Do I dare to eat a peach? If one, settling a pillow by her head At this point, Prufrock almost seems to have raised his spirits enough to attempt to speak to the women at the center of the poem. A Character Analysis of J. Alfred Prufrock In “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” T. S. Eliot uses imagery, language and metaphor to present Prufrock as a brooding, indecisive and vain man who is unwilling to do the things that would make his life more meaningful. For example, in lines seventy-three and seventy-four, the poet uses perfect iambic pentameter. Eliot skillfully created lines, many of which are cut off or stopped short, in which the speaker tries to put his feelings into words but is unable to finish his sentences. T.S. After the novels, after the teacups, after the skirts that trail along the floor— Is it perfume from a dress That makes me so digress? By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown (They will say: “How his hair is growing thin!”) Eliot started writing ‘Prufrock’ in 1910. Eliot started writing "Prufrock Among the Women" in 1909 as a graduate student at Harvard. ‘I have measured out my life with coffee spoons’, implies a solitary, workaholic existence, implies that there is no other marker in his life with which to measure, that he is routine and fastidious and not prone to making decisions outside of his comfort zone. And I have known the eyes already, known them all— The eyes that fix you in a formulated phrase, And when I am formulated, sprawling on a pin, When I am pinned and wriggling on the wall, Then how should I begin To spit out all the butt-ends of my days and ways? T.S Eliot’s “Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” is representative of the modernist literary canon through its exploration of the speaker’s personal feelings of anxiety and stagnation. The Lovesong of J.Alfred Prufrock, depicts the fragility and futility of the human existence through Prufrock’s anxious and uncertain thoughts. What's your thoughts? Critics are divided as to the symbolism of the yellow smog. In the room the women come and go Thanks for your feedback. It is a masterpiece in terms of imagery, stylistic innovation and poetic merit. It could have been replaced with a hundred other things, and the effect would have still been the same: Prufrock is external to the conversation, external to the world, and the conversation therefore is reduced to nothing more than a word. ‘Do I dare / Disturb the universe?’ asks Prufrock, and then reassures himself again that ‘in a minute, there is time’, once more giving his decision a sense of heightened anxiety. The metaphor has, in a sense, been hollowed out to be replaced by a series of metonyms, and thus it stands as a rhetorical introduction to what follows.” Metonym, according to Terry Eagleton, is the sum of parts – in this poem, the ‘cat’ that is made by the yellow fog is fragmented and ghostly. And how should I presume? To have bitten off the matter with a smile, J. Hillis Miller had an interesting point to make about the temporality of Prufrock, and whether or not Prufrock actually manages to make himself go somewhere. To swell a progress, start a scene or two, Should I, after tea and cakes and ices, Have the strength to force the moment to its crisis? And how should I begin? And the afternoon, the evening, sleeps so peacefully! And in short, I was afraid. The poem reflects modern delusional thought’s through Prufrock on how the ancient society forced people to live meaningless lives and allow other’s opinion to dominate their thoughts. Beneath the music from a farther room. And I have seen the eternal Footman hold my coat, and snicker, For example, “But as if a magic lantern threw the nerves in patterns on a screen” and “Streets that follow like a tedious argument / Of insidious intent.”. I grow old … I grow old … The eyes that fix you in a formulated phrase, But as if a magic lantern threw the nerves in patterns on a screen: Would it have been worth while If one, settling a pillow or throwing off a shawl, And turning toward the window, should say: “That is not it at all, That is not what I meant, at all.”. It is considered one of the quintessential works of modernism, a literary movement at the turn of the 20th century that emphasized themes of alienation, isolation, and the diminishing power of the traditional sources of authority. Literary Analysis of The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock The human psyche has perpetually been characterized by a nagging sense of doubt. 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