Breslin
In the poem "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," Eliot explores the timeless issues of love and self-awareness - popular themes in literature. However, through his use of Prufrock's profound self-consciousness he plays with the reader's expectations of a "Love Song" and takes a serious perspective on the subject of love, which many authors do, but few can create characters as deep and multi-layered as Prufrock; probably the reason that this poem still remains, arguably, Eliot's most famous. The beginning of the poem is pre-empted by an excerpt from Dante's Inferno which Eliot uses to create the poem's serious tone, but also to begin his exploration of Prufrock's self-consciousness. By inserting this quote, a parallel is created between Prufrock and the speaker, Guido da Montefeltro, who is very aware of his position in "hell" and his personal situation concerning the fate of his life. Prufrock feels much the same way, but his hell and the fate of his life are more in his own! mind and have less to do with the people around him. The issue of his fate leads Prufrock to an "overwhelming question..."(10) which is never identified, asked, or answered in the poem. This "question" is associated somehow to his psyche, but both its amb
. . .
Some common words found in the essay are:
Inferno Eliot, Unfortunately Prufrock, Twelfth Night, Coy Mistress, Mother Nature, Princess Salome, Prince Hamlet, God Adam's, Ironically Prufrock, Love Song, throughout poem, fate life, beginning poem, unfortunately prufrock, doomed character prufrock, john baptist, natural world, life prufrock, eliot creates, poem remains, suggests prufrock,
Approximate Word count = 2037
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)
|
 |
