Preview

T.S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prurock" Analysis Essay Example

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1177 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
T.S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prurock" Analysis Essay Example
T.S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prurock" Analysis

In T. S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," the author is establishing the danger the narrator is having dealing with getting older. Prufrock is the narrator in this poem, and believes that age is a burden and is totally troubled by it. He feels the prime of his life is over and he can't love women the way he used to. His worry with the passing of time characterizes his fear of aging. The poem deals with these fears.
In this poem, Prufrock feels unsure about himself. He is frightened of what people will say when they see his balding head and aging body. He also believes that everyone will think he is old and worthless and they will talk about him behind his back. "They will say "How his hair is growing thin!" My morning coat, my collar mounting firmly to the chin, My necktie rich and modest, but asserted by a simple pin-- [They will say: "But how his arms and legs are thin!"]" His insecurity is certainly noticeable and sad and it holds him back from doing the things he wishes to do. This type of behavior is what makes Alfred into a heartbreaking, hopeless character. He will not find happiness until he gains more self-esteem about himself. When he keeps repeating words like vision and revision it shows his feelings of inadequacy in communicating with people around him.
J. Alfred Prufrock's lack of self esteem, also affects his love life. The woman he is in love with is younger than him, and it upsets him. He feels that it's hard to believe that some younger women could possibly still want him or find him attractive. Expressing any kind of love to her is uncomfortable and hard. Prufrock knows what he must say but cannot bring himself to say it. "Should I, after tea and cakes and ices, Have the strength to force the moment to its crisis?"(79-80) His agitation in his love life, is very upsetting to him. He really wants to express his affection but he doesn't know how. He compares himself to

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    1. How does the epigraph from Dante’s Inferno help Eliot comment on the modern world in“The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”? What does it tell us about the setting of this poem? How is Montefeltro’s miscalculation related to the poem?…

    • 4195 Words
    • 17 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    What is the mood and setting established by the speaker in “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”?…

    • 795 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Female characters are often absent in SF as there is rarely any need for romance. In the portrayal of Carmen in Starship Troopers, the body does not automatically make a character masculine or feminine. Given the lack of real women, feminine substitutes may fill the void, these substitute figures connecting the narrator of The War of the Worlds and Juan to their femininity before being eradicated or accepted. In The War of the Worlds, the curate shows up just as the narrator thinks about his wife. He is described with a ‘thin white hand’(70) and ‘almost a complaining tone’(70), both feminine traits. Arguably he becomes the replacement of the narrator’s wife, requiring the narrator’s protection and reassurance. This is what the narrator does with his wife…

    • 654 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Summary: Darius Goes West

    • 721 Words
    • 3 Pages

    I’m a first year pharmacy student at Midwestern University. Dr. Gurney had shown us the Darius Goes West documentary and it was such an inspiration. Within the documentary I noticed how you and the crew had taken such good care of Darius and always made sure he was comfortable. On the trip, you all were his family caregivers meaning a relative or friend is responsible for attending to the daily needs of another person.…

    • 721 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Alfred Prufrock,” Eliot represents age and time through parallelism and situational irony to show that one must not squander his opportunities in life. Parallelism is prevalent throughout the poem and is used to present age in a nagging, incessant way. The phrase “there will be time” is paralleled throughout the piece, including in the stanza “There will be time, there will be time / [...] There will be time to murder and create, / [...] And time yet for a hundred indecisions” (“The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” 26, 28, 32). Prufrock, the protagonist of the poem, repeatedly reminds himself of how much time he has; he uses the concept of time to console himself due to his embarrassment of being too afraid to act on his desires. As the poem goes on to explain, Prufrock does not actually have an endless amount of time, and he begins to age and die. He is “unable to act [... and] he consoles himself with the repeated speculation that ‘there will be time’ to act on his social [...] anxiety” (Persoon and Watson 4). Eliot himself connects with the character of Prufrock because he was known to be extremely introverted and shy; he over-analyzed things until his chance had long passed, much like Prufrock (Bush 1). Another tool that Eliot uses to display the ubiquity of death is situational irony. In the stanza “Let us go then, you and I, / When the evening is spread out against the sky / Like a patient etherised upon a table,” situational irony is used between lines 2 and 3 to show how death disturbingly appears into Prufrock’s thoughts (“The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” 1-3). The reader is not expecting to read such a morbid phrase; “the opening line [...] invites [the reader] to imagine strolling ‘When the evening is spread out against the sky,’ but [the] expectation of romantic reverie is quickly undercut by the macabre image of ‘a patient etherised upon a table’” (Bloom, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” 3). Prufrock is haunted and…

    • 2609 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Prufrock is often not sure if he should ask questions or not. One example of this is when…

    • 257 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock’s tone is sadness. This is proven when Eliot describes the setting in lines 4-9 as half deserted streets, muttering retreats, one night cheap hotels and streets like a tedious argument of insidious intent. Words like half deserted, muttering, restless, tedious and insidious portray this tone. However in Afternoons and Coffee Spoons the tone is more fearful. It’s as though the writer is having these health problems, and is seeing his life being measured out as he gets older. In lines 16-17 we see “Maybe if I could do a play by playback I could change the test results that I will get back” the lyrics display that he demonstrates fear of the future and fear of getting older. He hopes to go back and change the results for a better future. Therefore the tone in these poems…

    • 648 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The poem by T.S. Eliot “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” is a dramatic monologue written in 1915. Close to the end of the poem Mr. Prufrock stated “It is impossible to say just what I mean” (104). This statement will be analyzed to discover the hidden connotation of this phrase and convey the speaker’s ultimate goal. The questions that will be answered are: What does Prufrock mean when stating “It is impossible to say just what I mean” (104)? Is this statement stated due to a lack of vocabulary, words cannot convey his actual emotions, or is he just unable to express his own emotions to the listener? Are there other underlying circumstances to cause Prufrock not to speak his mind? By the end these questions will be understood along with the true…

    • 790 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Introversion is presented throughout The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock and presents how one person’s fear can limit their life. The character of J. Alfred Prufrock displays this attribute when he states, “And I have known the eyes already, known them all – The eyes that fix you in a formulated phrase, And when I am formulated, sprawling on a pin,When I am pinned and wriggling on the wall” (Lines 55-58). This quote gives readers the sense of Prufrock's true insecurities. It also provides evidence into how he wanted to blend in and not really socialize at all. Prufrock again states, “There will be time, there will be time to prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet“ This shows how prufrock did not feel ready for society, another form of introversy. It also procides insight into the fact that Prufrock seperated himself from people and that he fealt unready for interaction. Lastly Prufrock again states, “And indeed there will be timeTo wonder, ‘Do I dare?‘ and, ‘Do I dare?‘“ This hsows how Prufrock was so estranged from society and how introverted he was. It also gives a sense of hope and a want to break this introversy with the statements of “Do i dare “.…

    • 704 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The rhyme scheme Elliot uses in this poem depicts the disenchanted and confused mind of the narrator. The poem is written using a non-uniform meter and rhyme. Various stanzas are not of uniform length. This method is probably used to represent the mood and feelings in the verse. Prufrock is feeling confused and overwhelmed by the adversities of life so his thought probably has the same types of characteristics. His thoughts lead to ambiguity such as at the start of the poem. "There you go then, you and I"(1) This could be referring to Prufrock and himself, or Prufrock and his lover.…

    • 971 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The isolation of individuals within society was a key feature of Modernism, and was suggested by man’s uncertainty and lack of direction, therefore leading to the inability to take initiative. Prufrock in Eliot’s piece Love Song by J. Alfred Prufrock is portrayed as being a self-conscious, indecisive individual in an Upper class setting. In the beginning of the piece Eliot had included an extract from Dante’s Inferno. Eliot used this piece in Prufrock’s “love song” as if he is taking the audience on a journey through his own living hell, which is his Reality. Prufrock’s trapped state is further reinforced by the image of “a patient, etherized upon a table”, suggesting his alive yet unconscious state. The description of the sky contrasted harshly with the traditional romantic image of an immobilized patient that has no control on their movements. In the poem Prufrock asks both trivial and significant questions, however none of these are answered, and Prufrock himself states that he is “no prophet”, showing the audience his uncertainty. His inability to act on his thoughts is conveyed as he constantly reassures the audience (and himself) that “there will be time”, however the repetition of this sentence instead implies the opposite; he has run out of time instead. The extended metaphor that calls Prufrock an insect, “pinned and wriggling”, suggests his vulnerability and the feeling of being trapped.…

    • 1241 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In T.S. Eliot’s poem “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” Eliot develops the character, J. Alfred Prufrock using allusions to other works of literature such as, Dante’s Inferno, Marvel’s “His Coy Mistress,”. In this way, Eliot sets forth a psychological comparison to assist the reader in understanding of Prufrock’s psyche and existentialist attitude toward life.…

    • 1043 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    English

    • 705 Words
    • 3 Pages

    In ENC 1102, we have read two stories: Oedipus the King and “The love song of J. Alfred Prufrock.” As a class, we distinguished characteristics and personality traits of the main characters of each book. The main characters are Oedipus, the tragic king of Thebes, and Prufrock, an insecure man. While Oedipus and Prufrock do have some common characteristics, they have many distinguishable differences.…

    • 705 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Prufrock, throughout lines 26-30, not only delineates his insecurity but also his indecisiveness and fear of rejection. These few lines give readers a snapshot of what the poem consists of: Prufrock’s constant self-doubt, ambivalence and passivity. Furthermore, it reveals that he overanalyzes situations to the point where it is unhealthy. As a result of his negativity and lack of initiative, Prufrock sends the message that he is an unhappy and lonely man who yearns for love but cannot even bring himself to open up to a woman, let alone ask her this “overwhelming question”.…

    • 952 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Prufrock Socialization

    • 899 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Avoiding this ultimate question, he seeks peace in oblivion: I should have been a pair of ragged claws; scuttling across the floors of silent seas”. We are gregarious creatures, and Prufrock’s desire for isolation is untenable to us. Socialization has trapped him in a rock and a hard place: he may choose the peaceful oblivion of a void anyday, but he is too scared to reject a mask that he despises in case it may change his world: oh the irony!…

    • 899 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays