Thoughts on T S Eliot and the "Lovesong of J Alfred Prufrock"

The poem`s theme reveals Prufrock to be a nervous and obsessively introspective man He fails to understand that only open vulnerability, not fantasy will serve as a bridge to meet emotional needs and provide meaning to life. He is “etherised upon a table” (1) suggesting an inability that fuses inertia, vacillation and equivocation..The epigraph alluded to from Dante's Inferno is a response to the question, "Who are you?" This question is a major theme of the poem. Montefeltro will conditionally answer the question,velation with the confidence that no one else will discover his identity (a). and suggests a psychological similarity between both characters and that the pain they tell of will reveal too much to others, risking judgement. Guido is the first character in the Inferno to specifically request that his story must not be told in the world above. This echoes Prufrock finding it impossible to talk of his own life to the women in the tea room.

Williamson (p59) points out that the first line of the poem:

” Introduces” you and I “he says at “a point in the debate at which the subjective “I “is surrendering to the objective “you” and agreeing to go somewhere Who are the you and I and where are they going? The I is the speaker, but who is the you addressed?

It seems as if Prufrock never leaves the room and that the poem is a stream of consciousness about indecision This can also be seen in the use of phrases such as “There will be”, “they will say”. “I have known”, “I have seen”, “would it have”, “I shall wear*, and these phrases are mainly in the future and use the subjunctive and present perfect.

Prufrock’s fear is that his true self will be revealed to the women at the tea party that he is considering attending. He repeatedly wonders how and why he should begin to talk about his unexciting life (54, 60, 61, 68, 69), but what will he say if a woman expects him to talk about himself? Any revelation about him could bring indifferent rejection. He is certain that the women will not care about "the butt-ends of my days and ways," fearing that when he shares part of himself with another, she will be uninterested in his life (60).

He fears that the women will mock his thin hair and his thin arms and legs. His self-focus is pathetically ironic because he is mostly unnoticed by the women he observes He asks if he will dare "disturb the universe" and show his true self, (47). The women "come and go/ Talking of Michelangelo" (13-14; 35-36), and miss Prufrock's moment of greatness, which was, sadly, only a "flicker" (84). As he describes how he sees himself-and how he thinks others see him, "and in short, I was afraid" (86).

This mustard gas clarifies Prufrock's panicked arrangements for the tea party. He readies his mask, repeating again and again, that there is time to prepare. His preparation, however, is not physical, but psychological. His limited life will not be exposed. There is time for the "yellow smoke" to arrive and shield him (25). There is time to "prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet" (27). This persona is not the true Prufrock. The real person has been "murdered," and this face is something that he must "create" (28). Prufrock will make hundreds of "indecisions" and "revisions" before this "taking of a toast and tea" (32-34). He will implement his protective shield, making himself safe and secure

Ironically it is Prufrock’s shield that hides his flaws and prevents any realization of his emotional needs. His lack of self knowledge ensures that he cannot find love and acceptance at the party or indeed anywhere else. In the past, he has unsuccessfully attempted to meet desires for intimacy by sexual excursions that are likely to be imaginary. He mentions "restless nights in one-night cheap hotels," implying that he has considered spending time with prostitutes (7). His tone is fearful as he describes the women's eyes that pin him to the wall like a collector's butterfly, but his tone is sexually charged as he describes their arms. This shift in tone is because he has "known the arms already" (62) and has seen them "in the lamplight, downed with light brown hair" (65). "Knowing" their arms, and his sensual description of them, implies a sexual longing that may have been actual or fantasy. There is both an attraction and a repulsion to women. Salome and the women as butterfly collectors use their sexuality to manipulate and control the men around them. Prufrock recognises or fears this to be true and is unable therefore to fully “be” because of his refusal to risk involvement.

His fantasies show that knowledge of sexual attraction has not met his emotional needs. His need to be able to share his true self with someone who will accept him as he is. He fears that physical intimacy with a woman will not bring emotional intimacy and wonders if she will, as she is "settling a pillow by her head," casually reject him (96). He anticipates her turning towards the window, away from him. Prufrock regretfully states, "I should have been a pair of ragged claws/ Scuttling across the floors of silent seas" (73-74). This imagery shows Prufrock admitting that he should have been a lobster or a crab. He is trapped in a protective shell, and lives in a "silent," lonely world. A crab does not recognise its loneliness but Prufrock does. Prufrock like the crab moves backwards away from others.

At the end of the poem, Prufrock says that he has "heard the mermaids singing, each to each" (123-124). After a pause, he wistfully states, in the only isolated line of the poem, "I do not think that they will sing to me," again explaining his overwhelming fear that no one will notice him or care for him (125). Prufrock is alone, and this isolation is the greatest factor in causing him to procrastinate. Mermaids traditionally are soulless and tempt sailors this suggests that Prufrock is in unable to even understand them or interact with them and that they are not even interested in him.

Throughout the poem T. S. Eliot uncovers a man who will not embrace his greatest need. The irony of Prufrock`s refusal to share himself and thus stunting his emotional growth leads to a bitterness at the end of the poem. Prufrock abruptly states his vision of himself and shows the ultimate results of life in a shell. He wearily states, "I grow old. I grow old." (120) and asks himself ludicrous, irrelevant questions, "Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach?" (123). He has become so concerned with anyone seeing a glimpse of the self behind his prepared face that he worries about trivialities.

The last three lines, in particular, reveals the dangerous result of living in a safe fantasy world without ever sharing one's true self with others. Prufrock states that "we have lingered in the chambers of the sea/ By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown," implying that those who live in fantasy worlds, cannot properly exist (129-130). Eliot's diction in using "we" implies that the reader is being equated with Prufrock. Just as an individual cannot live in the sea, we cannot truly live without revealing ourselves to others, even though it means others notice our faults and flaws. The "chambers of the sea" are no place for real experience. When "human voices wake us" and shatter our fantasies, "we drown" (131). When a life spent in a sterile fantasy world it crashes into solid reality, only a shrivelled wreck remains.

Eliot's vivid imagery reveals that Prufrock's life is empty and without meaning. He recognizes that his "days and ways" are only like wasted cigarettes (60). Prufrock admits that he has "measured out my life with coffee spoons," implying that in his small world, tea parties are his only sort of entertainment (53). He has "seen the eternal Footman hold my coat, and snicker." A footman is a servant, but because of the word "eternal," as well as the capitalization of "Footman," Prufrock implies that even Christ, finds Prufrock`s petty life without meaning (85). He describes his life, revealing that he is an unimportant man, someone small. He will "advise the prince" because he is "an easy tool" to be used by others (115). He confesses that he is, "almost, at times, the Fool" (119). He may be Polonius from Hamlet trapped by the words he uses or indeed the Fool from Lear killed for his observations.

The basic structure of the poem is that of four units. The first examines the “overwhelming question “that must be asked and answered. It shows that the inner and outer life of Prufrock is fat from integrated. It reveals lack of potential to change. The second is brief and consists of five lines and shows according to Gish (p16) the failure of will to change .The third shows that Prufrock is beyond the point of where choice or action can be taken. In the fourth Gish (p17) argues that Prufrock has reached the point of accepting failure. The lines of the poem are basically in triplets using a device of one couplet or two in a rhyme using sometimes an envelope form. Often Eliot seems to be experimenting with all kinds of forms and meters. For example, there are a lot of rhyming couplets, like the first two lines, and the couplet about the women and Michelangelo.

The rhyming couplets are sometimes called "heroic" couplets, but Prufrock is anything but heroic. The rhymes also have a singsong quality that makes them seem simplistic. Eliot rhymes "is it" with "visit" ( 11, 12) Other lines don’t rhyme and sound more like free verse ( 70 – 72), which has no regular meter. There are a couple of lines of blank verse, which have no rhyme but a regular meter, usually iambic pentameter (73-74) Deutsch (p 68 ) , “the rhythms are suggestive of program music of an intimate sort”`

Eliot uses allusions from others; Hesiod`s Works and Days (29) which is a call to toil through the monotony of life (Southam p 34), line 92 echoes the closing line of Marvels “To His Coy Mistress and phrases such as “there will be time” and “there is time are similar to the opening of another Marvell poem “had we but world enough and time” (Southam p 33).” There will be time to murder and create” (29) echoes Ecclesiastes 3 (Southam p 34) and “full of high sentence” (117) sound similar to the Clerk of Oxford in Chaucer’s General Prologue to the Canterbury Tales (Southam p35). These examples may indicates Prufrock`s knowledge of literature demonstrating at one level his knowledge but also his inversion of anything positive. The evening sky in the second line is similarly inverted from a romantic setting to one being etherised it is similar to Eliot inverting in his poem “The Wasteland (1)” Chaucer`s reference to April in the General Prologue to the Canterbury Tales. (1)

Eliot also utilises character allusions to contrast meaningful lives with the insignificant life of Prufrock. The women in the poem talk of Michelangelo Ironically, these women do not notice Prufrock, although he is present. Eliot alludes to John the Baptist when Prufrock mentions that "I have seen my head (grown slightly bald) brought in upon a platter/ I am no prophet" (82-83)...It is significant that Michelangelo painted a scene of Salome being given the head of John the Baptist (b). .This reference to Michelangelo appears twice (13-14 and 35-36) suggesting a repetitive pattern to Prufrock’s life. Salome`s dark sexuality and the sensuality of Michelangelo’s figures are places and experiences that Prufrock cannot experience or even know. Prufrock imagines that revealing his true self to others would kill him, so he will not. He is "no prophet" because he has not the courage (83). Prufrock also states, at the end of the poem, that "I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be." Prufrock is a tragedy of sorts but it is one that is self inflicted.

Prufrock`s Pervigilium(c) is another part of the poem that Eliot did not publish. It was found in a notebook which he sold to John Quinn in 1922 arguing that the poem was unpublished and “unpublishable”. It echoes a darker world perhaps anticipating his poem The Wasteland that was published in 1922. “I will show you fear in a handful of dust” (c) Prufrock seems to be a man who does not fit into to society. In one way a wider context could show his fear of modernity. ( Ricks p 43-44)

“The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" is dirge- like, where T. S. Eliot exposes Prufrock's protected, life to show that we should embrace openness and vulnerability to meet our intimate emotional needs. "Who are you?" but to this "overwhelming question," Prufrock replies, "do not ask, 'What is it?'" (11-12). Guido da Montefeltro, identifies himself to Dante, basing his-relf inflicted.

Prufrock`s Pervigilium(c) is another part of the poem that Eliot did not publish. It was found in a notebook which he sold to John Quinn in 1922 arguing that the poem was unpublished and “unpublishable”. It echoes a darker world perhaps anticipating his poem The Wasteland that was published in 1922. “I will show you fear in a handful of dust” (c) Prufrock seems to be a man who does not fit into to society. In one way a wider context could show his fear of modernity. ( Ricks p 43-44)

“The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" is dirge- like, where T. S. Eliot exposes Prufrock's protected, life to show that we should embrace openness and vulnerability to meet our intimate emotional needs.

Bibliography

Babette Deutsch “ another Impressionist”in T S Eliot Critical assessments edited by Graham Clarke vol 2 Christopher Helm London 1990

Dante's Inferno (27.61-66)

T .S Eliot The love song of J Alfred Prufrock

T.S. Eliot. Inventions of the March Hare: Poems 1909-17. Christopher Ricks Ed. London: Harcourt Barce, 1996. 43-4.

Nancy K Gish Time in the poetry of T S Eliot A study of Structure and Theme Macmillan London 1981

George Williamson A Readers guide to T S Eliot Thames and Hudson London 1955

References

(a)Dante's Inferno (27.61-66)

If I believed that my reply were made

to one who could ever climb to the world again,

this flame would shake no more. But since no shade

ever returned -- if what I am told is true --

from this blind world into the living light

without fear of dishonor I can answer you;

(b)http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/michelangelo-merisi-da-caravaggio-salome-receives-the-head-of-saint-john-the-baptist

c) "Prufrock's Pervigilium"

Shall I say, I have gone at dusk through narrow streets
And seen the smoke which rises from the pipes
Of lonely men in shirtsleeves, leaning out of windows.
And when the evening woke and stared into its blindness
I heard the children whimpering in corners
Where women took the air, standing in entries
Women, spilling out of corsets, stood in entries
Where the draughty gas-jet flickered
And the oil cloth curled up stairs.

And when the evening fought itself awake
And the world was peeling oranges and reading evening papers
And boys were smoking cigarettes, drifted helplessly together
In the fan of light spread out by the drugstore on the corner
Then I have gone at night through narrow streets,
Where evil houses leaning all together
Pointed a ribald finger at me in the darkness
Whispering all together, chuckled at me in the darkness.

And when the midnight turned and writhed in fever
I tossed the blankets back, to watch the darkness
Crawling among the papers on the table
It leapt to the floor and made a sudden hiss
And darted stealthily across the wall
Flattened itself upon the ceiling overhead
Stretched out its tentacles, prepared to leap

And when the dawn at length had realized itself
And turned with a sense of nausea, to see what it had stirred:
The eyes and feet of men -
I fumbled to the window to experience the world
And to hear my Madness singing, sitting on the kerbstone
[A blind old drunken man who sings and mutters,
With broken boot heels stained in many gutters]
And as he sang the world began to fall apart . . .

I should have been a pair of ragged claws
Scuttling across the floors of silent seas ...

- I have seen the darkness creep along the wall
I have heard my Madness chatter before day
I have seen the world roll up into a ball
Then suddenly dissolve and fall away.

This poem was originally written as a jingle for the Michelangelo gallery at the Louvre. Elliot was Chief Creative Director for the Allouette Agency in Paris, assigned to heard tourists from the oyster bars and brothels of the more fashionable and foggy districts of the city. The lines: 'Oh, do not ask, "what is it?" Let us go and make our visit' were intended to be the poster slogan for the opening of the gallery's new exhibition. Cited in comments at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhiCMAG658M comment

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhiCMAG658M you tube Eliot reading Prufrock