The First World War was a darker time for Europe because there were a lot of mixed feelings involving the destruction and recreation of many old and new countries alike. Fear, death, and loss of loved ones hung in the air making this dark time confusing, especially for those surrounding the collapsing German economy. Though America was thriving from the sales and success in the World War I, Europe was worried and broken from the war. That is what sparked T.S Eliot, a Harvard educated poet to write three poems called: The Hollow Men, Portrait of a Woman, and The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock. Though written in the same time, the author captured feelings throughout the different social standings and social climates to highlight the feelings floating through the European countries. Throughout his three poems Eliot uses his characters and imagery to capture the brokenness and lack of identity that surrounded this time period. In T.S Eliot's poem, Portrait of a Lady, he gives a glimpse into the upper class of post war society- something rather dispirited and forlorn. It is filled with people from the higher social standings and they are as soulless and empty as the lady in the poem. The upper class was also represented by the main character himself, who is truly unable to connect as a whole to his surroundings. He initially describes the world in the poem as dark, covered in smoke and haze – the scene that is in and of itself a mere half life, the individuality of the characters already swallowed by the abyss of ritual that has devoid of meaning. The truly shocking part that links this poem to the author’s previous poems is the underlying brokenness and the soullessness that the characters seem to inhabit. The main character of t... ... middle of paper ... ...rno. That particular part of Dante's inferno is the recollection of a man who kept this secret that he wanted to tell and when he told Dante the secret was out and embarrassed the man greatly. This turns the table to realize that Prufrock might relate to the story of this man. He has all these great stories to tell, but he keeps them a secret out of fear of retribution and judgment. This tells a lot about Prufrock’s inability to distinguish what he should say versus what he wants to say, so instead he says nothing at all. The absence of a complete identity and the inability be whole is what creates a line between The Love song of J Alfred Prufrock with Eliot’s other poems The Hollow Men and Portrait of a Lady. These poems work together using imagery and characters to highlight the darkness that was weighting down most people after the First World War was finished.
“The Hollow Men” by T.S. Eliot is a poem of struggle for meaning amongst the meaningless. T.S. Eliot shows the reader how in this day and age society is becoming less and less active and beginning to become more careless in the way in which we live and behave, as represented throughout the poem. It brings out all of our worlds weaknesses and flaws. Eliot brings out the fact that the human race is disintegrating. We are compared to as hollow men with no emotions, cares, and nothing inside. Hollow men all look different in some way, but inside we are all the same. We shift in whatever direction we are being blown in. In The Hollow Men, by T.S. Eliot examines the absence of spiritual guidance, lack of communication between individuals, and absence of direction of outstanding and pro founding leadership.
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
Many people in the world who are unhappy with their lives can connect with the emptiness the hollow men feel in Eliot’s poem. “We are the stuffed men leaning together headpiece filled with straw” indicates an unoriginal quality that all the men share. Their goals in life are alike because they are not fulfilling. In “The Hollow Men,” the image of scarecrows represent people’s empty lives and their vacant pursuits. The hollow men’s lives have no point or meaning.
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.
This long poem consists of the narrator musing to an unknown audience, expressing his frustrations in a complex way. This poem, like others of Eliot’s, is hard to interpret and typically has a deep unseen meaning. It is thought to be a narration about a man and his issues. According to some, it is thought that to be a criticism of “Edwardian society” and the narrator’s problem is that he cannot find reasonable idea for himself to live. This poem, along with The Wasteland, is considered to be the beginning of Modernist poetry. Before these poems existed, most all poetry was Romanticism and Augustan poetry.
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.
The author of this poem is T.S. Eliot a modern poet who is a contemporary of Hemingway and Fitzgerald. Much of his work comes from post World War I, a period which was filled with excess and disillusionment with humanity and our ability to create and control civilization. The greatest war in the history of the world up to that point had just been fought. Millions died and the World with all its sadness could do nothing more then try and fill itself with wine and lust. The poem deals partly with this matter, mostly with lust and pursuit of women to find happiness in a world full of dingy sadness.
S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” is not a poem about love, at least not in any traditional sense. Rather It is a collection of the disjointed thoughts of a man without any self-esteem. Far from being about love, it is about one man’s incapability to love himself or the world around him. It is the cynical statement of a man who does not believe good things will ever happen to him, or that the world has anything to offer him. The title is bitterly ironic because Prufrock does not love anybody, not even himself, nor does he believe that any one could ever love
This poem by T.S Eliot is not all about a love song rather quite the opposite. This poem however may be interpreted in a different form as it is quite open. J. Alfred Prufrock who is the narrator of the poem is quite disappointed with the kind of society he lives in. Looking at different aspects of literature used such as imagery and the intended audience, one can easily tell the view of Prufrock on life. The interpretation the narrator has about life can be deduced to bleak, vacant and repetitive.
T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” is an ironic depiction of a man’s inability to take decisive action in a modern society that is void of meaningful human connection. The poem reinforces its central idea through the techniques of fragmentation, and through the use of Eliot’s commentary about Prufrock’s social world. Using a series of natural images, Eliot uses fragmentation to show Prufrock’s inability to act, as well as his fear of society. Eliot’s commentary about Prufrock’s social world is also evident throughout. At no point in the poem did Prufrock confess his love, even though it is called “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”, but through this poem, T.S. Eliot voices his social commentary about the world that Prufrock lives in.
He does not ask questions such as a “Do I dare?” The poem also relates Prufrock’s shameful life to Dante’s Inferno. In regards to the fact that he is in a dark lonely place where his life has no meaning and has little sureness in himself. Dante’s is confined to hell, where Prufrock is living a lonely life within the city. Another reference to Dante’s Inferno quotes a false counselor in Hell who will tell his crime only to those he thinks will keep it a secret. Prufrock, too, would not want his story of his life to be known he wants to create “To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet” but what he has to hide is insignificant. There is also reference to the Italian renaissance painter Michelangelo with the women coming and going talk to Michelangelo, that gets you to think that these women can be those of higher class. This may be in regards to the fact that Prufrock may be afraid of the fact that he will not fit the needs of these
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.
In interpreting the respected poems, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”, “The Wasteland” and “The Hollow Men”, the validity of Eliot’s statement will be thoroughly examined.
In his timeless poem “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” Thomas Stearns Eliot sheds light on Europe’s devastatingly morbid backdrop after the First World War by juxtaposing the parallel concepts of loneliness and depression through the utilization of a fragmented stream of consciousness as his primary narrative mode. In view of that, T. S. Eliot accordingly employs the persona of J. Alfred Prufrock, an intensely indecisive middle-aged man who ponders an “overwhelming question” in the context of his desire to spark up a conversation with a woman. Through his self-mockery, Prufrock recognizes that he is no majestic tragic hero, no Hamlet, no John the Baptist, but rather a petty and lugubriously talkative fool trapped in a dull world of taking tea, yellow fog, and repetitive conversations; contemplating an expression of pointlessness and impotence over and over, wondering whether his life “would [be] worth it, after all” (Lines 87 and 99). Respectively, Eliot constructs a remorseful and bitter, yet romantic and pensive tone throughout the poem that explores the disillusionment of the modern
Faced with a world lacking variety, viewpoints, vibrancy, and virtue- a world without life- a fearful and insecure T.S. Eliot found himself the only one who realized all of civilization had been reduced to a single stereotype. Eliot (1888-1965) grew up as an outsider. Born with a double hernia, he was always distinguished from his peers, but translated his disability into a love of nature. He developed a respect for religion as well as an importance for the well-being of others from his grandfather at a young age, which reflected in his poetry later in life. After studying literature and philosophy at Harvard, Eliot took a trip to Paris, absorbing their vivid culture and art. After, he moved on to Oxford and married Vivien Haigh-Wood. Her compulsivity brought an immense amount of stress into his life, resulting in their abrupt separation. A series of writing-related jobs led Eliot to a career in banking and temporarily putting aside his poetry, but the publication of “The Waste Land” brought him a position at the publishing house of Faber and Gwyer. His next poem, called “The Hollow Men” reflected the same tone of desolation and grief as “The Waste Land.” Soon after, he made a momentous shift to Anglicanism that heavily influenced the rest of his work in a positive manner. Eliot went on to marry Valerie Fletcher, whom he was with until the end of his life, and win a Nobel Prize in literature. T.S. Eliot articulates his vast dissatisfaction with the intellectual desolation of society through narrators that share his firm cultural beliefs and quest to reinvigorate a barren civilization in order to overcome his own uncertainties and inspire a revolution of thought.