Essay on the Loneliness of J. Alfred Prufrock - 1042 Words

The Loneliness of J. Alfred Prufrock In The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, written by T. S. Elliot in 1917, J. Alfred Prufrock makes the reader privy to his innermost thoughts on an evening out. Prufrock wants to lead the reader to an overwhelming question, raising expectations, but he is a bitterly disappointing man; he never asks the question. He lacks self-esteem, women are intimidating to him, and he is too much of a coward to ever be successful with women. The title is The Love Song,, not A Love Song. So whenever Prufrock is around women, he behaves the same way. He always has and always will. Because of his inability to change he will die a lonely man. Courting a woman includes trying to project a positive image of†¦show more content†¦The poem is set in England in 1917, which means World War I is raging across the continent and British soldiers are fighting at the front. So there are serious and meaningful topics for a conversation. Instead talking about the reality of men dying for their country, J. Alfred Prufrock sits with the ladies, engaging in meaningless small-talk, discussing such things as Michelangelo and his art. In short, he is an unattractive man who also shows a weak character and therefor he will have a difficult time finding a partner to share his life with. Another reason J. Alfred Prufrock will not amount to anything, when it comes to women, is the fact that he is intimidated by them. On his way up the stairs he is contemplating turning around but worries what the women will say to each other, when they see him do that: How his hair is growing thin! (41) or But how his arms and legs are thin! (44). Also, womens eyes immobilize him the way an entomologist immobilizes his insects: And when I am formulated, sprawling on a pin, / When I am pinned and wriggling on the wall (57-58). Feeling like a bug will not give him the confidence to come up with a great pick-up line. Throughout the poem, J. Alfred Prufrocks thoughts elaborate about innocent subjects, such as the fog, but when it comes to the womens arms, he digresses quickly. Since the womens skirts ... trailShow MoreRelatedBiography of TS Eliot Essay1599 Words   |  7 Pages1915 also saw Eliots first major publication, when The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock appeared in the June issu e of Poetry, at the insistence of Ezra Pound after several months of hesitation by Harriet Monroe, the magazines editor and founder. This poem was written with a faultless ear for rhythm and in striking images: one might claim, admittedly with some extravagance, that modern poetry begins with the third line of Prufrock. It combined Eliots own insecurity and intense self-consciousnessRead MoreBrief Survey of American Literature3339 Words   |  14 Pagesprinciples in various magazines. Besides, they even published their journal, The Dial (1840-1844). Major Transcendentalist Figures Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) Nature (1836) The American Scholar (1837) Divinity School Address (1838) Essays: First Series (1841) Essays: Second Series (1844) H. D. Thoreau (1817-1862) Walden (1854) â€Å"Civil Disobedience† (1849) Margaret Fuller (1810-1850) Woman in the Nineteenth Century (1845) Editor of The Dial (1840-42) High Romanticism Whitman and Dickinson: