Prufrock knows that in order to succeed in his amorous adventure he needs to wear a mask, to become something other than what he is. Therefore, while the human beings are seen as lifeless robots, non-living and non human things come alive in Prufrock’s imagination. The coffee spoons, representing his evenings spent in the same predictable routine, measure his life and he gets aware of the passage of time through these images. He uses objective images to communicate the emotion of despair, monotony, predictability and littleness. He talks about measuring his life with coffee spoons. Prufrock’s power of imagination is so intense that he can make us visualize the fog as a sentient creature, almost catlike. In this he equates himself to the etherised patient, an image he uses in the beginning to describe the evening. His appearance becomes a matter of fake masquerade and he is worried sick of being looked at and analysed. However, he imagines this very pin to be something with which he is pinned down to a wall. He wears formal dress complete with a tiepin. Interestingly, Prufrock is a well-dressed man. To spit out all the butt-ends of my days and ways? When I am pinned and wriggling on the wall, The eyes that fix you in a formulated phrase,Īnd when I am formulated, sprawling on a pin,
His lack of tact and social skills make him feel exposed and vulnerable: In a way he sees himself as a misfit in this “formulated” world. He feels that people wear masks to camouflage their real intensions. However, He is aware of the monotony and hypocrisy of human social interactions. He is well read and even affluent enough to afford a certain cultivated standard of life. The poem is a struggle between these two personalities, trying to overpower each other till the second one wins and they both “drown”.įrom the way in which Prufrock observes his surroundings and comments on other human actions, it is evident that he is a man of superior sensitivity. The first Prufrock longs to gain his lady’s attention, wishes to swim with the mermaids, is the eternal romantic at heart the second Prufrock is the cautious realist, aware of his growing age, his bald spot on head, his thinning physique, his ordinary mundaneness. It is impossible to say just what I mean! On the other hand, he seeks oblivion and wishes that his tale is never revealed: On one hand he wishes to bare his soul like Lazarus:Ĭome back to tell you all, I shall tell you all These two impulses fuse together to create the complex persona of J. On one hand he wishes to assert himself, to declare his love to the desired woman on the other hand, he wishes to stay silent, descend to some oblivious state where he does not need to act on his desires. Throughout the poem, we find Prufrock oscillating between two kinds of emotions. We get to understand that Prufrock is torn between these two selves, diametrically opposite to each other. However, it gets more evident later that this unknown listener is none other than Prufrock’s other self. There is a presumption made that there is a separate entity, the listener, in the poem. He begins by saying “Let us go then you and I”. Eliot makes Prufrock a speaker, delivering a monologue, to an unknown listener in the poem. Therefore, there is a disparity created at the very beginning by the juxtaposition of a traditional poetic model (a love song) and a prosaic ordinary name. He is representative of every common citizen of an urban metropolis. The name Prufrock immediately gives the impression of an ordinary modern man with mediocre lifestyle. Alfred Prufrock’s love life and his complex anxieties.
The most remarkable aspect of the poem is the character of Prufrock as presented through Eliot’s extraordinary treatment of this dramatic monologue.Īs evident from the poem’s title, the central concern of the poem is J. It is a masterpiece in terms of imagery, stylistic innovation and poetic merit. Alfred Prufrock” is one of the first major poems by T.S.Eliot.
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