Prufrock Figurative Language

One of the earliest examples of figurative language is seen in line 3 of the poem. "Like a patient etherized upon a table" represents the opening invitation the speaker offers to the reader allowing them to experience the numb feeling of reality that he constantly feels. By continuing reading we have accepted a dreadful trip cloaked as a date. We begin by looking at the evening "spread out across the sky," being a simile for the speakers sense of helplessness. Now that the reader has entered Prufrock's world, or more so his hell, they must experience the same pain, insecurity, and doubt as him. Eliot uses imagery to enhance his initial simile with "half- deserted streets," "muttering retreats," and "sleepless nights." It’s not the "retreats" that are "muttering," but it seems that way because they are the kinds of places where you would run into muttering people. Also, the nights aren’t actually "restless," but they make people …show more content…
Eliot speaks of how Prufrock has "measured out" his life "with coffee spoons." In its figurative use, Prufrock seeks to make the truth about his life clear. That his life has been reduced to something so feeble such as measuring out through spoons of coffee. Eliot uses figurative language to convey how it feels to live in this setting. Prufrock is open about how he feels "trapped" in this society, with his only escape being death. Eliot uses figurative language to describe his experience of being "pinned." The speaker is not literally "pinned" to any object. Yet, there is an unexplainable feeling that happens in the modern setting when individuals are forced to see themselves through the eyes of "the other." There is a loss of freedom, a loss of identity, where people are "pinned and wriggling." Personifying a worm, resulting in dehumanization, as well as an allusion to death; the worms that help to decompose the