The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock Prufrock, taken as a whole, is a fairly daunting work. However, when the plethora of allusions is broken into and unraveled, it becomes very slightly more manageable. Lines thirty-seven and thirty-eight allude to Andrew Marvell's To His Coy Mistress. Marvell's poem is one of seduction. Through it, he attempts to get his lady to go to bed with him. He tells her that there is really no point in coquetting, that there is little enough time in life as it is, don't waste time not sleeping with him. Prufrock is rather the antithesis of this entreaty. His whole life is spent putting off his relationships with the world around him, especially his relationships with women. Marvell has a very direct way of speaking to his lady, indicative of a very direct relationship. Prufrock, on the other hand, has much more circuitous language, and the fact that he represents the opposite of Marvell's sentiments indicates that his relationships with women will be of an opposite nature. His relationships are, in fact, nonexistent. He spends his whole life getting around relating to women. This may be because he is afraid that he cannot trust women. This is alluded to in lines 124 and 125, in which he refers to the "mermaids singing." This is taken from John Donne's Song, in which he bemoans the nonexistence of a true woman comparing her to a whole slew of impossible ideas. In this poem, the speaker asks for the addressee to teach him, if all these impossible things are indeed possible, to hear mermaids singing. Prufrock seems to think they are possible but that he is somehow excluded from them. Works Consulted Blythe, Hal. "Eliot's 'The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock." Explicator v. 52, n. 3, p 170 Spring 1994. Http://arts.ucsc.edulgdeadlagdllstella.html#eliot Smith, Gerald. "Eliot's 'The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock." Explicator v. 21, n. 2, 1962: #17.
Before we are introduced to Prufrock himself, we notice that the initial scenes of this poem paint a landscape of apathy. The narrator mentions little about himself initially and beckons that we follow him down into a world without consequence “of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels” (Eliot 6). The later “streets that follow like a tedious argument of insidious intent” set the stage for Prufrock’s dilemma (ibid 9-10). Audrey Cahill says this scene foreshadows “Prufrock’s dialogue with himself, a dialogue which leads nowhere” and that thrusts the reader into meaningless chaos (6). Thus, even if these streets lead to an overwhelming question, the journey down them is rather mind-numbing and unnecessary if the answer gets us nowhere or, worse, merely emphasizes our own desolation. This is compounded by the appearance of a mysterious yellow catlike fog that “curled once about the house and fell asleep” (Eliot 22). Cahill also affirms that becaus...
By a correct reading of "Prufrock," I mean a reading consistent with the central theme of the poet's belief made mute because the poet lives in a culture of unbelief--that is, the "silence" of the poetic vision in modernity. Prufrock renounces his inherited, romantic role as "poet as prophet" and renounces poetry's role as a successor to religion. The future of poetry may have once been immense, but that future no longer exists for Prufrock, who is faced not only with the certainty of the rejection of his poetic vision but also with a situation in which there are no grounds for rhetoric: "That is not what I meant at all. / That is not it, at all." Fear of rejection leads Prufrock to the ultimate silencing of the prophet and hero within himself, to being "a pair of ragged claws." He cannot share his poetic vision of life: to do so would threaten the very existence of that life. Paradoxically, not to share his light, his "words among mankind," threatens the loss ...
Prufrocks next thoughts tell of his old age and his lack of will to say what is on his mind. He mentions his bald spot in his hair and his thin arms and legs. This suggests that he knows he is growing old, and therefore contradicts what he had mentioned earlier in the poem about having plenty of time. Throughout the poem he is indecisive and somewhat aloof from the self-involved group of women. One part of him would like to startle them out of their frustratingly polite conversations and express his love for her, but to accomplish this he would have to risk disturbing their ?universe? and being rejected. He also mentions ?sprawling on a pin?, as though he pictures himself being pinned in place and viciously analyzed like that of an insect being literally pinned in place. The latter part of the poem captures his sense of overwhelming lack of willpower for failing to act daringly, not only at that tea party, but throughout his life.
Time travel stories depict controversial topics like the de-evolution of humanity in a light where anyone can have a clear perspective. Part of the human condition includes denial of beliefs, contrary to one's set of preconceived notions. The point of time travel literature is to break down these preconceived notions by creating a great distance between the reader and the story. The Time Traveler from H.G Wells short story, The Time Machine experiences this distance because he went so far into the future that there was a split in the evolutionary tract of humans. The species derived from humans are primal and thoughtless, the distance on the evolutionary tree allows them to be considered de-evolved.
The story begins in the house of the Time Traveler. He says to a group of people it is possible to travel through time. The group of people doesn't believe him, so he shows them a working model of the Machine. He makes it disappear into the future. Next week the same group of people return. They can't find the Time Traveler. After a while he comes, and says he has been traveling through time. He tells his story. At first the time moves a bit faster than normal. He can see someone entering the laboratory very quick. Then the time starts moving more quickly. The laboratory disappeared. When he stopped the machine, he was in a sort of garden in a new world. 802701 Description of the New World. The human race was split in to parts, the Eloi and the Morlocks. Eloi saw him, and they found him interesting. He is taken to a building and can eat. When they loose interest he discovers his Time Machine is gone. He thinks it is put in a white Sphinx. Then he rescues a little female Eloi, Weena. She appreciates it and follows him everywhere. He discovers how the world works. He tries to find his Time Machine. At a time he is in the forest with Weena. They are surrounded by Morlocks, and it's getting late. He has built a campfire. He escapes because the forest is burning, but he lost Weena. He goes to the white Sphinx and starts destroying it. He can enter it and he sees the time machine. When he approaches it he discovers it is a trick to get hem there. Quickly he jumps in the time machine and disappears. He stops 30 million years later. The earth has completely changed and all intelligent creatures have disappeared. Then he returns to our time. The Time Traveler tells to the group of people they may believe it if they want it. He isn't sure of it himself anymore. The next day someone from the group returns. The time Traveler tells him to wait. When he wants to tell to the Time Traveler he has to go, the Time Traveler and his Machine have gone.
For example in the poem he says, “…Time to turn back and descend the stair, With a bald spot in the middle of my hair- [They will say: “How his hair is growing so thin!] My morning coat, my collar mounting firmly to the chin, My necklace rich and modest, but asserted by a simple pin- [They will say:” But how his arms and legs are so thin!”]…” This quotation is an example of Prufrock overthinks situations. He wants to go to the party and ask a question but cannot stop thinking about if he will be judged by the people at the party because of his hair balding and thin body. But a typical person today would acknowledge the fact that the people who will attend the party will be concerned with the party they are attending rather than minor details on him. This is another instance where Prufrock is not typical of people today. People today do tend to over think things but Prufrock takes it to another level with overthinking about things normal people wouldn’t and allows it to affect each choice he makes even the simplest ones in his
Those sides of Prufrock's character are shown only to the reader. The ladies have to judge him on his appearance and his behavior during the evening out. He is an older man, his hair is growing thin, and he is skinny. Eve...
A love song or a profession of love usually includes a culminating point where the suitor finally professes his love toward the woman. However T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” is almost a guide on how to dissuade oneself from professing love to a woman. It does this by combining several different poetic methods to display a situation of desperation and trapped isolation. Basically, Alfred is clear on the fact that he wants to be a part of this woman’s –whom he loves- life, but he cannot bring himself to the complete the act, to say “I love you.” The poem itself consists of all of the reasons, going through Alfred’s head, why he should not profess his love. Imagery, literary allusion, and structure are prominent tools used by Eliot to convey the man’s feelings in the poem. Eliot’s criticism of the modern man of his time is another strong theme in this poem. A demonstration of this is clear when Eliot presents Alfred as a modern man, and then he criticizes modern men’s being with Alfred’s thoughts. The inability of taking action, or cowardice, is evidently the over arching theme in this presentation. One of the minor themes that play well into the all encompassing theme is Eliot’s interpretation of the modern man.
The white tiger is one of the biggest in the cat family. The white tiger is long it can grow up to 3.3 meters long and weigh as much as 300 kilograms hard to carry. Subspecies of the white tiger like Sumatran Tiger, Amur(or Siberian) Tiger, Indian (or Bengal) tiger, south china tiger, malayan tiger,indo-chinese tiger,bali tiger,javan tiger,caspian tiger thats extinct theres nine subspecies of the white tiger.A lot of subspecies are endangered or extinct because people hunt them for their fur to make jackets or sweaters and destroying their habitat.Some tiger cubs don’t live to be an adult because around half of the cubs die around 2-3 years of age.The cubs leave their mother at around 2 years old they live a long time because their mom taught them what they would know from eating to hiding from people.A group of tigers is called ambush or streak because the group may be hunting.You probably thought these tigers can’t swim because they are in the cat family but if you do you are wrong because ...
Prufrock’s social world is initially revealed as he takes the reader on a journey. Through the lines 1-36, the reader travels with Prufrock through the modern city and its streets as we experience Prufrock’s life and explore his surroundings through his eyes. From the very beginning, the city is portrayed as bleak and empty with no signs of happiness. The setting as Prufrock walks through the street appears to be polluted, dirty, and run-down, as if it is the cheap side of town, giving the feeling of it being lifeless, still, eerie, sleepy and unconscious. Eliot uses imagery, from the skyline to half-deserted streets, to cheap hotels to sawdust restaurants to demonstrate the loneliness and alienation the city possesses. The city Prufrock resides in is, in a way, a shadow of how he is as a person, and the images of the city speak to some part of his personality. Just as the skyline is described as “a patient etherised upon a table” (3), it foreshadows and hints that Prufrock has an...
Time travel has always been an ambitious dream in science fiction. Writers such as H.G Wells not only kept their readers mesmerized by great novels such as “The time machine” but also introduced the idea of time travel in the imagination of their readers. Today time travel is not regarded as strictly science fiction. Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity permits a unique kind of time dilation that would ordinarily be called time travel. The theory states that, relative to a stationary observer, time appears to pass more slowly for fast-moving bodies. For example, a moving clock will appear to run slow; as a clock approaches the speed of light its hands will appear to nearly stop moving. So if one can move information from one point to another faster than light then according to special relativity, there will be an observer who sees this information transfer as allowing information to travel into the past.
...rno. That particular part of Dante's inferno is the recollection of a man who kept this secret that he wanted to tell and when he told Dante the secret was out and embarrassed the man greatly. This turns the table to realize that Prufrock might relate to the story of this man. He has all these great stories to tell, but he keeps them a secret out of fear of retribution and judgment. This tells a lot about Prufrock’s inability to distinguish what he should say versus what he wants to say, so instead he says nothing at all.
The title T. S. Eliot chose for his poem "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" is ironic. Mr. Prufrock does not love anyone, nor does he believe he is loved. He has disdain for the society of which he wishes he were a part, and he believes society views him no differently. The imagery of Mr. Prufrock's thoughts provide the audience a more detailed insight into his character than had Mr. Eliot simply listed Mr. Prufrock's virtues and flaws. Mr. Prufrock is seen as an exaggeration or extreme for the sake of literary commentary, but the world has many Prufrocks in many differing degrees, and T. S. Eliot has made them a little easier to understand.
In this passage, it's clear that Prufrock desires a woman's attention but doesn't think he will ever have it. This pessimistic outlook gives no hope at all and is just depressing.
The Time Machine. The Time Machine Coursework Most of the story "The Time Machine" is written in first person. narrator. The narrator is a narrator.