Alfred Prufrock Allusions

The Love Song of Alfred J. Prufrock by T.S. Elliot has many traditional modernist elements. One of the most noticeable elements in this poem is the element of multiple allusions drawing from many different sources. In order to understand many of the allusions, the reader would have to be well read or at least knowledgeable of world events, history, biblical references and folklore. The first allusion in this passage is a scientific reference to early anesthesia, which was preformed by using ether, a type of gas to put the patient to sleep. The speaker says that “you and I” should “go …When the evening is spread out against the sky / Like a patient etherised upon a table…” The allusion makes the metaphor of the spread out patient to the night “spread out” before them, that is, a night where anything could possibly happen. Next, Prufrock makes an allusion to women who “come and go” talking of Michelangelo. Michelangelo, a sculptor and painter, made many famous works for the church in Vatican City and also in Rome. The women are talking about Michelangelo’s works, which contain “perfect specimens” of beauty, which Prufrock feels he can never live up to. This short …show more content…
The mermaid achieved this either by drowning or, in other stories; eating the sailors in an act that is similar to the concept of cannibalism. Prufrock states: “I do not think that they will sing to me,” further suggesting his low self esteem; he does not even think himself worthy to be killed by such a beautiful creature. The suggestion of fantastical creatures such as the mermaid and the reference to drowning when awakened by human voices suggest that Prufrock feels like he is “drowning” in everyday life and he must escape into fantasy and “linger… in the chambers of the sea/ By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown,” to feel an escape from the person he is in real