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The love song of j. alfred prufrock questions
Analysis of the love song by j alfred prufrock
Love song of j. alfred prufrock summary
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The human mind is a complex and mysterious thing. Many authors of the Modernist Period explored different possibilities when it comes to the meaning and understanding of language. Rather than creating writing to understand the human mind, many writers decided to follow the difficulty behind it. The outcome of this can be seen through T.S. Elliot’s work, which has been considered the most difficult, yet luminous of the time for many different reasons. The poem “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” shows the personal chaos of an unhappy narrator though narration that is similar to a person’s perception. The confusion between public and private individuality is portrayed by this type of narration. We are able to see this as the speaker, J. Alfred …show more content…
The speaker introduces the readers to the troubling area that he lives in. The most distinguished thing was the fog that covered the entire city and how it is based on anxieties towards women. For example, “The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window panes / The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window-panes / Licked its tongue into the corners of the evening” (15-17). As the speaker describes the fog that covers the city, he describes it being similar to a specific thing. The speaker then gives the fog a feminine quality. The speaker finds the fog overwhelming just like the women he talks about in the rest of the poem. The fog also shows the confusion that is shown through the speaker. Us as readers are able to determine the speaker’s uneasiness toward woman since women are considered not understandable. I personally do not agree with this statement, but we all have our own …show more content…
The sky is an important part of the setting. The poem quotes, “When the evening is spread out against the sky / Like a patient etherized upon a table” (2-3). The setting is an illustration of the speaker’s inability to come close to woman and say what he wants to say without panicking of what the consequences may be. A similar idea is also seen when the speaker talks about his own self image. The sense of inability is described by Prufrock when he describes himself as being in a trap. “And when I am formulated, sprawling on a pin / When I am pinned and wriggling on the wall” (57-58). The comparison between the speaker and the individual in the beginning of the poem shows the connection between the speaker’s individuality and nervousness. Prufrock constantly struggles to accept himself for who he is in public and even in private. He seem to see himself as
The "Fog" reveals, illuminates, widens, and intensifies; it gives sight. There is a pleasing poetic irony in Clampitt’s ability to render so present to the mind’s eye precisely what the eyes themselves cannot see at all. " A vagueness comes over everything, / as though proving color and contour / alike dispensable" (Clampitt 610). As things disappear, "the lighthouse extinct, / the islands’ spruce-tips drunk up like milk in the universal emulsion; / houses reverting into the lost and forgotten," the experience of the vanishing develops (610).
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...
"(10) which is never identified, asked, or answered in the poem. This "question" is somehow associated with his social status, but both its ambiguity and Prufrock's denial to even ask "What is it? " (11) gives some insight into his state of internal turmoil. Prufrock's dissatisfaction with his personal appearance is evidence of an underlying lack of self-confidence. Not only is he unhappy with the way he looks, having "to prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet," but he is constantly afraid of what others will have to say about him.
J. Alfred Prufrock is a man who is destined to find the right women to with for the rest of his life. He always holds off finding the perfect women to another day, but time is ticking against him and he does not have much time left. In T.S. Eliot’s, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” Illustrates Prufrock’s inability to interact with women in the coffee shop, fear of being turned down, and the significance of love and time.
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
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.
prophet like Lazarus or a prince like Hamlet, and he slips into the safety of a
In his poem “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” T.S. Eliot subtly conveys a wide variety of Prufrock’s emotions; he creates pathos for the speaker by employing the “objective correlative,” which Eliot defines as “a set of objects, a situation, a chain of events [that] shall be the formula of that particular emotion” (“Hamlet and His Problems”).
In the poem "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," T. S. Elliot uses a vast amount of symbolism to depict the fantasy feelings of his character. Of the many he chooses, I feel the epigraph is the most important in setting the overall feeling of J. Alfred Prufrock.
The poem generally speaks on the dull and simple life of Prufrock or rather Eliot. He explains how he struggles to tell the woman of his dreams how he really feels about her. He “has wept and fasted, wept and prayed / though he has seen his head (grown slightly bald) brought in upon a platter / he knows he is no prophet” (lines 81-84). Prufrock has cried, prayed, and gone hungry contemplating how to express himself to this special woman; he has even imagined his head being brought in on a platter to serve to this lady (like John the Baptist), if he ever gained enough courage to approach her and she ends up rejecting him. However, he realizes that he is no prophet and he can’t foretell future events that may occur.
TS Eliot’s poem “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” is anything but a love song. He uses a few examples of zeitgeist modernism and makes it seem as if there is no hope for love. The second stanza of the poem symbolizes a lonely state, something far from romance. The disturbing walk he suggests, expresses his possible opinion of love.
A Long Day’s Journey Into Night, by Eugene O’Neill, is a deeply autobiographical play. His life was rampant with confusion and addictions in his family. Each character in this play has a profound resemblance, and draws parallels and connections with a member of his own family. The long journey that the title of the play refers to is a journey into his past. Fog is a recurring metaphor in the play; it is a physical presence even before it becomes a crucial symbol of the family’s impenetrable confusion. It is referred to in the text as well as stage directions in this play. It sets the mood for the play in all its somber hues.
This paper analyzes in depth the “overwhelming question” in the Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock. One of Elions early work of poetry, but perhaps the most famous, describes the deep theme of modern character seperation in western countries. In this poem, the understanding of the overwhelmin question is extremely important in comprehending what Prufrock is really trying say. If you really understand what the author is saying, the poem will truly be appreciated because we truly comprehend what the author is saying. This paper carefully studies the use of images, allusions and philosophical basis for the poem.
...ing line the eloquently depicts the act of daydreaming and having a quiet fantasy abruptly disturbed by reality (131-133). It is only in his ruminations that Prufrock can escape the demands of society and the expectation of rejection.
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.