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Essay 2 (Choice 1): A Critical Analysis of Modernism and T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” takes the form of a dramatic monologue, in which the narrator, using a persona which is obviously not that of the actual author, opens up his heart and mind to the reader. Prufrock is a uniquely modernist monologue because rather than choosing someone who is typically heroic, Eliot uses a protagonist who is trapped in a dull and uneventful life. Prufrock is afraid to show his passion to an unnamed woman. He is alienated from his society, which he describes as dull and pretentious, but cannot rise above it. Prufrock senses that there is a better way of life, full of love and higher aspirations for himself, but cannot attain his dreams.
The fact that Prufrock is a very ordinary man is underlined by his self-description, that he is one who has “measured out my life with coffee spoons” (51). This suggests someone who has cautiously approached life’s major challenges, rather than bitten deeply into the core or marrow of human existence. At the end of the poem, he describes himself as Polonius, a comic figure from Hamlet, “No! I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be” (112). What is uniquely Modernist about this is that rather than...
His comments about himself are very caustic, rather than full of a desire to seek glory, again suggesting his belief that there are few opportunities for heroism in modern life. He says he is an, “…attendant lord, one that will do/ To swell a progress, start a scene or two,/ Deferential, glad to be of use,” (110-113). Rather than seeking some greater truth about existence, Prufrock merely follows the herd. This was one of the great fears of the Modernist age, that life in urban locations and the creation of mass culture had generated, in effect, a world of conformity.
The poem is also narrated in an interior monologue and what goes on in Prufrock’s mind is more important than what goes on outside of his mind. In terms of the actual action of the poem, Prufrock and the woman he loves simply go on a visit, then leave. But Prufrock addresses the poem to “you,” as if he is trying to declare his love to the woman in his mind before he says it aloud. Unfortunately, he is not courageous enough to actually broach the topic to her in the real world, so he instead…
Work Cited
Eliot, T.S. “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.” Bartleby. Web. 4 Mar 2018. http://www.bartleby.com/198/1.html
More a synopsis of emotional entanglement than a treatise on gender or sexuality, T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” encapsulates the ennui and numbness of the modern world. The speaker reveals gender only tacitly, as through two separate mentions of encroaching baldness. The choral incantations of the women who “come and go/ talking of Michelangelo” refer to a bourgeoisie existence and do not reveal gender discrimination (lines
Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" by T.S. Eliott The opening epigraph from Dante's Inferno in T.S. Eliott's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Pruforck" suggests that Prufrock, like Count Guido da Montefeltro, is giving a visitor a tour of his own personal hell. Also, at the beginning and end of the first stanza, Prufrock invites the reader to go with him to find the answer that he is trying
Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, by T.S. Eliot, and the Road Not Taken, by Robert Frost are two poems that imagine how life might be if the narrator had acted differently. However, the two poems are almost opposites in their intent and impact. Eliot's poem is a lamentation over a life not lived, over a failure to act. Frost's poem is a celebration over an unconventional life bravely
As attitudes of literacy help students succeed in school, this is an important development to encourage. Thus, students should be encouraged to interpret "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" for themselves, learning that no right or wrong answer exists, and that literature is a conduit through which one can have a personal response. The following lesson plan can stand by itself or follow the teaching of the poem
.. I grow old...' are the evidence of the impending fear of death. One unusual part of the poem is how Eliot, or Prufrock, puts himself into a role in one of Shakespeare's plays and then admits that he is no Hamlet by saying 'No! I am not the Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be.' Although I am guessing, I feel that Eliot was trying to say that Shakespeare's
Prince Hamlet is supported by loyal followers such as Prufrock, himself happy "to start a scene or two" (116) and to remain "Deferential, glad to be of use" (118). Women are presented in a series of stereotypes of the social set -- they sip tea, talk about art, eat marmalade, and live among porcelain as they pretend that they are more influential than they are. For Prufrock, the singing