Apathetic Tone in "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" T.S Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" tells the sad tale of a man who has accomplished little in life but wearing "rich" clothing and procrastinating. Eliot employs a myriad of literary devices to convey the dull routineness of Prufrock's life, but the absolutely apathetic tone of the narrator is what really drives home just how passive he is about his own life.
The entire poem is nothing but an aside to help Prufrock avoid actually telling the readers anything relevant about his life, although through his unenthusiastic commentary readers are able to infer a great deal about him. Everything learned about Prufrock is learned not from his declarations of "knowing", but from the way he makes his coffee "I have measured out my life with coffee spoons" (Eliot 51); and the way he debates whether or not to change his diet even the slightest bit "Do I dare eat a peach?" (Eliot 122); to the way he admires the women passing by and chatting "In the room the women come and go/ talking of michelangelo"(Eliot 13-14), but never actually speaks to them. All this reveals a great deal more about his life than his tale of walking "through certain half-deserted streets...Streets that follow like a tedious argument/ of insidious intent" (Eliot 4-8) late at night. …show more content…
Not once does Prufrock actually do anything in the entire poem. All around him, people move while he stands still. Even the cat-like yellow fog has more movement than Prufrock, making sudden leaps and curling around houses. The only action Prufrock has comes at the very end of the poem, when he drowns, which is an eloquent metaphor describing the way he sinks, immobile, while around him the mermaids - the rest of society - continue their singing far above. The sea metaphor quite aptly describes how distant and separate Prufrock feels from other
The entire poem is nothing but an aside to help Prufrock avoid actually telling the readers anything relevant about his life, although through his unenthusiastic commentary readers are able to infer a great deal about him. Everything learned about Prufrock is learned not from his declarations of "knowing", but from the way he makes his coffee "I have measured out my life with coffee spoons" (Eliot 51); and the way he debates whether or not to change his diet even the slightest bit "Do I dare eat a peach?" (Eliot 122); to the way he admires the women passing by and chatting "In the room the women come and go/ talking of michelangelo"(Eliot 13-14), but never actually speaks to them. All this reveals a great deal more about his life than his tale of walking "through certain half-deserted streets...Streets that follow like a tedious argument/ of insidious intent" (Eliot 4-8) late at night. …show more content…
Not once does Prufrock actually do anything in the entire poem. All around him, people move while he stands still. Even the cat-like yellow fog has more movement than Prufrock, making sudden leaps and curling around houses. The only action Prufrock has comes at the very end of the poem, when he drowns, which is an eloquent metaphor describing the way he sinks, immobile, while around him the mermaids - the rest of society - continue their singing far above. The sea metaphor quite aptly describes how distant and separate Prufrock feels from other