T. s. Eliot

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T. s. Eliot

• 1888 - 1965

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Biographical Info

• Born in St. Louis, MO
• Grandfather founded Washington University
• Graduated from Harvard did post-graduate work at
  the Sorbonne in Paris
• Moved to London just before WW I began
• Gave up US citizenship in 1927 became a subject
  of the king of England
• Worked in a bank had a nervous breakdown
  married an emotionally troubled woman took up
  literature

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The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
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Copy the words and definitions below.

• Etherized put to sleep with ether before an
  operation highly drugged
• Overwhelming overpowering with great numbers or
  force
• Lingered was slow to leave
• Digress take a side path get away from the
  main idea when speaking or writing
• Presume to do something without clear
  permission to take for granted

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• Attendant servant assistant helper
• Politic smart crafty shrewd
• Cautious alert careful not impulsive
• Meticulous very careful about every detail
• Obtuse insensitive not quick-thinking not
  sharp

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Key Points

• The speaker is a character named J. Alfred
  Prufrock.
• He has no one to share his feelings with.
• He feels hell never participate in life, so he
  indulges in fantasies.
• He knows there are two sides to every issue, but
  he cant act on any of this knowledge.

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• Prufrock is very self-conscious.
• He seeks the meaning of life and the nature of
  romantic love.
• He tries unsuccessfully to find a place for
  himself in the world.
• Throughout the poem, he cant focus on one
  thing at a time.
• The poem is a series of disjointed scenes that
  are psychologically related to the speakers
  half-formed thoughts.

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The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

• Epigraph a quotation set at the beginning of a
  literary work
• The epigraph in The Love Song is from Dantes
  Divine Comedy. The speaker is a man who has been
  sent to hell because he has given evil advice.
• Prufrock is speaking from his own personal hell.

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Lines 1-12

• Let us go then, you and I
• Prufrock issues an invitation to an unspecified
  person to go to an unspecified place.
• Like a patient etherized
• The night is compared to an unconscious patient
• Setting a run-down, tawdry part of town
• Half-deserted streets
• One-night cheap hotels
• Sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells
• These are probably the kinds of places that
  Prufrock frequents
• Prufrock begins to look ahead to where he is
  going.

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Lines 13-14

• Rhymed couplet
• Repeated in lines 35-36
• Women are walking in and out of rooms talking
  about artistics things

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Lines 15-22

• Yellow fog metaphor
• Fog is compared to a cat
• Why does Prufrock explore the metaphor at such
  length?
• Prufrock has turned his attention back to his
  actual surroundings.

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Lines 23-34

• He repeats the phrase there will be time and
  the word time to suggest both eternity and
  hesitation.
• To prepare a face to meet the faces that you
  meet
• He wants to put on a mask or assume an attitude
  that will help him face other people.

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Lines 37-48

• Prufrock is insecure, and he worries about what
  others think about him.
• Do I dare?
• They will say
• They are the people Prufrock sees socially,
  especially women.
• What could he want to dare to do???

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Lines 49-54

• I have measured out my life with coffee spoons
• Shows that Prufrock is very careful and cautious
• He sees himself as socially inept. How can he
  hope to assume a part in real human life with
  anyone?
• He knows how uncomfortable it can be to be a part
  of a faltering conversation.

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LINES 55-61

• He is aware that people appraise him, and that
  their appraisal is different from the way he
  appraises himself.
• He feels like a bug that has been pinned onto a
  board.
• He compares his days to the butt-end of a
  cigarette. This suggests waste or trash.

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Lines 63-69

• He longs to be close to a woman, but he is afraid
  to initiate the contact.
• The smell of her perfume makes him go back in
  time.

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Lines 70-74

• He spends his early evenings walking along
  deserted streets.
• As he does this, he notices men sitting in their
  windows smoking their pipes.
• He calls these men lonely but it is really
  Prufrock who is lonely.

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Lines 73-74

• Prufrock compares himself to a crab or some other
  crustacean crawling along the ocean floor.
• What image does this give you?

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Lines 75-86

• The evening sleeps but it really isnt a
  peaceful sleep.
• Allusions I have seen my head (grown slightly
  bald) brought in upon a platter refers to the
  execution of John the Baptist.
• The eternal Footman refers to death.
• He sees death mocking him. This continues to
  show his lack of confidence.

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Lines 87-98

• Prufrock wonders what it would be like to be
  Lazarus. (Another allusion)
• He fears that if he says what he wants to say
  that he will be misunderstood and that he will
  alienate the woman.

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Lines 99-110

• He is frustrated and filled with dread.
• This causes his thoughts to be fragmented.
• He doesnt feel like he can really explain what
  he feels or thinks.
• He continues to feel like he would be
  misunderstood.

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Lines 111-119

• Allusion Prince Hamlet (Shakespeare)
• Prufrock sees himself as an extra and not as
  someone who is important.
• He feels like he often looks foolish.

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Lines 120-121

• Prufrock is thinking about making himself look
  younger by rolling his trousers.
• Rolled trousers was fashionable during this time.

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Lines 122-124

• More evidence that Prufrock is unsure of himself.
• He says he has heard mermaids singing to each
  other.

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Line 125

• He does not feel like the mermaids will sing to
  him.
• He feels that he will miss intimacy,
  understanding, and love.

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Lines 126-128

• He sees the mermaids riding out to sea on the
  waves.
• His hopes for change are fading as the mermaids
  go.

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Lines 129-131

• His spell is broken by human voices.
• We drown could mean that he is losing hope.