Prufrock

The title of this poem is the first clue in which Eliot provides a characteristic of modernism. The title “suggest the kind of irony that is so typical of modern free verse” (Evans) as “love song” (Byam 822) and “J. Alfred Prufrock” (Byam 822) do not seem to fit in the same line of words. Along with the title, the epigraph, which “portrays a man in hell” (Güven 80), who “reveals details of his life” (Evans). He believes his words won’t be repeated on Earth. In the same way, the reader is entering a “kind of private hell” (Evans) as they hear Prufrock’s thoughts. The reader learns how Eliot takes Prufrock’s arrival, hesitation, and failure to explain modern man during the time period. In the beginning lines, “Let us go then, you and I” (Baym 822), there are two people present. “I” must be Prufrock, so “you” is the reader. From the epigraph and understanding the reader is in Prufrock’s thoughts, lines two and three, “When the evening is spread out against the sky/ Like a patient etherized upon a table,”(Byam 822) set the mood of how Prufrock feels. Lines five and six paint a picture of busy city streets lined with “cheap hotels” (Baym 822) and “sawdust resturants” (Baym 822). Eliot paints this image as a way to “critize modern urban life” (Güven 82). This begins the “visit” (Baym 822) that Prufrock refers to as he imagines them going to a party. Prufrock’s arrival to the party can be seen as Eliot’s way of criticizing society as well as welcoming “the topic of women and sexuality” (Evans). Prufrock criticizes society as “the women come and go/ Talking of Michelangelo”(Baym 822), and he is nothing compared to him. It is also suggested that Prufrock is uncomfortable around the women, despite the fact he seeks for their love and affection. Eliot also uses the “yellow fog” (Byam 822) as both a physical and mental aspect. The physical aspect suggests air pollution, for this was a time when industry was growing due to World War I. The mental aspect relates to Prufrock as he is at the party mentally, but not physically. This can be seen in lines fifteen and sixteen, “The yellow fog rubs its back upon the window-panes/ The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window-panes” (Byam 822). The reader and Prufrock prepare for the struggle to conserve. Once the reader and Prufrock arrive to the party, the struggle of fitting in as well as talking to the women begin. Between lines twenty-three and twenty-six, the phrase, “There will be time” (Byam 823) is repeated multiple times. Prufrock struggles with his appearance. “He feels insecure” (Güven 82) and questions what the other guests …show more content…
Eliot repeats the phrase “Do I dare?” (Byam 823) and “Do I dare/ Disturb the universe?”(Byam 823). He is afraid of failure as well as having to “confront society” (Güven 83). There is no solution in modern writing as it is supported in lines seventy-three and seventy-four, “I should have been a pair of ragged claws/ Scuttling across the floors of silent seas” (Byam 824). The reader can see that Prufrock rather not be seen, yet still there. At the same time, however, Prufrock continues to question if he should make conversation or come to terms of being lonely forever. This is an example of how the search for the meaning is more important than the meaning