It holds him back from doing the things he wishes to do. This is the sort of characteristic that makes Alfred into a tragic, doomed character. He will not find happiness until he finds self-assurance within himself. The repetition of words like vision and revision, show his feelings of inadequacy in communicating with the people around him. The rhyme scheme Elliot uses in this poem depicts the disenchanted and confused mind of the narrator.
Written in the era of modernism, the reader is capable of unraveling that the poem’s true purpose was not only to show Prufrock’s inability to make decisions when it comes to love, but to show the desolation that one faces in times of a modernistic transition. Eliot depicts Prufrock’s transition phase through a gloomy and solemn tone, incorporating imagery, metaphor and synecdoche to fully illustrate Prufrock’s despondent state of mind and spirit. Prufrock invites us, the reader, through his journey of self-evaluation and self-examination, as he say’s “LET us go then, you and I.” He uses personification in lines 5, “the muttering retreats” to describe his surroundings as if it were alive. The "retreats" are not "muttering," but it seems that way because they are the kinds of places where you would run into muttering people. Also, the restless nights mentioned in lines 4 and 6, “let us go, through certain half-deserted streets/Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels” allude to modernism—young people walking around at night, in and out of one-night cheap hotels.
The anonymity of the third person ‘they’ represents his inability to connect and forge meaningful relationships because of this paranoia. This exploration of fear and doubt continues throughout the poem as Prufrock poses a profound question, ‘Do I dare disturb the universe?’ Use of this rhetorical question conveys the tension between Prufrock’s realization that it is beneficial to reject complacent acceptance of designated identities and his belief that in order to belong he has to conform. Living and experiencing our contemporary society we can relate to Prufrock’s internal struggle by acknowledging this tension between conforming to societal expectations and developing our own identity. Eliot effectively admonishes against being caught in this state of Prufrockian paralysis, whereby people are paralyzed by doubt and social insecurity. He conveys how the ontological journey to self-knowledge is hindered by self-doubt and our struggle to connect and communicate meaningfully with others.
The monologue throughout is melancholy in nature, with Prufrock dwelling on issues such as unrequited love, his frail body, his looming demise, and a dissatisfaction with the modernist world. Eliot uses a variety of metaphor within the poem to showcase Prufrock’s indecision, between being unable to fully live, while
Those who only find lust in these lonely places eventually become old, as the speaker of the poem realizes. The only argument in this poem is that of a man much past his prime, arguing to himself whether to retire the chase; the author uses logos, ethos and pathos when arguing to himself, and you, about giving up the Darwinian chase. The author of this poem is T.S. Eliot a modern poet who is a contemporary of Hemingway and Fitzgerald. Much of his work comes from post World War I, a period which was filled with excess and disillusionment with humanity and our ability to create and control civilization.
He claims that there will be much time to do things in the social world. Prufrock is more of an anti-hero that is controlled by fear. T.S Eliot uses tone, allusions, and imagery to explain a man’s inability to make decisions and his own self confidence in life in which he is afraid of the outlook of his future by being misunderstood. The tone of the poem is described as a weary, self-depressed outlook. He is uncertain about life and his place in it.
Through the poem’s juxtapositions, stream of consciousness monologue, and irregular rhyming pattern, Eliot cemented his place in modernist poetry. The poem is prefaced with a passage from Dante’s Inferno, where the speaker confesses his shame without fear of its being reported. “Prufrock”, similarly follows this theme of confession, confession that Prufrock’s fears of action and inaction and inadequacy is open and present for the readers to know. Without romantic clichés and irony, the poem in a sense parodies the traditional romantic ideas expected in a poem titled, “Love Song”, and disturbs the universe of romantic poetry by withdrawing desire of an object and subjects but rather subject the readers to a stream of conscious in a reflection of urgings and longing. The reader is immediately given imagery and rhyme pattern that is dissimilar in a traditional sense in the first two lines.
Dubliners and The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock Several of Joyce's stories in Dubliners can read as lamentations. They are showing the frustrated inability of man to represent meaning by external means, including written word. When characters in ^Araby^, and ^A Painful Case^ attempt to represent or signify themselves, other characters or abstract spiritual entities with or through words, they not only fail, but end up emotionally ruined. In T.S. Eliots^ poem, ^ The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,^ the feeling relates to one overall issue of emotional investment in representation.
In the poem “La Belle Dame sans Merci”, Keats explicates the work through structure, tone, hyperbole, and the parallels to love and death, relating to romanticism. In this way, Keats was anticipating post-Romantic strategies of expression. Keats was able to implement self-expression and change characters into real figures. By using the characterization of the knight as a convincing surrogate for his own feelings, Keats uses Romantic themes, such as questioning oneself, the paradox between love and death, and the definition of morals to a person.
T.S. Eliot exposes the reflections and emotions of J. Alfred Prufrock in this poem about his Love Song. Eliot does this in such a manner that Prufrock himself would not be capable of expressing, due to his rationale of showing the reader Prufrock’s diffidence throughout the poem. The attention of the reader is drawn from the beginning by Eliot’s utilization of an epigraph, which is a short saying or quote placed at the beginning of a writing to imply a theme. Eliot’s method of an epigraph helps create an effective way for the readers to identify and notice Prufrock’s uncertainty and lack of confidence in the poem.