“The Love Song of J.
Alfred Prufrock” p. 2364
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Overview |
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Stream-of-consciousness technique
dissects the mind/personality of speaker |
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Speaker is a weak, self-conscious man,
isolated and incapable of decisive action |
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Speaker embodies dilemmas of the modern
self |
Title
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Irony of title |
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Contrast between romantic image (“love
song”) and unromantic name of protagonist |
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Poem features protagonist’s isolation
and inability to love |
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“Love Song” implies communication to
another, but poem is an interior monologue |
Epigraph
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From Dante’s Inferno |
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Damned spirit reveals his crimes |
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Implies Prufrock is stuck in internal
“hell” |
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Prufrock recognizes the futility of his
confession |
Dramatic Monologue— “You
and I”
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Interior monologue—speaker addresses
himself |
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“You”: Id, instinctual self |
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“I”: Ego, rational self |
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Descent into speaker’s subconscious |
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An imagined conversation with another
person |
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Invitation to a tea party |
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Perhaps addressed to a lady for a
“date” |
Dramatic Monologue— “You
and I”
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An address directly to the reader |
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Prufrock mirrors the modern self |
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Invitation to self-examination |
Setting
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Prufrock’s mind |
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Stream-of-consciousness imagery reveals
Prufrock’s thoughts and personality |
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The modern city (lines 4-22) |
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City imagery suggests emptiness,
obscurity, purposelessness of modern, urban man |
Setting
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A tea party (real or imaginary)
(starting at line 13) |
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Trivial chit-chat on great topics
suggests modern isolation—inability to establish relationships/ communication
of substance |
Narrative Action (or
Inaction!)
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Prufrock considers taking action,
making an effort to communicate, and simultaneously procrastinates (lines
1-72) |
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Afraid of rejection, Prufrock withdraws
and rationalizes his inability to act (lines 73-131) |
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Imagery
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Paralysis—impotence, frustration of
modern self |
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Descent/withdrawal—interiority,
isolation of modern self |
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Dismemberment/disembodiment—fragmentation,
superficiality of modern identity |
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Great heroes—modern self’s incapacity
for heroic action |
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“Prufrock” on the
Internet
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To see an interactive “hypertext” of T.
S. Eliot’s poem, click here: http://www.cs.amherst.edu/~ccm/prufrock.html |
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The hypertext links the loosely
associated images of Eliot’s text to related websites on the Internet |