Analysis of T.S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"
The poem, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," by T.S. Eliot, is a great piece to analyze. Eliot uses many different techniques to get his points across. In this particular poem, Eliot inserts great meaning, and uses a lot of symbolism and imagery to tell the story of J. Alfred Prufrock.
J. Alfred Prufrock constantly lived in fear-the fear of living and the fear of dying. Eliot divides his poem into three uniformly essential sections. The first section being the fear of living, the second section being the awakening, and the third section, the realization that it was all too late. "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," tell a story about a very odd man. Prufrock was a man who essentially is afraid of time and aging. He talks about his balding head in the poem, as if it is a bad reflection on who he really is. Prufrock's fear to live never allowed him to achieve anything However far Prufrock goes, he remains imprisoned in his own subjective space, and all his experience is imaginary. Prufrock is a man who is afraid of doing anything. In the end he desired for a second chance. He wanted a new opportunity in which he could actually live. Prufrock realized that living in fear of death was no way to be living, but by the time he came to that assertion, i!
Throughout the poem, Eliot alludes to death through the use of symbolism. Prufrock mentions that the "evening is spread out against the sky," (2, Eliot) this symbolizes more that just the end of another day; it represents the end of life. Later Prufrock says that there "Will be time to prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet." (27, Eliot) After death a mortician prepares the face of the deceased to meet the faces of those who have come to the viewing. Prufrock mentions the "yellow fog" (15, Eliot).
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