The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock demonstrates the effects of social and economic pressure in the life of a Victorian man. T. S. Eliot shows us, in an ironic monologue, how the reality of age and social position paralyzes his character with fear. The poem opens with six lines from Dante s Infernio. This particular stanza explains that the speaker is in hell and the message can only be told to someone else in hell. The speaker tells us that it is OK for the listener to hear the message, since in order to hear you must already be in hell and no one ever returns from there.
So the message will never leave. I believe Eliot uses this message to infer that only a reader who understands the loneliness and desperation of Prufrock can truly understand the poem. However, in my research, I have found as many different interpretations of the poem as I have found readers. Most agree; however, that Prufrock is speaking to the reader when he says you and I (Line 1). Many readers also agree that Prufrock is a lonely man, but what type of company he desires seems to vary greatly. Interpretations include sex, social company, long term love, and even death.
I believe Prufrock yearns for the sense of belonging, both with a female and with his society. He struggles with issues of sex, age and social change. The beginning lines of the poem(1-25) paint for a very descriptive picture of the street where Prufrock is walking. It also alerts the reader of Prufrock s distaste for this area and this society. He describes it as have deserted, muttering. one-night cheap hotels and sawdust restaurants . (5-7) He contrasts that with his destination of a room where women come and go/Talking of Michelangelo (13&14).
Prufrock doesn t give the reader much insight into his houghts until line 26. From this line forward, we get a glimpse of what it must be like to be Prufrock. He tells us There will be time, there will be time/ To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet (27-28), indicating repression. He must prepare himself mentally to be able to put on the correct social image before he makes his visit (12). The rest of the poem simply reinforces his struggle between the way he would like to be and the reality of his life.
He begins to ponder the overwhelming question (11) of whether or not he could have a romantic interlude ith one of the ladies he is gong to visit, but the socially acceptable and slightly neurotic side of him emerges and he quickly switches his thoughts to his thinning hair. I believe he is trying to gather the courage to approach one of these ladies (42-43&45-46) but looses the courage as quickly as it came to him. He then laments about his indecision and lack of courage, in a minute there is time/ For decision and revisions with a minute will reverse.
The theme of Prufrock s fickle thoughts run throughout the poem, as illustrated in his confidence about his outfit and taste, hen just the next line he his back to the insecurity about his age But how his arms and legs are thin. (45) Prufrock goes on to tell the reader of his experience I have known them all–/Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons, (50) describing the stages of his life from his youth through his young adulthood to his present state, as a middle aged man. He feels the age and eventual death of not only himself but of the society he is a part of. He hears voices dying…..
Beneath the music from a farther room (52-53), and realizes that he is at the end of his ime. I think he realizes that he is not a member of the modern society, nor am I sure he wants to be. But he does feel that he is watched like a specimen formulated, sprawling on a pin (57). But unlike a bug in a bug collection, he is still alive and tortured wriggling on the wall (58). He realizes that his customs are a part of the past, but he is unable to see the way to move on. He thinks perhaps he should spit out the butt-ends of my days and ways (60) but realizes he wouldn t know how to resume life in the new world And how should I presume? (61).
