J. Alfred Prufrock longs for happiness in his shallow life. He hopes that finding a woman to marry will provide him with a desirable, exuberant life. In Eliot's poem, Prufrock attends an upper-class party bursting with beautiful women who “come and go, talking of Michelangelo” (Eliot 14). He is aware of their “arms that are braceleted and white and bare”, but he refrains from talking to them (63). He remains on the sidelines, contributing nothing to his success, and wallowing in a pool of insecurity.
Jake Barnes is not as ambitious. He does not want happiness, rather, he just wants to …show more content…
The sand that he walks upon represents the sterility of his generation and the distant water represents life. He is far from the water because, like his generation, he is not living with passion and vigor. He is essentially lifeless. He hears mermaids singing off in the distance, “riding seaward” (126). These women of fable are a symbol for religion, a disputable topic for many of Prufrock’s generation. People used to “linger in the chambers of the sea”, but they no longer can, because the “human voices wake us, and we drown” (129) (131). Eliot is describing the comfort and structure religion once provided to so many; it gave them life. The misery Prufrock’s generation is experiencing is due to the human voices; or the secular, materialistic modern world. Science woke people from dreamy religion, and now it is not so easy for them to have faith. He is letting the modern world tear him apart, rather than curling up his lip and pushing forward to find happiness. Prufrock is not likely to succeed in his