Learning Paths » 5B Interacting
The love song of J. Alfred Prufrock
by - (2012-03-24)
Up to 5B - T.S. Eliot Modernist Poetry and Metaphysical Poetry
The love song of J. Alfred Prufrock was written by T. S. Elliot and it is a dramatic monologue in which Prufock is dialoguing with is consciousness.
Right from the title the intelligent reader could expect something that speaks about love. It is a song, and therefore the reader focuses her/his attention on rhythm, rhyme scheme, and on the relevance of sound. The dramatic monologue is introduced by an epigraphy which is taken from Dante’s Inferno. The voice is talking about itself and it speaks only because it knows that we do not tell anybody.
As the reader starts the lecture of the poem, he can see that the song doesn’t follow the traditional scheme but it is composed by free verse and it is made up by juxtapositions of scene which creates dramatic effect.
In the first scene the intelligent reader soon realizes that what he/she is reading is not a common love song because of the simile in which Prufrock compares the evening to a patient that is about to undergo a painful surgery. In addition there are many personifications, in fact it is not the "retreats" that are "muttering," but it seems like this because they are the kinds of places where you would run into muttering people. Also, the nights aren’t actually "restless"; they make people restless. There is another simile in which twisting streets are compared to a "tedious argument" that makes people lost with confusion, so Prufrock invites the reader not to ask questions.
In the second scene there are verses that are repeated in exactly the same form twice in the poem.
The third scene is characterized by a strong rhythm due to the repetition of words like “yellow” and “window-panes” in these lines the author is speaking about a cat through a turn of phrase. He never says directly that he's speaking about a cat, but the reader can understand it by the narration of the actions.
In the next scene the "faces" are a synecdoche, in fact you don’t go out just to meet a face, you go out to meet the entire person.
In the following scene is repeated again, "In the room the women come and go talking of Michelangelo. "
The following lines clearly express the character of Prufrock and also the main themes of the poetry: indecision and time. The man in spite of he knows that he hasn’t all life in front of him, he refers his decisions, convincing him that he will still have time. After that there is the characterization of Prufrock: his "bald spot" is a repeated symbol of his middle age and his nice clothes are the symbol of his relatively high social class. Eliot's choice of using a middle-aged man is not casual, rather it is generally the central character in Modernism because they reflect on their lives, focusing on consciousness.
In the next scene there is a metaphor in which Prufrock says that the spoons he uses to measure his coffee are like a "measure" of his life. In addition the "dying fall" of voices from another room is an allusion to Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. Therefore, it is ironic, when the voices Prufrock hears are covered up by "music from a farther room."
In the following scene there is another synecdoche, the eyes: they are a part of a person used to stand for the whole person. After all, eyes can’t "formulate," only a thinking person can do that. He uses the metaphor of a scientist examining an insect specimen to describe the way he feels under the gaze of those critical "eyes."
In lines 70-72 Prufrock returns to the setting of the beginning of the poem to give the imagery of a man leaning out of a window and smoking a pipe. Here we have the sad, honest man who realizes the jig is up and can’t even convince himself of his own stories. This Prufrock, who only lets his mask drop for a few lines at a time, is the one who admits that he should have been "a pair of ragged claws".
In the next scene Prufrock confuses the past and the future throughout the poem. In fact though the poem started in the evening, he goes back to the "afternoon," which blend into each other creating boredom and inaction. But some time has passed in the poem, because earlier he was talking about having tea, and now it seems he has already had tea. After that more time is passed in the poem, this time on a larger scale. He comes to realizes that "the moment of my greatness," the moment of his big chance at love, has gone. His best opportunity for happiness is over. Now he only has death, "the eternal Footman," to look forward to.
After that he realized all these things he focuses on his superficial appearance to cover up for the absence of deep feelings and emotions.
In conclusion, the theme of the love song is the continuous postpone and the inability to act because of the fear of changing the equilibrium in ones universe.
Right from the title the intelligent reader could expect something that speaks about love. It is a song, and therefore the reader focuses her/his attention on rhythm, rhyme scheme, and on the relevance of sound. The dramatic monologue is introduced by an epigraphy which is taken from Dante’s Inferno. The voice is talking about itself and it speaks only because it knows that we do not tell anybody.
As the reader starts the lecture of the poem, he can see that the song doesn’t follow the traditional scheme but it is composed by free verse and it is made up by juxtapositions of scene which creates dramatic effect.
In the first scene the intelligent reader soon realizes that what he/she is reading is not a common love song because of the simile in which Prufrock compares the evening to a patient that is about to undergo a painful surgery. In addition there are many personifications, in fact it is not the "retreats" that are "muttering," but it seems like this because they are the kinds of places where you would run into muttering people. Also, the nights aren’t actually "restless"; they make people restless. There is another simile in which twisting streets are compared to a "tedious argument" that makes people lost with confusion, so Prufrock invites the reader not to ask questions.
In the second scene there are verses that are repeated in exactly the same form twice in the poem.
The third scene is characterized by a strong rhythm due to the repetition of words like “yellow” and “window-panes” in these lines the author is speaking about a cat through a turn of phrase. He never says directly that he's speaking about a cat, but the reader can understand it by the narration of the actions.
In the next scene the "faces" are a synecdoche, in fact you don’t go out just to meet a face, you go out to meet the entire person.
In the following scene is repeated again, "In the room the women come and go talking of Michelangelo. "
The following lines clearly express the character of Prufrock and also the main themes of the poetry: indecision and time. The man in spite of he knows that he hasn’t all life in front of him, he refers his decisions, convincing him that he will still have time. After that there is the characterization of Prufrock: his "bald spot" is a repeated symbol of his middle age and his nice clothes are the symbol of his relatively high social class. Eliot's choice of using a middle-aged man is not casual, rather it is generally the central character in Modernism because they reflect on their lives, focusing on consciousness.
In the next scene there is a metaphor in which Prufrock says that the spoons he uses to measure his coffee are like a "measure" of his life. In addition the "dying fall" of voices from another room is an allusion to Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. Therefore, it is ironic, when the voices Prufrock hears are covered up by "music from a farther room."
In the following scene there is another synecdoche, the eyes: they are a part of a person used to stand for the whole person. After all, eyes can’t "formulate," only a thinking person can do that. He uses the metaphor of a scientist examining an insect specimen to describe the way he feels under the gaze of those critical "eyes."
In lines 70-72 Prufrock returns to the setting of the beginning of the poem to give the imagery of a man leaning out of a window and smoking a pipe. Here we have the sad, honest man who realizes the jig is up and can’t even convince himself of his own stories. This Prufrock, who only lets his mask drop for a few lines at a time, is the one who admits that he should have been "a pair of ragged claws".
In the next scene Prufrock confuses the past and the future throughout the poem. In fact though the poem started in the evening, he goes back to the "afternoon," which blend into each other creating boredom and inaction. But some time has passed in the poem, because earlier he was talking about having tea, and now it seems he has already had tea. After that more time is passed in the poem, this time on a larger scale. He comes to realizes that "the moment of my greatness," the moment of his big chance at love, has gone. His best opportunity for happiness is over. Now he only has death, "the eternal Footman," to look forward to.
After that he realized all these things he focuses on his superficial appearance to cover up for the absence of deep feelings and emotions.
In conclusion, the theme of the love song is the continuous postpone and the inability to act because of the fear of changing the equilibrium in ones universe.