T.S. Eliot - the Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock and Preludes - Modernism

The first stanza introduces Prufrock’s isolation, as epitomized metaphorically by “half-deserted streets” (4): while empty streets imply solitude, Eliot’s diction emphasize Prufrock having been abandoned by the other “half” needed for a relationship or an “argument” (8). Hoping for a companion, Prufrock speaks to the reader when

Poetry can sometimes allow one to explore the unknown. However, in some works of poetry, one can realise that some known ideas or values remain relevant to current society. This is certainly applicable to T.S. Eliot’s poems, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock and Rhapsody on a Windy Night. Eliot’s manipulation of poetic techniques in both these poems allows the responder to realise that some ideas prevail in both modern and post-modern society. These poems explore the unknown phenomena of the obscurity regarding the purpose and meaning of life. This unknown phenomena causes the persona in both texts to resort to a sense of isolation or alienation. Eliot uses poetic techniques such as metaphors and personification to convey his ideas.

American born poet, T.S. Eliot reflects modernistic ideas of isolation, individual perception and human consciousness in his many poems. His poems express the disillusionment of the post–World War I generation with both literary and social values and traditions. In one of Eliot’s most famous poems, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” which was published in 1915, a speaker who is very unhappy with his life takes readers on a journey through the hell he is living in. In this journey, Prufrock criticizes the well-dressed, upstanding citizens who love their material pleasures more than they love other people, while explaining he feels ostracized from the society of women. Eliot’s use of isolation, human consciousness and individual perception is quite evident in his dramatic monologue within the story of J. Alfred Prufrock. Prufrock wants to be seen as a normal citizen who can find friends or a lover, but his anxiety-driven isolation forces him to live a life that relates more to Hell than paradise. In over examining every fine detail of his life, Prufrock perceives himself as useless and even a waste of life. By using many poetic devices including repetition, personification, and imagery Eliot drives readers to feel the painful reality of Prufrock’s life. In “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” T.S Eliot uses modernistic ideas and poetic devices to portray how Prufrock’s life relates to Hell while simultaneously criticizing social aspects of the younger post–World War I generation.

In line 57, Prufrock refers to himself as “sprawling on a pin.” This is a reference to the practice of sticking pins through live insects and watching them squirm, which was a common amusement for children at the time (Napierkowski 122). By establishing this comparison between Prufrock and an insect, Eliot describes the scrutiny that Prufrock believes himself to be under by relating it to a familiar, yet morbid childhood pastime. Not only does Prufrock feel the sting of a puncture wound that he is wriggling to be free of, but he is under the lens of his captors, painfully self aware and self conscious. The idea of “sprawling on a pin” also implies that Prufrock sees himself as a mere insect, a pest, lacking human capacities of expression.

T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” is an ironic depiction of a man’s inability to take decisive action in a modern society that is void of meaningful human connection. The poem reinforces its central idea through the techniques of fragmentation, and through the use of Eliot’s commentary about Prufrock’s social world. Using a series of natural images, Eliot uses fragmentation to show Prufrock’s inability to act, as well as his fear of society. Eliot’s commentary about Prufrock’s social world is also evident throughout. At no point in the poem did Prufrock confess his love, even though it is called “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”, but through this poem, T.S. Eliot voices his social commentary about the world that

By looking through a critical lens at T Stearns Eliot’s poetry in light of his 20th century, modernist context, much is revealed about his personal and the rapidly evolving societal beliefs of that era. Through his repeating motif of time and fragmentation throughout his poems, Eliot reveals the prevalent feelings of isolation while in society along with the need to hide one’s feelings and emotions in this degrading society. His exploration of the use of ambiguity and stream of consciousness by Eliot, which is a characteristic of modernist artists, allows his work to resound over decades while being interpreted and differently understood by every audience that encounters them.

Message of Hope in Eliot's The Waste Land, Gerontion, and The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

T.S Eliot's The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock is an examination of human insecurity and folly, embodied in the title's J. Alfred Prufrock. Eliot's story of a man's "overwhelming question", his inability to ask it, and consequently, his mental rejection plays off the poem's many ambiguities, both structural and literal. Eliot uses these uncertainties to develop both the plot of the poem and the character of J. Alfred Prufrock.

T.S. Eliot’s poem “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” is inhabited by both a richly developed world and character and one is able to categorize the spaces in “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” to correspond to Prufrock’s mind. Eliot uses the architecture of the three locations described in the text to explore parts of Prufrock's mind in the Freudian categories of id, ego, and super-ego; the city that is described becomes the Ego, the room where he encounters women his Id and the imagined ocean spaces his Super Ego.

The first setting is the sky described “Like a patient etherized upon a table” (line 3). This meaningful illustration can also be used to describe Prufrock’s current dilemma. His hesitance causes his inability to act just as a patient would be if he or she was etherized or desensitized. Eliot’s depiction of the city is also done in a creatively, symbolic way. In “An overview of ‘The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’”, Marisa Pagnattaro states that the setting contains a “seductive feline tone”. He uses personification to give a yellow fog catlike qualities such as “Licked its tongue into the corners of the evening / Lingered upon the pools that stand in drains” (Eliot 17-18). This enticing mood is used to pair with the women that Prufrock is interested in. T.S. Eliot ends his poem with another use of imagery by saying “Combing the white hair of the waves blown back / When the wind blows the water white and black” (Eliot 127-28). This detailed description of Prufrock’s fantasy helps the readers visualize what he desires. It is also ironic to see how different his whimsical dream is to his lonesome

The poem ‘Preludes’ portrays women in a very different light to ‘Prufrock’ and ‘Portrait of a Lady’. In ‘Preludes’ Eliot draws influence from Baudelaire who wrote about ‘the more sordid aspects of the modern metropolis,’ and it would seem that in ‘Preludes’ women can almost be included in these ‘sordid aspects.’ Eliot talks about a woman in the third stanza of the poem, and it would appear that the woman is a prostitute. Writing about a prostitute, he presents to us a more sordid side of women. In ‘Preludes’, Eliot’s view is almost degrading and at times Eliot presents an ashamed tone when he says “The thousand

Eliot is not solely criticising modern life in the poem, it also serves as a reflection of Eliot’s social context and his own life, a product of its time.

The poem with enduring value. The fragmented structure and irregular rhyme scheme describes the fractured reality of metropolitan life. The opening images, personification of ‘winter evening settl[ing] down’ presents an impersonal city, as the melancholic connotation of ‘winter’ reveal the alienation and vacancy of its residents. This is reinforced through the use of enjambment ‘gusty showers/grimy craps/lonely cab-horse,’ illustrating the confused and tangled city that the persona inhabits. The ‘newspapers from vacant lots’ symbolically reflect upon the vacancy of the society to which Critic Jon Hanrahan adds Eliot’s protagnists struggle with spiritual insufficiency and a failure to make authentic connections with others’ An absence of affection and love bonds between humans is shown through the use of heavy sexual imagery and connoatations of a courtesan awating her clents as she laid upon her back and waited,’ reflecting on the ‘thosand sordid imges/of which her sol is constituted,’ the hyperbole reducing her soul into n entity of lust, sybollicallt manifesting her loneliness. As the pem concludes the revolving warth is compared to ‘ancient women’ metaphorically’ gathering fuel in cacant lots’, the paradoxical statement conveying the persuit for human warmth. Therefore my personal perception and

            I think this style of writing is also a reflection of Eliot's feelings about the time.  Eliot was more of a Modernist than Victorian poet and as such held to beliefs like: there is no higher power in the universe, man is alone on this planet to govern his own affairs, everyone is truly alone, there is no unity, no support, for we live in a godless heartless world (Stacey Donohue).  The floating, confusing, jumbled mix of emotions and directions in this poem mirrors the modernist image of society.

Every day this summer from 8:30 to 6:10, I would pull into the Belmont Trading Company parking lot and double park my Nissan Altima in the exact same spot, greet the underpaid security guard, and sit down at my desk for the next nine hours as I reset and tested a consistent 200 phones per day. We had the monthly birthday celebration; our boss would read off names that only Eastern Europeans can pronounce. This monotonous labor went on for about three months. Although my job was mind-numbing, it is nothing compared to what the characters in “Preludes” experience, or more fitting, don’t experience. In T.S Eliot’s poem “Preludes”, Eliot seems to claim that urban life takes away one's individuality. This is displayed through Eliot's diction, the portrayal of characters, and the progression of time in the poem.