comfort zones and by doing so, aims to evoke a positive result. In other words, it discourages indecision, an affliction under which many fall victim. In the poem “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by T.S. Eliot, the main character, Prufrock, greatly struggles with indecisiveness. He over thinks every decision he is faced with and never “just does anything.” Ultimately, this quality of Prufrock’s keeps him from asking a question he sincerely wants to ask and, in doing
Many Young people in my generation are not sure what they want to do with their lives. They view leaving home and meeting new people as a horrible undertaking. They stress about every detail of their lives and act like if they mess up one small detail then the entirety of their lives will be over. In a way, they can relate to T. S. Elliot’s poem, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock. The narrator, Prufrock, stresses over every little decision he makes. Some may say he stresses over fear of rejection, the way he looks or some say he may just be blatantly indecisive. Throughout the poem, Prufrock talks about how he does not want to go down to the party because he is worried about
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.
The sense of duplicity within the modern man is a major motif in Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” (12). In this poem the hero, Prufrock, is helplessly caught in an interminable quarrel between his own desire to live by himself and the obligation to submit to the social conventions. Eric Sigg in his book, The American T.S. Eliot,...