Love Song of J.Alfred Prufrock : Representation of Modern Man Essay

Often called the first Modernist poetry, The Love yell of J. Alfred Prufrock was published in the prestigious Ameri tail journal Poetry in June 1915. About the meter The poem centers on the obtainings and thoughts of the eponymous speaker (the somewhat neurotic Prufrock) as he walks through the streets of London route to piece a cleaning lady for tea. He is considering a question (perhaps, broadly, the meaning of livelihood, or, to a greater extent narrowly, a marriage offer of marriage). Far more than just the love song of a romantic, pain young man, the poem explores the Modernist alienation of the individual in society. Thomas Stearns Eliot, 1888 1965 born(p) into a prosperous Midwestern family, Eliot attended Harvard and then went on to jerk off a line at Oxford. Although born an Ameri send packing, Eliot married an Englishwoman, gave up his American citizenship, and lived most of his life in London. Eliot made his living as a teacher, a banker, and an prestigious lit erary critic. He popularized the modernist style of thinking and writing. In fiction, modernism was stand for by the stark realism of such writers as Ernest Hemingway, but in poetry this new sensibility was quite different. The Imagists, including Eliots close superstar and fellow poet, Ezra Pound, believed in the motto, No ideas but in things, in separate words, the image is most important, the meaning secondary.Modernists embraced free verse (no regular create verbally scheme or meter) and freedom of thought (often their writing questi superstard accepted ideas and amicable norms). This anti-traditional and anti-romantic trend began before World War I how perpetually the rare loss of humanity during the war accelerated the popularization of modernism. The war caused many an(prenominal) people to reexamine their previous beliefs in religion and the innate goods of humankind, and one radical branch of modernism, kn have got as Dada, claimed that the only legitimate feeling le ft was disgust. The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, An OverviewThe entire poem, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock is an inner(a) monologue based on the traditional dramatic monologue, a only speech that often puts into words the speakers inner turmoil, as in crossroadss famous To be or non to be soliloquy. Prufrock often alludes to Shakespeares Hamlet, but admits, I am non Prince Hamlet. He has no such grand illusions. His thoughts and feelings tend to be subdue and full of self-doubt. He worries not about outrageous fortune, as Hamlet does, but about growing senior and being rejected by a woman. Critically Analyzing the poemContrary to what the title implies, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, by T.S. Eliot, is anything but a love song. It is instead quite the opposite. Although the poem is open to several interpretations, after careful reading of the poem, the several be themes can be expressed by one central idea. In the poem, the narrator, J. Alfred Prufrock, portrays his disappointment with the society he lives in. By interpreting aspects of imagery, speaker and mean auditory sense, one can easily assess Prufrocks views of life. His interpretation of mundane life can be described as a vacant, bleak, and repetitive. archeozoic on in the poem, Eliot creates a scene that does not seem really inviting. Prufrock describes his surrounding on an even uping out with phrases that insinuate melancholy and depression. In line 6, Prufrock describes the night as restless and says that the streets are tedious arguments of baneful intent. From this the proof ref can infer a certain discontentedness that Prufrock has with his surroundings.He refers to his, and his companions, destination as one-night cheap hotels and sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells. Even though these descriptions appropriate the reader only approximately 10 lines into the poem, we already yield a feeling of restlessness and dissatisfaction from Prufrock about his life. As the poem continues, the reader is bombarded with even more imagery that conveys Prufrocks discontentment with his surroundings. Prufrock talks of the yellow obliterate that rubs its back upon the window-panes and the yellow pasture that rubs its muzzle on the window panes. He as well mentions the soot that falls from chimneys. Later on in the poem, Prufrock refers to smoke again while describing the streets he is walking on. All this imagery leaves the reader feeling that the place Prufrock is at is dark and hazy and not at all welcoming. Among the feelings that Prufrock expresses in this poem, no feeling comes across more all the way than his feeling of restlessness and wasted time.We get the feeling that Prufrock, who is aging, would do things other than if given another(prenominal) chance. In lines 49-54, Prufrock asserts his overall boredom with life. He says he has known them all already, known them all-have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons. From this we can infer that Prufrock seems to feel as if his life is over and he has no more to offer. He makes statements similar to this end-to-end the poem. He proclaims to have known the eyes that good deal you in a formulated phrase and the arms that are bracleted and duster and bare. We get more of a sense of Prufrocks disillusion of life with his many references to time. In lines 24-34, he claims there is time to meet faces, murder and create, have a 100 indecisions and a hundred visions and revisions.It is not as though Prufrock is doing this in a hopeful manner, though. quite we get the impression that he is reflecting on time as if it is fat only if you take advantage of it and perhaps he feels he did not Another aspect of this poem that is important is the interpretation of it is the speaker and the audience. Although the audience is never clearly identified, several assumptions can be made. It seems as though Prufrock is simply reflecting on life to himself. He makes several statements that would allow a reader to arrive at this conclusion. Throughout the poem, he asks several rhetorical questions of himself. In line 62, he asks and how should I presume?. He asks himself the equal question again in line 68 and then follows with another and how should I begin?. These questions lead the reader to believe that the poem represents Prufrocks inner-thoughts about life. This is important to consider because if the audience was anyone but Prufrock himself, the poem would more than homogeneously take a very different course.Once you get past the initial misconceptions about the poem due to its misleading title, you can easily see that this is a poem about what happens if you do not make the most of your life. Prufrock is a character that we all can fall upon something from. Through an interpretation of this poem, one can assume that even though a persons life may seem to be normal and in fact successful, sometimes that person may have a totally different view of their own l ife. From the poem we can conclude that Prufrocks life was like many others during the time it was written. It talks of parties, drinking, and lovely ladies. This did not, however, bring his happiness. As he aged, Prufrock was left very disenchant with his life. In the end, he discusses how he leave behave in his old age and utmostly describes death as what can be understand as drowning in the sea.The Love song of J. Alfred Prufrock, by T.S. Eliot is about a man who is curious for something to break him for the dull life that he has been leading. In the beginning, the speaker invites us to go with Prufrock and come into his world with the statement let us go then, you and I. Throughout the poem, the reader is following the speaker throughout an evening searching for the acceptance of a woman. Because of his lack of self-assurance, he fails to pay back the meaning and acceptance of his love. Prufrock is a timid man. He is extremely certain of what others think of him and this h as a great effect of his actions. He has problems with speaking what he feels and this is demonstrated when he prepare(s) a face to meet the faces that (he) meet(s). He also extremely self-conscious with his appearance and thinks that people talk about what he looks like and what he wears. Others opinion of Prufrock bothers him so practically so that he does not want to disturb the universe by making an entrance into it.Finally, the last part of the poem, Prufrock shows his final despair in life. He can not bring himself to carve up the woman that he is in love with how he really feels. However, if he ever did decide to tell her, it would come out as a mess. He puzzles himself with no real role in life. He is no Prince Hamlet, nor was he meant to be, but rather an attendant lord, or sometimes the Fool. He hears the mermaids singing, but he thinks I do not think they will sing to me. In the end, Prufrock feels left out of society, and can not find his own place in the universe.As an old man on the beach, looking out into the ocean, he questions if he did the right thing. But he missed everything, all because he was scared. He realizes that he has been living in an imaginary world. When this reality hits him, he drowns soul and all. This poem has always been a favorite of mine because the theme of can apply to the world as a whole. Each of us can sometime find ourselves searching for where we belong in the universe,but are afraid to act on our own desires because of the possible outcomes. In the end, we have to make our move, and not fear rejection so much so that we pass up an opportunity of a lifetime. decisionThe speaker of this ironic monologue is a modern man who, like many of his kind, feels isolated and incapable of decisive action. Irony is apparent from the title, for this is not a conventional love song. Prufrock would like to speak of love to a woman, but he does not have the nerve. The poem opens with a quoted passageway from Dantes INFERNO,If I thought that my reply would be to one who would output to the world, this flame would stay without further movement but since none has ever returned alive from depth, if what I hear is true, I answer you without fear of infamy., marrow that Prufrock speaks only because he knows no one will pay perplexity to him and he wont be heard. Purfrock repeats certain phrases to clue the reader in that they are part of the story. You and I in the first line, project that you must be with him to understand his story