Eliot's Life Reflected Towards His Poetry
T.S. Eliot composed poems from within his experiences, physical or mental conditions and his own social observations. To fully comprehend Eliot’s work, we must first understand what he has gone through at specific times in his life. “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” becomes a great example of were we must primarily understand what has happened to Eliot. “There can be no simple equation between the experiences of the life and the poetry”(Scofield 18). Eliot’s poetry became a reflection of himself, and this is especially noticeable with his poem, “Prufrock.”
According to Scofield, Eliot became a victim from acute anxiety and depression in the earlier part of his life (17). This could have been due to Eliot’s failed marriage. Scofield also describes Eliot as having an unstable life. He states that Eliot “took a leave of absence (…) on an account of an illness described as ‘nervous breakdown’”(17). The poem “Prufrock,” is based on male anxiety and insecurity, possibly experienced by Eliot himself. Prufrock struggles with his anxiety, and through out the poem this can be seen by the way that he questions himself in lines thirty-eight to forty-one of “Prufrock”:
To wonder, ‘Do I dare?’ and ‘Do I dare?
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 thin!’]
This stanza shows how Prufrock worries about people judging him. Prufrock’s insecurity, which is based upon an image of Eliot’s own insecurity, plays a major role in the poem. By the time this poem was completed, Eliot was in his thirty’s. A man at that age, such as Eliot’s, fears of loosing his ha...
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...scenery; he also gives an atmosphere. In lines fifteen and sixteen of “Prufrock”, Eliot describes the air that Prufrock breathes in the poem as being contaminated with gases and smoke. It says:
The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes,
The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window-panes
Such images as these are like those seen by Eliot when he once lived in St. Louis. Due to Eliot’s obsession with certain scenery and negative outlooks on life, he is able to project moods into his work.
“The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” is a reflection of Eliot’s life in almost everyway. Everything that Eliot was going through, such as a bad marriage, anxiety and depression, and his observations of city life, have been echoed in his poem “Prufrock.” Therefore, I believe that it is Eliot who walks in the streets of “Prufrock,” and not Prufrock himself.
"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" is about a timid and downcast man in search of meaning, of love, and in search of something to break from the dullness and superficiality which he feels his life to be. Eliot lets us into Prufrock's world for an evening, and traces his progression of emotion from timidity, and, ultimately, to despair of life. He searches for meaning and acceptance by the love of a woman, but falls miserably because of his lack of self-assurance. Prufrock is a man for whom, it seems, everything goes wrong, and for whom there are no happy allowances. The emptiness and shallowness of Prufrock's "universe" and of Prufrock himself are evident from the very beginning of the poem. He cannot find it in himself to tell the woman what he really feels, and when he tries to tell her, it comes out in a mess. At the end of the poem, he realizes that he has no big role in life.
The Love song of J. Alfred Prufrock is a poem that was written by T. S Eliot. The poem introduces the character, Prufrock, as a man who is very pessimistic about everything and is incapable of change. Prufrock sees the society he lives in as a place that is full of people who think alike, and he thinks he is different from them. Though Prufrock, realizes that the society he is associated with needs a change and have more people who think differently, but the fact that he is very concerned about what people would think of him if he tries to speak up to make a change or that he would be ignored or be misunderstood for whatever he says hindered him from expressing himself the way he would like to. Prufrock then decides not to express himself in order to avoid any type of rejection. In the poem, Prufrock made use of several imagery and metaphor to illustrate how he feels about himself and the society he is involved in. Prufrock use of imageries and
T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” tells the speaker’s story through several literary devices, allowing the reader to analyze the poem through symbolism, character qualities, and allusions that the work displays. In this way, the reader clearly sees the hopelessness and apathy that the speaker has towards his future. John Steven Childs sums it up well in saying Prufrock’s “chronic indecision blocks him from some important action” (Childs). Each literary device- symbolism, character, and allusion- supports this description. Ultimately, the premise of the poem is Prufrock second guessing himself to no end over talking to a woman, but this issue represents all forms of insecurity and inactivity.
In "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," T. S. Eliot reveals the silent insecurity of a man, for whom the passing of time indicates the loss of virility and confidence. Throughout the poem, Prufrock struggles with his fear of inadequacy, which surfaces socially, physically and romantically. The desire to ask some "overwhelming question," of the one he wants is outweighed by his diffidence, reinforcing his belief in his shortcomings. Ultimately, this poem is the internal soliloquy of someone who attempts to know what he wants and how to get it, but whose social paralysis and lack of self-assuredness prevents either of these possibilities.
T.S. Eliot has been one of the most daring innovators of twentieth-century poetry. His poem“The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”, is different and unusual. He rejects the logic connection, thus, his poems lack logic interpretation. He himself justifies himself by saying: he wrote it to want it to be difficult. The dissociation of sensibility, on the contrary, arouses the emotion of readers immediately. This poem contains Prufrock’ s love affairs. But it is more than that. It is actually only the narration of Prufrock, a middle-aged man, and a romantic aesthete , who is bored with his meaningless life and driven to despair because he wished but
Eliot uses the reference of time often in order to show the state of mind of Prufrock. The repetition of words like vision and revision exemplify his obsession with time and his indecisiveness. The time allusions show that Prufrock is getting increasingly older. For example, in line 51 he says, “I have measured out my life with coffee spoons.”(51)
This powerful image of the fog that encircles the house immediately makes a sense of conflicting elements in Prufrock, the fog as an object Eliot treated it as in his thecery as the objective correlative, the fog is no doubt is a mode of the urban blight caused by coal. Yet such feelings is double effects of interpretations that comes to prufrock, the poem juxtaposes the outside settings with the inside, saloon, drawing rooms compared to the landscape which is full with smoke and fog that curbs and made prufrock go to sleep. Such juxtaposition maintains the conflict inside prufrock and stops him from taking any vital decision
T.S. Eliot’s poem The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock has a plethora of possible interpretations. Many people argue that the poem represents a man who appears to be very introverted person who is contemplating a major decision in his life. This decision is whether or not he will consummate a relationship with someone he appears to have an attraction to or feelings for. People also debate whether or not Prufrock from the poem is typical of people today. While there are a plethora of reasons Prufrock is not typical of people today the main three reasons are he is very reserved, he overthinks most situations and he tries avoid his problems instead of solve them.
In conclusion, after exploring the theme of this poem and reading it for myself, Eliot has created this persona, in industrialised England or somewhere else. A man of low self-esteem, you embark his journey as he struggles with a rational fear of being rejected by a woman. Which gives the reader sympathy to Prufrock, as he lives within his own personal
Just as Fitzgerald uses an object to symbolize Gatsby’s unending obsession with Daisy, Eliot uses internal conflict to present Prufrock mental state. Prufrock describes this internal battle between if death is something that could be depicted as a good thing or not. He goes through these examples stating, “‘I am Lazarus, come from the dead, / Come back to tell you all, I shall tell you all’/ if one, settling a pillow by her head, / should say: ‘That is not what I meant at all. /that is not it, at all’ “(Eliot 92-97). Prufrock goes through this sense of anxiety towards death and how he is unable to control it.
Eliot is another example of capturing the moment in his poem “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”. Eliot didn’t completely shy away from rhyming and structure like the other modernist poets of his time and he also used flowery language. This poem uses many similes and metaphors to explain what is going on. For example, he says, “the evening is spread out against the sky like a patient etherized upon a table,” (Canvas). That use of a simile creates a much more vivid picture than saying the sky was dark and dreary. Throughout this entire poem, Eliot uses many things to describe exactly what he is talking about. In colloquial terms, this poem would be much less descriptive. Although most metaphors are left up to the reader’s interpretation, Eliot used metaphors to paint the exact picture he wants. According to the background of the reader, they will interpret the information differently. One’s experience with the cold is different for someone living in St. George as it would be for someone living in Chicago. If the writer was to just say that it was cold outside the reader from St. George could take that as meaning it was 60 degrees outside. Even if the writer were to report exactly what temperature it was, that doesn’t paint the same picture as saying something like every breath felt like icicles stabbing the back of your throat. Despite one’s background they can imagine what that would feel like. To ensure all his readers had similar experiences with this poem, Eliot doesn’t use simple terms. Eliot captures J. Alfred Prufrock in such despair and internal struggle so well. Eliot takes us through what the surrounding is like, what is going through Prufrock’s head, and what ultimately ends up happening. Eliot describes the moment so well that it feels as though the reader is there at the party, maybe even as
T. S. Eliot's poem "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" reveals the unvoiced inner thoughts of a disillusioned, lonely, insecure, and self-loathing middle-aged man. The thoughts are presented in a free association, or stream of consciousness style, creating images from which the reader can gain insight into Mr. Prufrock's character. Mr. Prufrock is disillusioned and disassociated with society, yet he is filled with longing for love, comfort, and companionship. He is self-conscious and fearful of his image as viewed through the world's eye, a perspective from which he develops his own feelings of insignificance and disgust. T. S. Eliot uses very specific imagery to build a portrait of Mr. Prufrock, believing that mental images provide insight where words fail.
The entire poem “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” deals with one man’s total inability to be a part of any successful relationship with the opposite sex. Eliot portrays Prufroc...
Eliot paints a picture of the opening scene that depicts a drab neighborhood of cheap hotels and restaurants where Prufrock lives in his solitary gloom. He invites the reader to make a visit with him to a place that Prufrock imagines is filled with women having tea and engaging in conversation. Prufrock procrastinates on the visit and says, 'There will be time, there will be time / To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet:'; (lines 26-27) indicating to the reader that he is afraid of showing his real self to these participants. He further indicates his hesitation by stating, 'Time for you and ...
T.S Eliot, widely considered to be one of the fathers of modern poetry, has written many great poems. Among the most well known of these are “The Waste Land, and “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”, which share similar messages, but are also quite different. In both poems, Eliot uses various poetic techniques to convey themes of repression, alienation, and a general breakdown in western society. Some of the best techniques to examine are ones such as theme, structure, imagery and language, which all figure prominently in his poetry. These techniques in particular are used by Eliot to both enhance and support the purpose of his poems.