The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock Summary by T. S. Eliot (Literary Review)

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock Summary by T. S. Eliot. Introduction Thomas Eliot is a renowned poet, philosopher, and literal critic, the Love Song of Prufrock is one of his best works. But before that he had an early life, Eliot was born in the year 1888 September 26th. Thomas was born in St. Louis Missouri, but he moved to England after some time where he settled, worked and married. As noticed in this poem, it is based in London. The father of Thomas was a businessman, and his mother was a poet/ social worker, which may have contributed to Thomas gaining Interest in literature. Thomas' interest in literature developed when he was still young; he was not able to participate fully in physical activities since he was suffering from congenital double Inguinal Hernia (Calder 1987). This meant that he stayed indoors, and he mainly focused on reading books, that developed his literacy skills. Some elements of is life are somehow reflected in the poem; the poem is placed under the antagonist Prufrock who at first he escorts a companion through streets then visits a party becomes lost in thoughts and considers himself as a character in Hamlet. The poem is about Prufrock's struggles in the real world and how he goes to fantasy land. Which, comes back to how the artist in literature utilizes their life experiences to create art. Hence this analysis will look on How Eliot's life affected the development of "Prufrock" the poem. The poem was the first English professionally published poem for Thomas. Prufrock was first published by Poetry which was a magazine, it was later printed by Chapbook in 1917 and finally by Egoist ltd. The poem was considered as a first modernist poem due to the way it was different from other poems, the genre of the poem can be regarded as a monologue- dramatic monologue as the dominant technique used in the poem is utilizing consciousness to bring out the message of the poem. The target audience for the poem is the regular adult who has to deal The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock Summary by T. S. Eliot. with life issues, such as procrastination as Prufrock has been depicted procrastinating several times. There is also the woman hence love as an element of life and fiction is also used to bring about the imagination aspect of life — making the poem enjoyable, although it is a monologue. The poem was full of various topics, such as religion and modernism. Thomas was a scholar; thus, most of the influence in his works, such as this poem came from all the extensive reading. In the poem, there are several references such s Shakespeare, the Bible, and works of fellow modernist writers such as Andrew Marvell pioneer of metaphysical poetry in the 17th century. This technique was used by Eliot the "stream of consciousness" to further the character of Prufrock. There are various themes in the poem, but the most prominent theme is the physical and metaphysical world of Prufrock, that is between the day to day world and the mundane world of Prufrock. Prufrock is antagonist, but the conflicts is within him, whereby he reflects about his personal experiences and all the choices (Overwhelming Question) he made in the "internal world" and later on shows us the mundane world which is London full of “one-night cheap hotels,” “the soot that falls from chimneys,” and “the cups, the marmalade, the tea.” The other theme utilized by Eliot is the crisis of mortality, through the poem Prufrock stops and reassure himself with the phrase “And indeed there will be time.” Whereby Prufrock tries to act as if things are okay, but deep down, he knows that time will make him meet his destiny. Prufrock claims that he has “Time to turn back and descend the stair,” but that is not true due to circumstance displayed in the poem. Modernity is the other theme utilized by Eliot, rather than the condition of modernity, Eliot brings out the differences and changes between periods such as the 20th-century western cultures and Shakespeare era. Prufrock compares himself with the character from Hamlet by Shakespeare, which somehow belittles Prufrock The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock Summary by T. S. Eliot. character, which is caused by the contemporary culture, which means that the 20th century is a washed-up version of the early era of Hamlet. In Prufrock love song, Prufrock is both the antagonist and the protagonist depending on the various angles that the poem is consumed. As mentioned before the poem is a monologue by Prufrock so basically, he is the main person who is pushing the agenda of the poem, or simply the poem is about Prufrock and Pushes the ideas of the poem. Also, Prufrock is the Protagonist, but in this case, it is depicted through the two worlds that he lives in, there is London, then there is his "world." Prufrock is torn between these two worlds and maybe his hidden desire is to live in "his world," which is a normal thing of the humans having imagination and what-ifs especially if Prufrock is a preview of one's life. The conflict is that Prufrock creates this picture of selfdoubt and weakness, that haunts him. Prufrock convinces himself that everything is okay, but in the real sense, he is a procrastinator, but finally, Prufrock accepts that time is the deciding factor of his destiny. There are various literary criticism perspectives, as mentioned before Eliot did not interact with other children while he was young due to the condition he had, this is visible in the poem where at one point he Prufrock talks about “being bored to socialize,” when he joined the party of the Sophisticated women (Eliot 1915). Eliot in the poem also discusses the condition of modernity it clear that he moved to England at the age of 25 years where settled. It might be he moved to England because it was more cultured than America, as always and he values culture, that's why in the poem still he shows the preference of earlier times such as the era of Shakespeare. Through the poem, it is clear that Eliot experienced some form of inferiority as he expressed his life through the poem. Thus, showing that he viewed that he had no significant influence over anyone, but the truth is that he influenced by a lot of people by his works. Just as The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock Summary by T. S. Eliot. he mentioned Shakespeare in this poem, an artist like Raymond Chandler was influenced by the love song of J. Alfred Prufrock and makes references through his works; The Long Goodbye and Hill Street Blues. This includes some of the collaborations that Eliot had in the movement of literary modernism (Phillips 2015). In conclusion, it is safe to say that, the life of Eliot and his extensive studying has been a significant influence over his works, whereby this is a concept that is viewed in all of the artists. According to Sigmund Freud psychoanalysis theories, humans tend to express ourselves through various outlets, especially how we communicate, and that is how Eliot delivered to his audiences. His experiences from his childhood, his education, and the environment he wrote the poem in (London) are some of the influences that are visible in the poem (Levenson 2016).