ANALYSIS OF T.S. ELIOT THE LOVE SONG OF J. ALFRED PRUFROCK

The Song of J. Alfred Prufrock is about a man scared and afraid of what other people think of him, and in addition to this he is also unable to express himself and to relate with his feelings.

The poem’s structure is quite unusual, since stanzas present different numbers of lines and do not follow a logical order. Structure resembles the one of drama, consisting in the  juxtaposition of scenes. This leads  to consider it a dramatic monologue, where a single character – a first person narrator – expresses his thoughts. Indeed, the poet does not express his own ideas, but rather adopts the dramatis personae device to add universal value to the poem and to keep  emotionally distant. The narrator seems to speak to his own conscience, and this is confirmed by Dante’s quotation at the beginning: like Guido da Montefeltro in the Divina Commedia, J. Alfred Prufrock is convinced that he is speaking only to himself.

The language used by the poet recalls every day speech to better convey Alfred’s thoughts, but many allusions and quotations can be found throughout the poem. Dante’s quotation at the beginning is the most explicit one, but there are also references to Shakespeare (Hamlet) and the Bible (Lazarus). This reminds of T. S. Eliot’s conception of innovative art, which has to display   tradition in its bones. In addition, lots of symbolic elements are o used, and they are mostly referring to rituals and ordinary actions: toast and tea, coffee spoons, “the cups, the marmalade, the tea”, showing the repeativeness of Prufrock’s life. There are  mythical references, too – e.g. the sirens – but they are shaped in Modernist dress : the sirens no longer sing to attract men, but they sing for themselves, underlining once more Alfred's desperate life.

In this poem, the Modernist man is depicted as incapable to act or even take the most insignificant decisions. Human beings are antiheroes who live a life made of rituals, slowly growing old without accomplishing anything relevant – like Gabriel in James Joyce’s The Dead. They are not even able to communicate their feelings to other human beings: Alfred Prufrock himself is a victim of his own inability: he cannot  express what he feels to the woman he loves. Instead, he speaks to his own conscience thus revealing his existential loneliness.

To sum up, Eliot’s poem is the  portrait of the  Modernist antihero: alone, unable to act, physically living but carrying the burden of a dead soul.