"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" by Ts Eliot is a modern journey into and analysis of the mind of a society man, J. Alfred Prufrock. Prufrock is pulled in two opposite directions by his desires: the desire to gain the favor of the woman he admires from afar and the desire to protect himself from rejection. This theme of division and opposites is present throughout the poem, and even the protagonist's name can be seen as an example of this: his surname, "Prufrock", can be read two ways. Read as "Pru-frock", the name suggests a certain weakness; the two words that come to mind are "prudish/prudence" and "reding", which suggest a feminine and restricted character. Read another way, "Pruf-rock", the name suggests a virile and solid character. The poem develops inexorably towards the "overwhelming question", whether or not Prufrock will be able to conquer his fear and take action, to win the favor of the woman in question. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay The opening sentence, in italics, is from "The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri" and says, to paraphrase: "If I knew these words would or could be repeated, I would not say them." This perhaps serves to put the reader in the mood of an explorer, of one who observes without being seen; the last thing Prufrock seems to want is for anyone to know his true feelings, even if as we'll see later he's the one doing the exploring himself. This theme is echoed in the opening lines of the first verse paragraph, when the speaker describes the evening as "...[S]tread out against the sky like a patient etherized on a table;" at first glance, this doesn't seem to make much sense, but consider: for what purpose is one being anesthetized? One is "etherized" for surgery, for dissection, for exploration of the interior. If we consider the poem an exploration of a divided mind, the meaning seems clear. Prufrock's dilemma seems to have come to a head, on an evening in society---and perhaps in the company of his admirer, so I read the two as synonymous---the evening and Prufrock's dilemma. Eliot goes on, in the first paragraph of the verse, to tell us that the message of the poem will not be told to us outright, but will be revealed to us through our observation and study of Prufrock's inner stream of consciousness, when he says "Oh, ask not 'What' is it?'" The same poet/speaker bows out of the scene at the end of the first stanza paragraph, with the phrase "Let us go and make our visit....", and we enter Prufrock's mind. Then we have the line “In the room the women come and go/Talking about Michelangelo.” This sing-song cadence and rhyme suggests a certain inconsequentiality, a banality, which one might imagine is typical of conversation in drawing rooms of any age, and of the conversation of Victorian women in particular. Immediately we get a sense of place and setting. The paragraph in the next verse, about “yellow fog,” seems less clear in meaning. Some of the attributes of a cat are given, which when considered in light of the rest of the poem make sense; a cat is reserved and delicate in behavior and appearance. The smoke, due to its yellow color, can also be understood to represent cowardice, which is certainly appropriate: what the meaning of combining these two images is, I don't entirely understand. Finally, fog is an ephemeral barrier, which only blocks sight; perhaps, to get a little further, the fog represents boundaries that are not actually there, but are perceived as impenetrable; Prufrock, of course, could go beyond the boundaries he has set for himself,if he wanted it. This fits well with a reading of the color as an indication of cowardice, as Prufrock's boundaries or inhibitions can be seen as the product of fear. This image is reported in the paragraph of the next verse, concerning Prufrock's sense of time. Time plays an important role in poetry. Prufrock insists on repeating the phrase "There will be time" over and over again, as a sort of mantra. This too can have a double meaning: on the one hand he sees that there will be enough time to perhaps discover his courage. From a more negative point of view, in which his inaction is a given and immutable fact, time exists as an instrument of his torture. The phrase "Michelangelo" is repeated again after the third line of the paragraph, as if to remind us that time does indeed pass, and Prufrock, after this intrusion from the outside world, continues with his meditation on time, which then continues with further characterization . of man. It is significant that Prufrock's perception of himself as a physical being is first seen through his own eyes---he simply states that he has "a bald spot in the middle of [his] hair" and goes on to describe his clothing, which appears to be more than acceptable, and then, immediately, through the eyes of society. This duality shows us that he is unable to even form a definitive image of himself. He lacks self-confidence, to the point that he projects obsessively his own self-doubts in the private conversations of others, conversations of which he will obviously never know the truth. This suggests that any negative views of Prufrock coming from outside himself may simply be of his own making are based in some way on his experience, it remains indicative of his nature that, when thinking of himself, these negative comments are the first things that come to mind. This illustrates the power of Eliot's stream of consciousness technique, as we see the associations in Prufrock's mind as they arise; the associations give us a deeper understanding of Prufrock's mind than we might gain from other, more traditional narrative forms. In the next verse paragraph, we enter this mind and begin to get a clearer idea of ​​what is holding it back. from what he wants. He says: "I already knew them all then, I knew them all: I knew the evenings, the mornings, the afternoons, I measured my life with coffee spoons"; It seems to indicate a sense of inevitability, if we understand the meaning as meaning that he feels he has known mornings, evenings, etc. of the future as well as the past; here we begin to get to the heart of Prufrock's psyche, the heart of his dilemma, his sense of fatalism: does he see his failure as a foregone conclusion? Or maybe it's just the threat of failure that's holding him back? In this verse paragraph, as well as the next two, in which Prufrock considers the eyes of society and the arms of women, we see another aspect of Prufrock's dilemma that we have already seen, his hyperawareness and concern about his appearance in the eyes of others, emerges once again. I would suggest that Prufrock's hyperawareness of others is what in turn makes him particularly sensitive to others' awareness of him, "The eyes that stare back at you in a formulaic sentence"; the word "formulated" itself has two meanings: the metaphysical sense, following a rigid formula, and the physical sense, infused with formalin, the active component of the chemical formaldehyde, a preservative or "fixative." Eliot then uses an interesting device, the row of dots along the page. This is important! Up to this point, Prufrock has asked questions, most notably “I have thecourage?" "How should I begin?" and "How should I presume?" Eliot then creates a space, separated from the rest of the poem through the use of these dots (the technical name for which, if there is one, not I know), in which Prufrock seems to attempt to answer these questions with a parenthesis to himself. This device seems to suggest an even deeper level of thought in Prufrock's mind, perhaps not immediately available to the consciousness "above"; a Freudian reading, of course, to separateThe section represents a subconscious that operates independently of the normal stream of consciousness. Or perhaps Eliot separates these thoughts from others to show that Prufrock may seriously consider the questions he grapples with in the poem, but does not take them seriously. serious the possibility of arriving at an answer. Indeed, after the mere consideration of an answer, even in a segregated section of his consciousness, he takes an enormously negative turn in his thoughts, when he says: "I should have been a pair of worn-out claws that they ran on the bottom of silent seas. " This image suggests a purely utilitarian form of life, far from all consciousness and most sensory input. It is almost a death wish. Everywhere the slightest hint of response! The next verse paragraph is back in the ordinary, established style of Prufrock's stream of consciousness. It is interesting to note here that the paragraph begins with the word "And;" many of the previous paragraphs have begun with this word, and it seems that the use of this word may be intended to show that the "higher level" of Prufrock's consciousness has remained undisturbed by his brief foray into darker territory; in a sense, the rows of dots, whatever they represent, appear to have worked in the next three paragraphs in verse to discuss the situation he finds himself in more depth , to clarify more fully what it is dealing with. He describes the evening as a peaceful sleep, "Lying on the floor", relaxed and undisturbed; his life, such as it is, isn't that bad2E He has all the comforts of his position, "Tea, cake and ice cream." He goes back and forth, the tension building, as he points out how he has "cried and fasted, cried and prayed"; Obviously, Prufrock has thought long and hard about the matter, as anyone who has cried, fasted, and prayed about such a matter knows. He imagines his failure to have his head carried on a platter à la John the Baptist, and seems to be almost able to accept this outcome, when he says "I'm no great prophet---and it doesn't really matter"; sees his own mortality, "the eternal Knave" which I read as Death---the clue is the capitalization of the word "Knave---" and sums it up with the simple phrase "and in short, I was fear." He continues in the next paragraph to further imagine his attempt and the possibility of failing more explicitly. He mentions again the banalities of his life, which seem to have come to represent his sense of security: these things always have and will always be as they are, unchanged: "The cups, the jam, the tea"; and here we finally get to the heart of the matter itself: "Compressing the universe into a ball/rolling it towards someone." overwhelming question." This sentence suggests to me that his entire existence, his universe, would be contained in the question, and this is true; for a man whose existence as we see it is defined by his indecision, his fear and his uncertainty , to ask --- to discover the truth with certainty --- this existence, or mode of existence, would end with the answer, and this I believe is the most powerful message of the poem: if Prufrock, the Prufrock that we explore in the poem, dissecting layer by layer, if he discovered the answer to his question, everything would cease to exist.