'The Love Song Of J. Alfred Prufrock'

In T. S Eliot’s literary work, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” is introduced with an epigraph from Dante’s Inferno to support the protagonist’s paralysis and the futility of life. The poem is considered a vital work in post modern art used to deconstruct and dehumanize the protagonist’s subjectivity. The epigraph from Dante’s Inferno is quoted by a man trapped in the eighth circle of Dante’s fictional construct of Hell and shares similar existential outlooks on the purpose of life. The epigraph has strongly influenced the poem and shares similar criticism regarding the protagonists of both literary work’s circumstances of living. In the literary work, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” the use of the epigraph from Dante’s Inferno is critical in setting the poem’s tone, theme, and addressing the protagonist’s perspective.
In ascending order, each level of Hell is punishment for people who commit sins from lack of religious belief to high treason. The epigraph is quoted by Count Guido da Montefeltro, who is imprisoned in the eighth chasm of Hell for giving treacherous council to Pope Boniface. Count Guido states the quote “If I thought that my reply were given to anyone who might return to the world, this flame would stand forever still; but since never from this deep place has anyone ever returned alive, if what I hear is true, without fear of infamy I answer thee.” (1-5, Eliot). Like the protagonist in T.S Eliot’s poem, Count Guido is concerned with his reputation and only admits to his treacherous actions to Dante because he thinks no one can leave