The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock
T. S. Eliot uses irony and symbolism to capture the reader's attention in The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock. The poem has a dramatic discourse. The percipience of life's emptiness is the main theme of the poem. Eliot exhorts the spiritual decomposition by exploring a type of life in death. T. S. Eliot, who in the Clark Lectures notes, "Real Irony is an expression of suffering"(Lobb, 53), uses irony and symbolism throughout the poem to exemplify the suffering of J. Alfred Prufrock who believes he is filled with spiritual morbidity and lack of feeling. Eliot utilizes various ironic interjections from other poets, and he uses ironic satirical rhyming phrases that fashion a sort of inane contradiction. Eliot uses many symbols to show corruption and rejection.
The utilization of ironic insertion of other poets is used to help set the tone of the poem. This originates with an epigraph from Dante's Inferno, which instills an impression of conversing with the damned, or being ensnared in some semblance of hell. This is ironic due to the message "being carried from the abyss to our ears" (Bloom, 17), symbolizing the realization of his stagnant existence. That a more prolific life exists is the advertence of Hesiod's Works and Days a description of rural life (Department of Literature). Prufrock's works and days are not deeds of heroism, but a "hundred indecisions" (32) (Contemporary Literary Criticism, Vol 6, 163). The "overwhelming question" is from The Pioneers by James Fenimore a book Eliot adored since childhood (Lozano). Eliot exerts an element of parody as a type of chorus from Laforgue who wrote "In the room the women come and go/Talking of the masters of the Sienne School" (Lozano). "And indeed there will be time" (Lozano), and "squeezed the universe into a ball" (Bloom, 18), from Andrew Marvell's To His Coy Mistress. From Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, Eliot uses "a dying fall" (Lozano) a comparison to Hamlet and Polonius. Prufrock sees himself
The utilization of ironic insertion of other poets is used to help set the tone of the poem. This originates with an epigraph from Dante's Inferno, which instills an impression of conversing with the damned, or being ensnared in some semblance of hell. This is ironic due to the message "being carried from the abyss to our ears" (Bloom, 17), symbolizing the realization of his stagnant existence. That a more prolific life exists is the advertence of Hesiod's Works and Days a description of rural life (Department of Literature). Prufrock's works and days are not deeds of heroism, but a "hundred indecisions" (32) (Contemporary Literary Criticism, Vol 6, 163). The "overwhelming question" is from The Pioneers by James Fenimore a book Eliot adored since childhood (Lozano). Eliot exerts an element of parody as a type of chorus from Laforgue who wrote "In the room the women come and go/Talking of the masters of the Sienne School" (Lozano). "And indeed there will be time" (Lozano), and "squeezed the universe into a ball" (Bloom, 18), from Andrew Marvell's To His Coy Mistress. From Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, Eliot uses "a dying fall" (Lozano) a comparison to Hamlet and Polonius. Prufrock sees himself
Cited: Bloom, Harold. (Ed). T. S. Eliot, Bloom 's Major Poets: A Comprehensive Research and Study Guide. Chelsea House Bush, Ronald. T. S. Eliot A Study in Character and Style. New York, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1983.Publishers, 1999. Department of Literature (University of Toronto) A Representative Poetry On-line Ed. I. Lancaster. Web Development Group Accessed March 2002. http://www.library.utoronto.ca/utel/rp/poems/eliot1.html Gordon, Lyndall. Eliot 's Early Years. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1987. Hargrove, Nancy Duvall. Landscape as a Symbol in the Poetry of T. S. Eliot. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1987. Headings, Phillip R. T. S. Eliot, (Revised Edition). Twayne 's United States Authors Series. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1982. Kirszner, Laurie G. and Mandell, Stephen R. Literature, Reading, Writing and Reacting 4th Edition. Harcourt College Publishers. New York. 2001. The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock pgs. 950-54. Lobb, Edward. T. S. Eliot and the Romantic Critical Tradition. London: Routledge and Keagan Paul, 1981. Pg. 53. Lozano, Amy last updated June 6, 2000. Hosted by Geocities. http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acropolis/5616?annotati.html Riley, Carolyn and Mendelson, Phyllis Carmel. (Ed) Contemporary Literary Criticism Gale Research Company. Detroit, Michigan. 1976. Volumes 3 pg. 136; 6, 163; 15, 213; 55, 350-51.