Prufrock Essay, Research Paper

Prufrock

T.S. Eliot & # 8217 ; s & # 8220 ; The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, & # 8221 ; is the interior monlogue of a truly tragic character. It is interesting that Eliot presents the ruin of a adult male in such a light and humerous mode. The beginning of the verse form is really blithe as we see an old adult male seeking urgently to get away the effects of aging. This playful tone is apparent through Eliot s usage of lyrical rime and amusing imagination. As the verse form progresses there is a displacement in tone that reveals a much darker nature. The lyrical rime is interrupted and the sorrowful imagination creates a drab tone. It is the contrast of these two natures that reveal the calamity of Prufrock.

Prufrock is non confident with himself mentally or his visual aspect. He is terrified of what will happen when people see his balding caput or his slim and aging organic structure. He believes everyone will believe he is old and useless. They will speak about him behind his dorsum.

[ They will state: How is hair is turning thin! ]

My forenoon coat, my collar mounting steadfastly to the mentum,

My necktie rich and modest, but asserted by a simple pin & # 8211 ;

[ They will state: “ But how his weaponries and legs are thin! ” ]

This insecurity is decidedly a hinderance for him. It holds him back from making the things he wishes to make. This is the kind of characteristic that makes Alfred into a tragic, doomed character. However, the imagination here is presented in such a manner that the reader can non assist but laugh at Prufrock s preoccupation with his appearrance. It is about inevitable that the reader will visualize an old adult male that is urgently seeking to comb over his bald topographic point and dress the portion of a dashing immature adult male. The rhyme strategy creates a lyrical vocal reminiscent of childhood that allows the reader to happen wit in Prufrock s quandary.

While buoy uping the position of the reader, the rime strategy Eliot uses in this verse form besides depicts the disenchanted and baffled head of the storyteller. The verse form is written utilizing a non-uniform metre and rime. Assorted stanzas are non of unvarying length. This method is used to stand for the temper and feelings in the poetry. By non purely adhering to a signifier, Eliot allows the reader to deduce that possibly this tragic state of affairs should non be taken so earnestly. This abnormality of signifier could besides be a manner to remind the reader that these are the ideas of a adult male. This is Prufrock s interior soliloquy and as it is clear that he is non in the soundest of mindframes it would do sense that this abnormality would be present. His ideas lead to ambiguity such as at the start of the verse form. & # 8220 ; There you go so, you and I, & # 8221 ; This could be mentioning to Prufrock and himself, or Prufrock and his lover. It seems, nevertheless, that it is so himself he is turn toing which once more reminds the reader to stay blithe.

J. Alfred Prufrock & # 8217 ; s self esteem affects his love life greatly. The adult female he is in love with is younger than he is and this distresses him. He does non believe that younger adult females could perchance accept him or happen him attractive. Expressing any sort of fondness to her is awkward and hard. Prufrock knows what he must state but can non convey himself to state it. & # 8220 ; Should I, after tea and bars and ices, / Have the strength to coerce the minute to it & # 8217 ; s crisis. The playful rime makes it so hard for the reader to take his predicament earnestly. This besides becomes humourous as Prufrock does merely that. He

wants greatly to show his fondness but it becomes suppressed within him. He compares himself to Lazarus who was an elderly adult male restored to life by Jesus. He feels that it will take a miracle to do him experience immature once more. Prufrock sees his age as the terminal of his romantic ardor. These quandaries are lay waste toing to him ; they haunt him and overpower him.. He strives to accomplish something that is impossible for him to achieve. The reader finds wit in the torture that Prufrock brings onto himself as he struggles to capture something he would be much happier without.

Prufrock s troubled head finally begins to compare himself to Prince Hamlet which in itself is a pathetic comparing. The reader realizes that he is more similar Polonius before he does. & # 8220 ; No! I am non Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be ; & # 8221 ; This is where he eventually begins to see his folly that the reader has recognized all along. Of class, Eliot has thrown in a few intimations to assist us out. He eventually gives up the pathetic impression of trying to be something he is non, Prince Hamlet, and decides to accept his topographic point in society and unrecorded life the manner he should. It is dry, nevertheless, that it took a comparing to a genuinely tragic character to acknowledge his ain folly.

After that stanza the verse form takes on a more grave tone as he resigns to the realisation that he is in fact an old adult male. The playful rime is interrupted and suddenly broken as he considers the mermaids and decides, I do non believe they will sing to me. Once the reader has reached this point of the verse form they begin to see the calamity of J. Alfred Prufrock. When one considers that after vacating to the fact that he is old and that he does so hold the clip to see, & # 8220 ; Do I make bold? & # 8221 ; and, & # 8220 ; Do I Dare? & # 8221 ; the amusing imagination of & # 8220 ; I have measured out my life with java spoons ; & # 8221 ; begins to darken. His ageless quandary is characterized by his belief that there will be clip to see everything. Suddenly this image reveals his compulsion with the passing of clip alternatively of a cockamamie old adult male propensity over a java can.

Fantasying of a universe where these jobs do non be is a pleasant reverie for Prufrock. He imagines the peaceable universe under the sea.This shows the internal struggle still happening within him. Even though he has overcome his job with his love life, he still has many other concerns to postulate with. The mermaids are singing attractively, but in his sentiment, they can non perchance be singing for him. His insecurity is still present and seems incurable. His fantasy universe is brought to a crashing arrest easy. & # 8220 ; Till human voices wake us, and we drown. & # 8221 ; ( 131 ) His lone felicity can be found in reveries and can be destroyed easy as such. Although giving him impermanent alleviation from the force per unit areas of his life, this dreamlike province is destructing his bosom and merely returning to the existent universe will salvage him.

In Elliot & # 8217 ; s masterpiece & # 8220 ; The Love Song of J.Alfred Prufrock, & # 8221 ; as clip base on ballss so does the human spirit of the storyteller. His bosom decays by the minute. Even within his phantasies he is tortured by the ever-present jobs which plague him throughout his life. He can & # 8217 ; t even see the point in showing his love because of the fright of being rejected. Elliot & # 8217 ; s word picture of the concerns of aging is a major facet incorporated into the verse form. Although Prufrock is a adult male of cognition and society he is still a misfit because of a small characteristic he can make nil about. Age kills us all, but for Prufrock it has already killed him.