The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T. S. Eliot

The poem, the earliest of Eliot's major works, was completed in 1910 or 1911 but not published until 1915. Also, it's deeply influenced by the French symbolist movement. The writer starts the poem by quoting Guido Monferrati's confession from Dante's Inferno. In the quote the character reveals his sins as he's sure that they will never be revealed. This idea is the same one hold by J. Alfred Prufrock in his monologue. Also the epigraph describes Prufrock's ideal listener: one who is as lost as the speaker and will never betray to the world the content of Prufrock's present confessions. The poem seems to be a love song made by J. Alfred Prufrock to someone he is in love with. Yet, he isn't confident at all about the success of revealing his love. The character represents the paralysis of modern man by his inability of taking choices and by the fear he has towards  the comments others make about his inadequacies.  To show J. Alfred Prufrock's weaknesses and doubts T. S. Eliot uses a variation on the dramatic monologue, a poem similar to soliloquies in plays. Eliot modernizes the form by focusing on Prufrock's interiority and isolation and by removing the use of the implied listener, typical of the classic dramatic monologue. J. A. Prufrock is the symbol of the modern man, full of uncertainties and doubts, that is the symbol of the cultural paralysis of western culture.  He is neurotic and overeducated and he gives a lot of importance to what the other thinks about him. He recognizes  that his decisions aren't important at all and he already knows the results of them. Time is measured with rituals linked to contemporary life and it represents for Prufrock the possibility of choose, always postponed by him.

In the first stanza the character's monologue is not referred to someone else but to his conscience, asked to don't stop to squalid places but to go on his way. The poet outlines the decay of the modern society with the images of filthy locations and of ignorant women talking of Michelangelo. This refrain gives cohesion  to the poem.  The concept is also repeated in the following stanza by the use of the "yellow fog" , similar to a cat, that further underlines the misery of the world.  In the third stanza Prufrock tells to himself that there is still time to take decisions. This idea is linked to the fear of taking choices and to his desire to postpone them.  The next stanza deals with  the same concept of the previous one, but also with the character's doubts about the possibility of making choices. In the fifth, sixth and seventh  stanzas  the character seems to know everything about the world. Also, he has already faced people's opinions about him. In the following stanza his inability to take decisions is repeated again and he thinks that he would rather prefer to be a crab in the depth of an ocean. In the ninth stanza the character reflects about the time passed. Also, he asks himself if, indeed, he has got the strength to take decisions able to change his life. T. S. Eliot compares him to John the Baptist. Yet, he's not a prophet. Furthermore, he has seen his life pass by and he also faced dead. In the tenth and eleventh stanzas Prufrock makes a reflection about the worthiness of revealing his feelings to his beloved woman. The character compares himself to Hamlet in the twelfth stanza, but he immediately recognize that he will never be like him. In the last stanzas he recognizes his oldness and asks himself if he has to change.  Finally, he compares himself to Odysseus but he understands that the sirens aren't singing for him.