The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock is a dramatic monologue, written by T.S.Eliot.

From the title the readers can understand that is a love song and they should expect that the text starts with the theme of love.

The poem is composed of free verse and the juxtaposition of scenes that poet used to improve the dramatic effect.

J. F. Prufrock is a middle-aged man that he is unable to reveal his feelings to a woman. In the poem the character talked with is consciousness. The writer chose a middle-aged man because is a typical character of Modernist literature and he represent a person that has lived a long part of his life.

Eliot used intertextuality to render in a better way the monologue of this man. The most important themes are love, consciousness, time (the time of consciousness because it combines past and future), fear (Prufrock is scared of the judgment of people), weakness and anti-heroism.

The dramatic monologue starts with an extract of Dante’s Inferno, because the poet made a comparison between Guido da Montefeltro and Prufrock. In the poem Prufrock would confess his secret feelings because nobody can’t hear the conversation.

The poem starts with “Let us go then, you and I” to underline the division of Prufrock and his consciousness. “you and I” represents a conflict in Prufrock’s identity. The first scene is set in the evening because it is a metaphor of the life comes to end. Prufrock is compared “like a patient etherized upon the table” and this underlines his weakness.

The expression “overwhelming question” at the 10 line represents the question that afflicted Prufrock during his life.

The poet with the refrain “In the room the women come and go talking of Michelangelo” would explain the vulgarity of society, in which people talked about everyone.

In the following lines the writer used metaphor to explain the conflict between Prufrock’s feelings and his personality. “the yellow fog….the yellow smoke…into the corners of evening….” Symbolized the secret feeling of Prufrock that they are hidden in him and he wouldn’t reveal because he is threatened to the judgment of people.

The repetition of “there will be time” underlines the indecision and the weakness of Prufrock to declare his love to a woman. The writer evidences the flow of the time and Prufrock put off the declaration but he was aware that he became old.

In the next part is explained the importance of the word “time” and this to render the flow of time in Prufrock’s life. After this part Prufrock recognized that he became old, in fact he thought about the judgments of his physical apparence that people could do but even if he continued to trouble to the indecision of love declaration. Prufrock understood to live a life without a sense, a meaning because he pursued vain aims to conform to standards’ society. He was worried about the judgments and in which way he appeared to other people. Furthermore in the following part of the poem, Prufrock was invited to a party in the house of his lover and he imaged the judgments that people could do about him. He described the woman that he loved and she seemed rich and pleasant, so he had some memories about her. He travelled in his thought, he imagined the way to declare his love and he didn’t live because he thought always to do the right thing according to vision of his society. for this reason Prufrock admitted that “I have measured out my life with coffee spoons”.

The monologue continued to express the sadness that dominated Prufrock in his routine and he accepted his destiny. He understood that he wasn’t a prophet and the prince Hamlet, he was an anti-hero, he had nothing only the consequence of his inability to act. The writer would express the typical problems of his aged and he would that readers reflects about these themes.