The Love song of Alfred Prufrock
"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" is about the life story of asingle character in his middle age, who is rather fearful of holdingrelationships. The epigraph is an emotional speech taken from Dante's"Inferno" that describes Prufrock's nature in depth. Prufrock describes hisemotional state as being in a "hell," of his own feelings. The firstforty-eight lines of the poem show the single character thinking of hisisolated identity. He is a lover, but he doesn't have the confidence tocommit his love to anyone special. In the poem, he refers to himself byusing both "you and I" in line 1, walking the lonely walk on the city's sadstreets. He notices the foggy evening coming down on him, as he begins togrow more and more hesitant, but he doesn't decide at the moment when hewonders, "should a middle-aged man even think of making a proposal oflove'" This is evident in "Do I dare / Disturb the universe'" he asks. From lines 49-110, Prufrock he tries to strike a balance between his desireand his doubt. His doubt is more profound in lines 87-110,
The entire poem shows the struggle ofPrufrock trying to find love and how he is so gutless when it comes to theopposite sex. " [Lines 124-125] "Now confidential: T. Eliot, for whom you know my profoundadmiration--I think he's the greatest living poet in any language--wrote mehe read [The Great] Gatsby three times and thought it was the first stepforward American fiction had taken since Henry James. Prufrock acceptsthat he cannot fall in love but then he tries to find ways to compensatefor his isolation. Eliot uses rich imagination andsuperb poetic words, to create Prufrock's explanation of his memories,experiences and his feelings that are written in ways to make poem come tolife. ScottFitzergerald, to Maxwell Perkins, 20 Feb. Prufrock uses moretwisty language, in representing his sentiments when it comes to hisrelationships with women. were he feelsthat he would look stupid if he were to propose to a lady who never thoughtof him in the same way as a lover. Hespends his whole life trying to find love, but he is unable to declare hisfeelings to a woman because he simply cannot trust women. Theunfinished statement "I am Lazarus, come from the dead/ come back to tellyou all, I shall tell you all-. "I haveheard the mermaids singing, each to each. This is evidentin lines 124 and 125, in which he refers to the "mermaids singing".
Common topics in this essay:
Love Song,
Dante's Inferno,
TS Eliot,
Alfred Prufrock,
Maxwell Perkins,
entire poem,
love song,
relationships women,
trying love,
single character,
mermaids singing,
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Acceptance Essays
