Breslin

mind and have less to do with the people around him. The issue of his fate leads Prufrock to an "overwhelming question..."(10) which is never identified, asked, or answered in the poem. This "question" is associated somehow to his psyche, but both its amb

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" Unfortunately for Prufrock, it will take a miracle to make him either younger or give him the knowledge he seeks. In fact, in his dream sequence at the end when he imagines how his life might end up, he envisions himself as an ocean creature, surrounded by mermaids "Till human voices wake us, and we drown. ") which suggests that Prufrock fears that he will in fact not have time for love before the prime of his life is over. The head is detached from the crab, and the lines are detached from the poem in their own stanza, much like Prufrock wishes his self-consciousness would just "detach" itself. He thinks "I should have been a pair of ragged claws/ Scuttling across the floors of silent seas. Prufrock's connection to nature and the cycle of life is also an important factor in understanding his state of mind. His obsession with the passage of time is characterized by its repetition throughout the poem, especially the beginning of the poem. However, his insecurities are related to his agin!

g and the passage of time, so he is truly a tragic, doomed character. To interject a little history: Eliot wrote this poem during a time in which social customs, especially in Europe, were still a very important issue. This concept is echoed in the very next stanza when he says, "Though I have seen my head (grown slightly bald) brought in/ upon a platter,"(83), an allusion to the beheading of John the Baptist by Princess Salome. He wishes to himself, instead, that he could be a mindless crab, scurrying around the bottom of the ocean; another example of Prufrock's impression of his position in the natural world - rarely comparing himself to real people.

Common topics in this essay:
Inferno Eliot, Unfortunately Prufrock, Twelfth Night, Coy Mistress, Mother Nature, Princess Salome, Prince Hamlet, God Adam's, Ironically Prufrock, Love Song, throughout poem, fate life, beginning poem, unfortunately prufrock, doomed character prufrock, john baptist, natural world, life prufrock, eliot creates, poem remains, suggests prufrock,

Approximate Word count = 2037
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)

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