Dante Alighieri's Inferno Analysis

An epigraph from Dante Alighieri’s Inferno starts off the poem by T.S. Eliot known as “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.” In Italian the word inferno literally translates to hell. Thus, Inferno is an all too fitting title for the well known work of literature, especially when one takes into consideration that it occurs in the multi-layered and multi-faceted world of Hell. Eliot’s decision to use a section of Dante’s Inferno for his poem’s epigraph, not only leads the reader to believe that the speaker of the poem, J. Alfred Prufrock, cares just as much for his reputation as the speaker of the epigraph, Guido da Montefeltro, but it also suggests that time is much like it is in the depths of hell - everlasting and repetitive. The concept …show more content…
23-34), implies that time is everlasting. It is almost as if the speaker is insinuating that he has an endless amount of time to do that which he needs done. Therefor, why shouldn’t Prufrock be allowed to avoid certain tasks, especially when he could just as easily do them before having his tea? After all, it seems Prufrock believes he lives not in a world of time, but timelessness. To Prufrock, time is a matter that is far from concrete and even aids in his habit of inaction. In all actuality, the notion that the speaker has all the time in the world to do with as he pleases makes perfect sense, as it seems that Prufrock is the poster child for procrastination and yet he is never worried about a lack of time. A prime example of this would be the fact that the speaker has a question to ask the silent auditor of the poem (l. 10) and yet he always manages to make excuses, even stating that “In a minute there is time / For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse” (ll. 47-48). It is easy to see that the speaker of the poem is a master of postponing that which needs to be done. In fact, the speaker even mentions the “question” he must ask the silent auditor of the poem again in line 30 of the stanza mentioned before. However, even then he implies that there will always be time for indecisiveness and procrastination (ll. 32-33). Simply put, the speaker is using this concept of “forever” as a crutch and stalling because he believes his time is endless. Be that as it may, having too much time is never a good thing. In the case of J. Alfred Prufrock, having too much time allows him to constantly give into the temptation of inaction for fear of failure. He fears the answer to his question, and therefor continues to