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5 literary devices in the love song of j alfred prufrock
Love song of j. alfred prufrock summary
Love song of j. alfred prufrock summary
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T.S Eliot poem “The love song of J. Alfred Prufrock” explores the idea of time and insecurities. Eliot illustrates Prufrock as a man who is trying to cope with the sordid reality of life but it is too much spiritually drained to act in a modernistic world. The author’s purpose is to point out the difference between imagination and reality in order to emphasizes that times is unparalleled. The author writes in a ironic tone of what the title of the poem is merely an ironic aspect in which Eliot weakens the expectations of the poem. Can this lead us to broken dream because of time or in reality is there not much time to waste. Eliot portrays a broken dream of reality versus the imagination he conducts in his mind. Prufrock is full of self-doubts, …show more content…
Alfred Prufrock,” Perhaps most important, though, is Prufrock's preoccupation with aging and death that recurs throughout the poem. He repeatedly expresses worry about what others will think of his aging body “With a bald spot in the middle of my hair” one senses the impossibility of this man fulfilling his aspirations. Prufrock is a figure to be pitied, but he is also a disturbing presence because his weaknesses, mediocrity, and sense of isolation are all too common in the modern world. He also lives in a world that is no better than he is. It is happier than he is, because of his capacity to avoid self-reflection and continues to be vulnerable and keep wasting time. He mentions “And indeed there is time” and "Would it have been worth while, to have squeezed the universe into a ball" reinforce his fixation on paralysis. He deludes himself into thinking he has plenty of time left, and thus does not need to act; death looms, though, however much he wants to deny it but does he really have time he has been imaging instead of achieving it. The poem transmits to a deathly pallor over the proceedings, and Prufrock seems already in his own nightmare afterlife, ironically comment on Prufrock's attitude toward life. In the poem, the speaker urges his lady to be with him while they are still young and alive. The fear is there time and insecurities in his mind self leading …show more content…
Alfred Prufrock is introduced as a very self conscious man at a gathering with plenty of women. While looking around he sees all the women “Talking of Michelangelo.” Prufrock wonders to himself if he should go and approach any of the women, he doesn’t know what to talk about; he’s not sure if he should speak about the poor class and “Of lonely men in shirt-sleeves, leaning out of windows.” Prufrock also worries the entire night that all the beautiful women are analyzing him, tearing him apart head-to-toe. Instead of noticing how modest and put together he looks, Prufrock feels the thoughts will only be negative with the women think of him. The tone of the love song is quite gloomy although the sense of romanticism in the poem. He stands thinking for some time because he cannot decide if he should talk to a girl or not. Towards the end of the poem, Prufrock decides against it and doesn’t make the effort, therefore setting himself up for failure. The dream is dead his insecurities in wasting time set him to failure not accomplishing nothing. He is just too afraid to talk to a girl, like a young boy thinking about approaching his crush only Prufrock is an older man. His confidence is just so shot down that even seeing a women essentially makes him feel terrible about
"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.
Before we are introduced to Prufrock himself, we notice that the initial scenes of this poem paint a landscape of apathy. The narrator mentions little about himself initially and beckons that we follow him down into a world without consequence “of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels” (Eliot 6). The later “streets that follow like a tedious argument of insidious intent” set the stage for Prufrock’s dilemma (ibid 9-10). Audrey Cahill says this scene foreshadows “Prufrock’s dialogue with himself, a dialogue which leads nowhere” and that thrusts the reader into meaningless chaos (6). Thus, even if these streets lead to an overwhelming question, the journey down them is rather mind-numbing and unnecessary if the answer gets us nowhere or, worse, merely emphasizes our own desolation. This is compounded by the appearance of a mysterious yellow catlike fog that “curled once about the house and fell asleep” (Eliot 22). Cahill also affirms that becaus...
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
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.
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.
T.S. Eliot’s breakthrough poem “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” is expertly crafted to have a complex structure with various hidden themes. The poem acts as an inner monologue for the titular character, appearing as lyric-narrative poetry. However, it does appear to lean towards a lyric poem, with the hazy plot consisting of Prufrock describing what his life has been like, in retrospect to speculating on what is to come next. The monologue throughout is melancholy in nature, with Prufrock dwelling on issues such as unrequited love, his frail body, his looming demise, and a dissatisfaction with the modernist world. Eliot uses a variety of metaphor within the poem to showcase Prufrock’s indecision, between being unable to fully live, while
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.
By a correct reading of "Prufrock," I mean a reading consistent with the central theme of the poet's belief made mute because the poet lives in a culture of unbelief--that is, the "silence" of the poetic vision in modernity. Prufrock renounces his inherited, romantic role as "poet as prophet" and renounces poetry's role as a successor to religion. The future of poetry may have once been immense, but that future no longer exists for Prufrock, who is faced not only with the certainty of the rejection of his poetic vision but also with a situation in which there are no grounds for rhetoric: "That is not what I meant at all. / That is not it, at all." Fear of rejection leads Prufrock to the ultimate silencing of the prophet and hero within himself, to being "a pair of ragged claws." He cannot share his poetic vision of life: to do so would threaten the very existence of that life. Paradoxically, not to share his light, his "words among mankind," threatens the loss ...
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
J. Alfred Prufrock is a man caught in a trap of constant introspection and indecision. “And time yet for a hundred indecisions, and for a hundred visions and revisions.”(32,33) He has no confidence in himself mentally or physically. He can not make a decision and act on it because of his feelings of inadequacy and his fear of rejection. Although Alfred is presumably affluent, He still fears that society will judge him because of his balding head and thin, aging body. “With a bald spot in the middle of my hair—(they will say: “How his hair is growing thin!”) My morning coat, my collar mounting firmly to my chin, my necktie rich and modest, but asserted by a simple pin—(They will say: “But how his arms and legs are thin!”)(39-43)
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
The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock, by T.S. Eliot, is the story of the life of a man. It tells of a man reminiscing over his life, regretting decisions that he made. Of a man who is thinking back on his life, and toward the end, it is told how the man is closely approaching death. He wants to be able to escape it, but alas, cannot, and, in the end, he dies. In The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock, T.S. Eliot expresses a sense of regret using literary devices, such as imagery, metaphors, and allusion.
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.
One of T.S. Eliot’s earliest poems, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”, is a prime example of a text that takes a turn inwards in terms of conveying the experience it presents. The poem provides a look into the distressed mind of an archetypal modern man of the times. It does this using the speaker’s stream of consciousness presented as a dramatic monologue. Prufrock, the poem’s speaker, seeks to advance his relationship with a woman who has caught his eye. He wonders if he has “the strength to force the moment to its crisis” (Eliot, 80). Prufrock is so entrenched in self-doubt that he is uncertain whether he is capable of having a relationship with this woman. His knowledge of the world he lives in and his circumstances keep him from attempting to approach this prospective lover. He contemplates the reasons for which he believes he cannot be with her and scolds himself for even thinking that it was possibl...
Prufrock, the narrator of the poem, is a middle-aged man who is living a life void of meaning and purpose. His thoughts are depressing as he mulls over his dull, uneventful life. One of his most crippling traits is cowardice. He's v...