The Lovesong of Alfred J. Prufrock by
T.S. Eliot
Summary of the Plot
This poem, the earliest of Eliot’s major works, was completed in 1910 or 1911 but
not published until 1915. It is an examination of the tortured psyche of the prototypical
modern man—overeducated, eloquent, neurotic, and emotionally stilted. Prufrock, the
poem’s speaker, seems to be addressing a potential lover, with whom he would like to
“force the moment to its crisis” by somehow consummating their relationship. But
Prufrock knows too much of life to “dare” an approach to the woman: In his mind he
hears the comments others make about his inadequacies, and he chides himself for
“presuming” emotional interaction could be possible at all.
The poem moves from a series of fairly concrete (for Eliot) physical settings—a
cityscape (the famous “patient etherized upon a table”) and several interiors (women’s
arms in the lamplight, coffee spoons, fireplaces)—to a series of vague ocean images
conveying Prufrock’s emotional distance from the world as he comes to recognize his
second-rate status (“I am not Prince Hamlet’). “Prufrock” is powerful for its range of
intellectual reference and also for the vividness of character achieved.
Character List/Summary and Analysis of the Characters
Alfred J. Prufrock is a middle-aged man who has anxieties about women among other
issues.
General Themes
-The damaged psyche of humanity
-The power of literary history
-The changing nature of gender roles
-Fragmentation
-Debasement and hell
-Anxiety
Important Symbols
Water symbolizes life and death.
The Fisher King as symbolic of humanity, robbed of its sexual potency in
the modern world and connected to the meaninglessness of urban
existence. But the Fisher King also stands in for Christ and other religious
figures associated with divine resurrection and rebirth.
Music symbolized the divide between high and low(pop) culture.
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Jennifer Velardo
The Lovesong of Alfred J. Prufrock by
T.S. Eliot
Key Facts
Full title · The Love Song of Alfred J. Profrock
Author · T.S. Eliot
Genre · Poetry
Language written · English
Time and place written · begun in 1910, finished in 1915; Chicago
Date of publication · 1915
Narrator · Prufrock
Point of view · first person/dramatic monologue
Tone · melancholy
Tense · Present
Setting · in the evening in a bleak section of a smoky city. This city is probably St.
Louis, where Eliot grew up or also could be London, to which Eliot moved in
1914. However, Eliot probably intended the setting to be any city anywhere.
Important Quotes
“LET us go then, you and I,
When the evening is spread out against the sky
Like a
patient etherized upon a table;” (lines 1-3)
“S’io creedessi’ che mea risposta fosse
A persona che mai tornasse al mondo.
Questa
fiamma staria senza piu scosse.
Ma perciocche giammai di questo fondo Non torno
vivo alcun, s’i’odo il vero Senza tema d’infamia ti rispondo.” (epigraph)
“Streets that follow like a tedious argument
Of insidious intent
To lead you to an
overwhelming question …
Oh, do not ask, "What is it?"
Let us go and make our visit.”
(lines 8-12)
“In the room the women come and go Talking of Michelangelo.” (13-14)
“Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach?
I shall wear white flannel
trousers, and walk upon the beach.
I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.”
(lines 122-124)
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Jennifer Velardo
The Lovesong of Alfred J. Prufrock by
T.S. Eliot
Author Information
Thomas Stearns Eliot (1888-1965) was born in St. Louis, Missouri, of an old New
England family. He was educated at Harvard and did graduate work in philosophy at the
Sorbonne, Harvard, and Merton College, Oxford. He settled in England, where he was for
a time a schoolmaster and a bank clerk, and eventually literary editor for the publishing
house Faber & Faber, of which he later became a director. He founded and, during the
seventeen years of its publication (1922-1939), edited the exclusive and influential
literary journal Criterion. In 1927, Eliot became a British citizen and about the same time
entered the Anglican Church.
Eliot has been one of the most daring innovators of
twentieth-century poetry. Never compromising either with the public or indeed with
language itself, he has followed his belief that poetry should aim at a representation of the
complexities of modern civilization in language and that such representation necessarily
leads to difficult poetry. Despite this difficulty his influence on modern poetic diction has
been immense.
Resources
http://www.sparknotes.com/poetry/eliot/
http://www.gradesaver.com/the-love-song-of-j-alfred-prufrock/study-guide/section1/
http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1948/eliot-bio.html
http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/The_Love_Song_of_J._Alfred_Prufrock
http://www.shmoop.com/love-song-alfred-prufrock/time-quotes.html
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Jennifer Velardo