Hamlet to Prufrock
Tiffany Li Ms. Hall
ENG 4U1
December 13th, 2010
A Life Without Love, is No Life at All As the flawed in protagonists of Shakespeare’s Hamlet and T.S Eliot’s poem The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, both Hamlet and Prufrock live in a times of disharmony. Feelings of passion are controlled by realistic tendencies and neither allows sensitivity to rule their order. This underlying journey or quest for female contact causes both characters to live meaningless lives eventually leading to harsh consequences. Eventually seeking the companionship of anyone that can fill their void of romance, they two are synced and remove themselves altogether from society. Both protagonists Hamlet and Prufrock embrace an anti-romantic outlook in their respective world, resulting in a loss of identity. Both Hamlet and Prufrock experience rejection from their female love interests. As a youth of passion, Hamlet is truly in love with Ophelia and developed a significant relationship with her before she ends the bond. Filled with a loss of love, Hamlet is now empty. Prufrock differs in that he was never accepted in the social order of his times and his cowardice and awkwardness hinder any sort of female interaction, much less a love life. Hamlet and Prufrock are both faced with rejection when it comes to female love interests, contributing to a loss of identity and depression. Hamlet comes home from Denmark a scholar, a son, and a lover only to be met with the new horrors of his life in the royal kingdom of Denmark. Not only faced with his uncle and father, the incestuous King Claudius, he is also met with the end of his relationship with young Ophelia. Hamlet’s loss of romance and only real relationship results in an empty and meaningless life. ‘Swounds, show me what thou’lt do.
Woo’t weep? Woo’t fight? Woo’t fast? Woo’t tear thyself?
Woo’t drink up eisel, eat a crocodile?
I’ll do ’t. Dost thou come here to whine,
To outface me with leaping in her grave?
Be buried
ENG 4U1
December 13th, 2010
A Life Without Love, is No Life at All As the flawed in protagonists of Shakespeare’s Hamlet and T.S Eliot’s poem The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, both Hamlet and Prufrock live in a times of disharmony. Feelings of passion are controlled by realistic tendencies and neither allows sensitivity to rule their order. This underlying journey or quest for female contact causes both characters to live meaningless lives eventually leading to harsh consequences. Eventually seeking the companionship of anyone that can fill their void of romance, they two are synced and remove themselves altogether from society. Both protagonists Hamlet and Prufrock embrace an anti-romantic outlook in their respective world, resulting in a loss of identity. Both Hamlet and Prufrock experience rejection from their female love interests. As a youth of passion, Hamlet is truly in love with Ophelia and developed a significant relationship with her before she ends the bond. Filled with a loss of love, Hamlet is now empty. Prufrock differs in that he was never accepted in the social order of his times and his cowardice and awkwardness hinder any sort of female interaction, much less a love life. Hamlet and Prufrock are both faced with rejection when it comes to female love interests, contributing to a loss of identity and depression. Hamlet comes home from Denmark a scholar, a son, and a lover only to be met with the new horrors of his life in the royal kingdom of Denmark. Not only faced with his uncle and father, the incestuous King Claudius, he is also met with the end of his relationship with young Ophelia. Hamlet’s loss of romance and only real relationship results in an empty and meaningless life. ‘Swounds, show me what thou’lt do.
Woo’t weep? Woo’t fight? Woo’t fast? Woo’t tear thyself?
Woo’t drink up eisel, eat a crocodile?
I’ll do ’t. Dost thou come here to whine,
To outface me with leaping in her grave?
Be buried