The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock’: Critical Analysis Essay

Quality poetry offers readers insight into their own relationship with their world, presenting themes prevalent within their own lives that address the complexity of being human. Eliot advocates the need for the confrontation of uncomfortable truths by exploring the unease of immortality caused by modernity which internally manifests disconnection, evoking spiritual rebirth. The pervasiveness of these ideas is evident in “The love song of J Alfred Prufrock” and further established in his poem “The Hollow Men”. The exploration of such truths conjures quality poetry, with Eliot effectively compelling readers to acknowledge the complexity of their existence and aspire for a life of purpose.

Eliot creates a nuanced impression of an industrialized social atmosphere by conveying the omnipresence of mortality within the external world. The uneasiness of mortality in the burgeoning 20th-century mass culture is embodied by the self-effacing narrator of “The love song of J Alfred Prufrock '', whose lack of agency is parodied by the force of aging. “They will say how his hair is growing thin, they will say how his arms and legs are thin”. Symbolic of both the rapid industrialization and mechanization of life, societies commanding influence satirizes human subjugation to fear of mortality. As a result, the persona becomes obsessed with his thinning hair, plagued by a panic that his body will fail him in everyday tasks such as eating “Do I dare eat a peach?”. The peach here is symbolic of youth, reflecting the diminishing of youth due to it being devoured. Eliot forces readers to derive meaning through his warning that fear of aging consumes one's life and inhibits a meaningful existence. Eliot's later poem “The Hollow Men '' identifies as quality poetry, discussing how the post-war climate that situates in human nature imposes fear of mortality “The supplication of a dead man's hand”. The synecdoche of a hand implies the loss of identity and humanity of that time's vacuous society, which is further evident in the anti-pastoralist imagery “wind in dry grass”. Thus, the omnipresence of mortality that Eliot constitutes with being human ……..

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Hence, it is the omnipresence of mortality in the external environment that internally manifests disconnection in Eliot’s personas. Eliot exposes that being caught up in the trivialities of public perception leads to the inability to form meaningful relationships.

This complexity restricts individuals from forming relationships as conveyed in Eliot's poem the Lovesong of J Alfred Prufrock. Eliot presents his character Prufrock as parts as opposed to the whole “to prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet”. The use of this synecdoche epitomizes the persona’s detachment from mind and body. This detachment from mind and body is a result of the inescapable force that the 20th Century society was directing toward individuals to hide their true selves. Eliot accentuates Prufrocks isolation through the use of imagery “scuttling across the floors of silent seas” to create an atmosphere of division between the world and Prufrock. Thus, readers acknowledge their own societal divisions. Disconnection is further conveyed in Eliot post WW1 poem “The Hollow Men”, through a detached narrator who serves as a metaphor for present-day humanity. “We are the hollow men, we are the stuffed men” the use of anaphora demonstrates how individuals are devoid of human emotion as a result of an industrialized environment that lacks meaning. Imbuing readers for a greater comprehension of their own detachment. The poem's recurrent star motif “the valley of dying stars” depicts an environment absence of light and vitality. This post-war context in which Eliot wrote emphasizes the internal struggle individuals face for connection, with isolation inevitable due to its accompanying modernity. By advocating the need for human interaction to fight the disconnection that modern society brings, his poetry holds value.

Nevertheless, Eliot attempts to encourage readers to acknowledge the potential for spiritual fulfillment through these complexities. Readers however may misinterpret this representation as Eliot portrays meaning as unattainable in Prufrock. The motif of eyes “I have known the eyes already” and in Hollow Men “there are no eyes here” is a biblical allusion to Christ's betrayal. This criticism of man's materialism exposes readers to the complexity of their condition, revealing that even on the entrance to salvation humans have the capacity for selfish gain. Eliot alludes to the spiritual emptiness that marked the climate of post-war in the Hollow Men, creating a persona in a condition of unfulfillment “in this valley of dying stars”. This oxymoronic phrase implies the absence of God's guidance and the hopeless condition of the hollow men inflicted by WWI. The hollow men's state of emptiness has been disputed by Critic Professor Strothmann as being needed for spiritual rebirth “ be made hopeful only by becoming empty”. This remark becomes affirmed as the Hollow Mens' skepticism towards faith shifts “is it like this in death's other kingdom”, welcoming faith as a way to escape their stagnant state and find universal truth. Prufrock however never finds this finality in the search for meaning as faith was not rebirthed, raising the question of the quality of Eliot's poetry if readers are left imprisoned in their complexities.