Thomas Sterns Eliot wrote the poem "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" over a period of six years and published it circa 1917 at the ripe old age of twenty-nine. As his first published poem, 'Prufrock' revealed Eliot's original and highly developed style. Its startling jumps from rhetorical language to cliche, its indirect literary references, and its simultaneous humor and pessimism were quite new in English literature. (World Book, 236) Prufrock's quest for a life he cannot live and a question he has difficulty confronting is intriguingly played out in various aspects of his humanity. He is doing battle in all aspects of his personality, which establishes him as a neurotic character.

Neurosis, as defined by the Thorndike/Barnhart World Book Dictionary, is: any one of various mental or emotional disorders characterized by depression, ("I should have been a pair of ragged claws / Scuttling across the floors of silent seas.") anxiety, ("So how should I presume? / And how should I presume? / And how should I begin? / And should I then presume?") and abnormal fears, ("Do I dare disturb the universe?"). The personality of Prufrock embodies these characteristics. The phy

Proud as he is, however, Prufrock eventually states the inevitable. He admits to being "Almost, at times, the Fool." With this confession, his pride crumbles and he surrenders to the realization of his mortality. The very next lines emphasize the gravity of this new awareness, "I grow old... I grow old..." Here lies the turning point of his worldview. Prufrock once had "Time to turn back and descend the stair," but now time is running out.

analyze it.' Rhetoric is

treated: 'the only cure for Romanticism is to

This is exactly what Prufrock does. His over-analysis of every minute detail is a vain attempt to shirk the "question."

Prufrock is a lonely man. In the poem, there is no evidence of any relationship outside of the one he has with himself. He makes references to "...restless nights in one-night cheap hotels" and "women [that] come and go." He desires intimate relationships, yet lacks the courage and self-confidence to even begin to pursue love. His humanity and dignity cannot fully be realized without it.

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Approximate Word count = 1801
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)