12 AP English/Burnett
“The Love Song of J.Alfred Prufrock” T.S. Eliot
Prepare to discuss the following analytical questions pertaining to the poem in a Socratic
Seminar.
1. Prufrock says he sees lonely men leaning out of windows. How does Prufrock know they
are lonely? Is it possible that he misinterprets their state of mind? Is this interpretation
important to the poem?
2. Do you believe Prufrock suffers from a psychological affliction, such as paranoia,
depression, or obsessive-compulsive disorder? Or is he simply suffering from humanity?
Explain your answer.
3. Discuss Prufrock's psyche.
4. Why do you suppose T.S. Eliot began the poem with the epigraph taken from Dante’s
Inferno? How is the damned soul speaking his secrets from the flames of hell in a similar
situation to J. Alfred Prufrock? How is the audience of that damned soul (Dante's
persona) in a similar situation to the audience listening to J. Alfred Prufrock's frantic
confessions?
5. In the opening line, the speaker states, "Let us go then, you and I." Who is the you here?
(Several possibilities).
6. Prufrock compares the sunset to a "patient etherised upon a table." Why do you suppose
Prufrock would compare a sunset to a hospital patient who has been anesthetized and is
waiting for an operation? Is this consistent or inconsistent with the rest of the poem?
7. In the second stanza, there are two lines that are disjointed from the earlier stanza. Here,
Prufrock's mind appears to flash to a different location, where the "women come and go /
Talking of Michelangelo." What is the importance of these repeated lines to the poem? If
the women are spending all their time talking about high Renaissance art, how must their
situation and their location be different from Prufrock's current place of wandering?
8. What is the yellow fog compared to in a simile? How is the fog like such a creature?
What atmosphere is created by this simile?
9. What does Prufrock mean when he says, "There will be time, there will be time / To
prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet"? What is Prufrock trying to say?
10. Prufrock says "there will be time to murder to create." Is he being literal here? Or does
this connect with the earlier passage about "preparing a face?" Or does it connect with the
latter passage about "a hundred indecisions, / And for a hundred indecisions"?
11. After the fifth stanza which flashes back to the room of women, the sixth stanza has
Prufrock asking, "Do I dare?" and "Do I dare?" What is that Prufrock is daring himself to
do? Why is he so frightened?
12. Prufrock reassures himself that there will be "Time to turn back and descend the stair."
What does he mean by this (what can he do if he changes his mind)? Why do you
suppose T. S. Eliot chooses the verb descend rather than ascend?
13. What physical features causes Prufrock anxiety as he imagines going down the stairs?
What does he imagine people will say about him? Is this consistent with how you have
characterized his psyche?
14. Discuss Prufrock’s plea, "Do I dare / Disturb the universe?" Is it possible that one thin,
balding, aging, hesitant, man disturb the entire universe?
15. Discuss Prufrock’s assessment that, "I have measured out my life in coffee spoons."
16. Discuss Prufrock’s claim that he has already known the "eyes that fix you in a formulated
phrase"? How does this phrase express a sense of being trapped? Of alienation?
17. Prufrock imagines people's eyes stabbing through his body and impaling him to the wall
where he wriggles as people examine him--why would Prufrock use this imagery from
bug-collecting? How is appropriate or inappropriate?
18. How do you interpret Prufrock's protest that he is not "Prince Hamlet"? Why is it ironic
or appropriate that Prufrock thinks of Hamlet as his epitome of a great hero? (Think back
to Hamlet's nature in Hamlet)
19. Prufrock imagines beautiful mermaids singing along the beach, but what does he fear or
doubt in the following line?
20. Argue for or against the following statement: “Prufrock… epitomizes the frustration and
impotence of the modern individual; a modern, urban man who feels isolated and
incapable of decisive action. He represents the thwarted desires and modern
disillusionment. Such phrases as "I have measured out my life in coffee spoons" (line 51)
capture the sense of the unheroic nature of life in the twentieth century. Prufrock's
weaknesses could be mocked, but he is a pathetic figure, not grand enough to be tragic.”
McCoy and Harlan
21. Use your notes to discuss how Prufrock does or does not meet the characteristics of a
Modern Hero.