The Love Song Of J. Alfred Prufrock Essay

Nevertheless, the Communist Manifesto does not only touch on human relationships; it also delves into the monotony of everyday life that comes with the cycle of class antagonisms. Marx exemplifies this when he says, “Owing to the extensive use of machinery and to division of labor, the work of the proletarians has lost all individual character, and…all charm for the workman. He becomes an appendage of the machine, and it is only the most simple, most monotonous, and most easily acquired knack that is required of him” (I, pp15-16). It then becomes clear how the everyday life of the lower-class is reduced to a dull, uniform, and gray routine that expels all color out of life. Even though Marx is explicitly talking about capitalism in the quote,

Alfred Prufrock,” where Eliot focuses on the monotonous aspect of city life. Similarly to “The Waste Land,” Eliot starts off the poem with an epigram from Dante’s Inferno, where Prufrock is substituted in and is asked to tell his story from hell (O’Brien. Lecture 7, 4/23/18). Eliot reveals the thoughts and feelings of the poem’s subject, Prufrock, in a way that Prufrock would have never done while he is alive. This incorporation of the afterlife with the modern world is another way Eliot is able to illustrate a relationship between the past and present. He continues on in the poem where he says, “I have measured out my life with coffee spoons” (Eliot, pp5). This one line is powerful imagery where Prufrock realizes that his life was very trivial. Furthermore, the poem proceeds later, “And I have seen the eternal Footman hold my coat,…/ and snicker.../ And in short, I was afraid” (Eliot, pp7). Here, Prufrock is alluding to death coming to claim him for the afterlife. The word “snicker” serves as a mockery of Prufrock’s trivial life, and Prufrock exhibits fear for he knows he’s ran out of time to do anything significant. It is also important to note that the “Footman,” death, is described as “eternal,” which alludes to a perpetual cycle of death snickering at the trivial lives of his victims. Therefore, Eliot is able to show how the monotony of life is something that is repeated, and he supports Marx’s depiction of a cycle that

Evidence of this is found in “The Waste Land” where Eliot writes, “My cousin’s, he took me out on a sled, / And I was frightened. He said, Marie, / Marie, hold on tight… / I read, much of the night, and go south in the winter” (I. 14-18). The passage starts off with someone having a conversation that is presented as very trivial and monotone. This is due to the tone because not much substance is found when the character talks. Just like discussed before, we can see another example of a monotonous everyday life in this section. Moreover, the last line then indicates that the character speaking is someone of high-class that is well-read and can afford traveling every winter. Nonetheless, Eliot presents this in a way that shows the character as anxious and fragile. “I read much of the night” indicates that this person suffers from insomnia and is plagued with uneasiness during the night. Furthermore, the comment about going to the south every winter hints at fragility because the character is constantly running away from the colder weather. Therefore, we see an example of someone who is high class yet still suffers from some of the symptoms of history recurrence talked about in this