In the 19th century, influenced by the unceasing global warfare, the fragile peace and prosperity enjoyed by the western society were on the verge of collapse. Furthermore, conventional moral ideals and spiritual values faced severe scrutiny, and the public felt extremely pessimistic about the future. Under this circumstance, T. S. Eliot had created the poem, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, to reflect the sickness of the society and the weakness of the humanity . In this poem, he describes an internal conflict of the narrator in the poem who eventually wavered his offer of marriage in determination. While in the poem, Something Whispered in the Shakuhachi, created by Garrett Hongo, the narrator told the secret of making a flute to convey …show more content…
Alfred Prufrock, ample details about the settings are described to reflect the speaker’s emotions. For instance, the first stanza paints the scene that an innocent and unconfident middle age man hesitates to propose to a woman. For one thing, the speaker of the poem is afraid that time will go wasted. On the other side, he feels powerless to the reality. Apparently, Eliot directly tells the reader the internal conflict of the speaker of the poem, who is greedy of love but fears for the responsibility that comes with it. What this setting in the poem reflects is the emptiness and weakness of folks in modern …show more content…
And “make our visit” indicates that he is on his way to social occasions. All of these settings and details in the second stanza does not seem to make any sense individually, but as a whole, they actually convey the narrator’s depression and loneliness toward his boring surroundings. In addition, in the next stanza, the speaker of the poem says, “the room the women come and go. Talking of Michelangelo.” At this plot, the narrator of the poem just skims over the communications among upper-class women. However, when to compare his preference toward the upper-class women who are trying to pose themselves as lovers of culture with the shantytown mentioned above, an obvious strong contrast is formed invisibly. Similarly, in the fourth stanza, the speaker of the poem asserts,，“The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes, The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window-panes”, the setting here indicates the speaker’s extremely empty and boring emotions, when the dusk comes. In conclusion, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock is a love song without love. It’s more like a realism of plain folks who live in the oppressive and depressing modern industrialized
"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.
Eliot, T.S.. "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock." An Introduction to Poetry. 13th ed. of the year.
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
T.S. Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 6th ed. Vol. 2. ed. M. H. Abrams New York, London: Norton, 1993.
T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” tells the speaker’s story through several literary devices, allowing the reader to analyze the poem through symbolism, character qualities, and allusions that the work displays. In this way, the reader clearly sees the hopelessness and apathy that the speaker has towards his future. John Steven Childs sums it up well in saying Prufrock’s “chronic indecision blocks him from some important action” (Childs). Each literary device- symbolism, character, and allusion- supports this description. Ultimately, the premise of the poem is Prufrock second guessing himself to no end over talking to a woman, but this issue represents all forms of insecurity and inactivity.
Prufrock begins his “Love” song with a peculiar quote from Dante’s Divine Comedy. It reads: “If I believed that my answer were to a person who could ever return to the world, this flame would no longer quiver. But because no one ever returned from this depth, if what I hear is true, without fear of infamy, I answer you.” In the Divine Comedy these lines are spoken by a damned soul who had sought absolution before committing a crime. I think that Eliot chose this quote to show that Prufrock is also looking for absolution, but for what he is unsure.
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.
In the early 1900’s, the artistic movement of modernism dominated many facets of aesthetic representation as writers, artists, and musicians abandoned the starched, conventional styles of the Victorian age for a less restrictive form of expression. Artisans, particularly the writers of the period, experimented within their craft by ignoring the traditional narrative and poetic forms in an attempt convey their personal disdain for the social climate of a newly industrialized culture consumed with monetary wealth and the ideals of genteel refinement that attended to its standards. This contempt for the conventional values of society became a prevailing theme of modern American literature, as writers like T.S. Eliot turned the focus of their works away from the portrayal and praise of upper and middle class society and toward their personal critique of this mode of life. Eliot's poem, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," embodies this popular modern theme by directing the reader's attention toward how an individual is subconsciously affected by the standards of society by focusing on the self and how social ethics can drive feelings of inadequacy and alienation.
Eliot’s The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock is unexpectedly not at all a “love song” like the title suggest. Eliot tells the poem through the eyes of a man by the name of J. Alfred Prufrock. Prufrock comes off as very awkward, especially when it comes to the opposite sex. For example, “And how should I presume… Is it perfume from a dress that makes me so digress? Arms that lie along a table, or wrap about a shawl. And should I then presume? And how should I begin? (Eliot 369).” Prufrock makes reference to trying to get the confidence to talk to a woman. Ultimately, he can’t find the courage and does not talk to the woman. The whole poem is ironic due to the fact that although the title suggest that it is a “love song” it is more Prufrock telling about his isolation and social awkwardness in his
Alfred Prufrock”indicates the spiritual emptiness and disillusionment of people , chaos, and futility of modern life and nothingness of human existence on a meaningless world. This is what the poet intends to disclose. And love songs, as many expect, must be very sweet and romantic. Love must be connected with something pleasant. Yet the love song of Prufrock seems very sentimental and sorrowful. The first stanza of the poem presents an unpleasant sight to us.“when the evening is spread out against the sky, Like a patient etherized upon a table”, Prufrock perceives the sunset as a patient oozing on the operation table. Through Prufrock’ s“stream of consciousness”,“ half-deserted streets, cheap hotel, dust restaurants”-the living conditions of the poor appear before him. The situations and the atmosphere are not in harmony with a real love song. This reveals the state of mind of Prufrock, who is not happy, but in a melancholy mood. There is a repetition of the line“In the room the women come and go Talking of Michelangelo”demonstrates the women of fashion pose as a lover of culture and show off their culture accomplishment. They pretend to be educated and converse with so-called civilized gentlemen to relieve their boredom. People in the genteel society in the party eat, drink, dance, and talk to kill much time. This description of the life of genteel society forms a sharp contrast to the poor district with its
The name of the poem by T.S. Eliot, ^The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock^ is a misdirected concentration that is significant. The title is very ironic. The irony is present with the reader expecting the theme of love, but clashing that idea with the boring and dry name of J. Alfred Prufrock. The poem goes on to describe the journey as one, not of romantic, heartfelt,! or brotherly love, but of one story of frustration.
T.S. Eliot’s poem The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock has a plethora of possible interpretations. Many people argue that the poem represents a man who appears to be very introverted person who is contemplating a major decision in his life. This decision is whether or not he will consummate a relationship with someone he appears to have an attraction to or feelings for. People also debate whether or not Prufrock from the poem is typical of people today. While there are a plethora of reasons Prufrock is not typical of people today the main three reasons are he is very reserved, he overthinks most situations and he tries avoid his problems instead of solve them.
“The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” is hardly a love song at all. That irony is clear in that the narrator’s voice is anxious, self-conscious, and depressed. It seems he has wasted his life or that life was wasted on him, and he regrets not being born as a creature that lives on the bottom of the sea. The very last lines of the poem,
I.T.S Eliot’s poem, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” is about the balding, middle- aged Prufrock who forces himself to attend a party in order to find a woman to love. Although there are many women at the party who engage Prufrock’s attention with their “perfume” and their “arms that are braceleted and white and bare,” Prufrock can never bring himself to approach any of them. Unfortunately, he ends up leaving the party empty handed (lines 63, 65). Prufrock has several problems that stop him from success in the pursuit of love: low self-esteem, poor social skills, and fear of rejection.
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.