Poor Old Prufrock: T. S. Eliot's the Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

Thomas Stearns Eliot represents the beginning of an age of intellectual sterility and decay. His outstandingly complicated poetry combined with his great imagery and obscure allusions create a wonderful picturesque landscape of modern society's lust for intellect. As a result for this lust that modern society possesses, human beings themselves fall prey to the dry, dull lives that follow the heels of extreme intellect. T. S. Eliot's poem titled "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" shows this sub-strata of human culture off quite nicely. Eliot's main character, J. Alfred Prufrock, depicts a great intellect and his "hundred indecisions" that result (line 32). Elisabeth Schneider presents in a book titled T. S. Eliot: The Pattern in the Carpet, a critical essay on Prufrock and his character. Although Schneider gives an excellent in depth look at the character of Prufrock, she makes several comments that could either be debated or praised.

In Schneider's essay, she proclaims that a central question is asked in Eliot's poem. The question "Is inner change possible?" is answered "No." by her interpretation (Schneider 24). Schneider also adds that ". . . not anyhow for Prufrock and his kind." (24) But the question must surface, what is "Prufrock's kind?" There is no smooth definition for the type of character that Prufrock is. Yet, he states himself that he has ". . . measured out [his] life with coffee spoons. . ." (line 51). This line denotes that he has a dry character and lives an uneventful life. But there is so much more depth to Prufrock than his daily attributes. Prufrock represents an insightful nature. He compares the "yellow fog" to a cat that is curling itself up around a house and falling asleep (lines 15-22). Prufrock's imagery and imagination is a sign that he has the depth of realization. He realizes that his life is dull, and he also realizes that his character is bland, as with the lines that he is ". . . Politic, cautious, and meticulous/Full of high sentence, but a bit obtuse;/At times, indeed, almost ridiculous-/Almost, at times, the Fool. . ." (lines 114-117). Prufrock knows and realizes that he has a character that needs a facelift. But Prufrock's character is one of indecision. His line "Do I dare/Disturb the universe?" (lines 45-46) shows that he has the ability to change, but he doesn't know if he should. Will he dare to disturb what some higher creation made him to be? Does he believe that he has the power within him to "murder and create?" (line 28). These kinds of questions are of the type that Prufrock would present to himself. He has the ability to change, if he only had the courage to do so.

Prufrock's lack of courage brings him to many dismal conclusions about himself. Schneider states that Prufrock recognizes what he essentially is: "I should have been a pair of ragged claws/Scuttling across the floors of silent seas. . ." (Schneider 25). Yet Prufrock is not asserting that he is some "subhuman crustacean" as Schneider puts it (25), he simply states that he "should" have been a "subhuman crustacean." This is the same idea that appears in many individuals. The thought occurs during depressive or stressful moments that one should never have been born. An individual doesn't truly mean the statement, but it is just an exertion of one's stress. Prufrock is reacting to his anxiety about the current situation in this manner. He looks at himself as a balding, thinning, aging man. His own decay and lack of life-fulfilling experience produces an effect that he wishes that he had no intellect and could do nothing but survive with no apparent reason. This "Love Song" could very well be Prufrock's mid-life crises. Prufrock believes that he doesn't deserve to be the man that he is, but he should be something less; something that represents nothing. He has arrived to the point in his life where he has realized that his life is producing nothing productive. He is now questioning his own existence. J. Alfred Prufrock seems to be a very privileged human being, on the other hand. Prufrock is intelligent, in love, and meeting people that are in his own social category. But these people only produce the idea of how pathetic human nature truly is. Prufrock wants to eliminate the feelings that other "pathetic" human beings experience but he only succeeds in making himself into one of them; a dull, pathetic human being. Yet, the only thing that Prufrock's character is missing is self-esteem.

This idea of self-esteem, or lack thereof, plays itself out in the scenes where Prufrock is questioning himself on whether or not he wants to ask the woman he loves to marry him. Eliot shows off Prufrock's inept social ability through his lines, "I am Lazarus, come from the dead,/Come back to tell you all, I shall tell you all. . ." (lines 92-93). It is rather humorous that Prufrock would choose these lines as a representation of his desire to marry the woman that he is with. Then Prufrock turns around seemingly embarrassed of the situation that he created and states, "That is not what I meant at all./That is not it, at all . . ." (lines 95-96). What makes the entire "Love Song" interesting is that Prufrock never mentions love and he never speaks a word out loud. Prufrock is playing this entire scene, and all the other ones, out in his head. His overactive imagination destroys all traces of self-esteem and he decides not to ask this woman who he finds to be wonderful to marry him. And despite all the time he spends with her, through the "tea and cakes and ices," the lying together, talking about each other, he still can not decide whether he wants to ".. force the moment to its crisis. . ." (lines 72-77, 80). Prufrock doesn't believe that he has the strength to do what his very soul distresses to him to do. His low self-esteem causes a blister that is filling with indecision. And when he asks himself if he has the strength, the blister pops and all his indecision and doubt oozes out and overcomes him.

Schneider believes that Eliot's poem is ". . . more than a retreat from love, however; it is the portrait of a man in Hell, though until this truth becomes vividly established in the poem, the hell appears to be merely the trivial one of a self-conscious individual in a sterile society. . ." (Schneider 26). Prufrock is not in retreat from love, but he is trying to embrace the concept. He seems confused on how to love and does not understand what love is and represents. Prufrock's indecision and doubt do not make this poem a "portrait of a man in Hell," but make the character of Prufrock deep and understandable. It is in human nature to doubt oneself and attempt to use logic to remove oneself from a stressful moment or situation. This one moment that is seen in the mind of Prufrock cannot conclude that this man is in hell. Yet, the truth is never clear, whether it be for Prufrock or the reader. Prufrock is searching for his truth and the truth that surrounds him, but he only convinces himself that he is undeserving and. It is true that Prufrock is self-conscious, hence his own assertion that he is balding and growing thin, but he is only spending his moment of indecision in hell. It is easy to identify with Prufrock; many experience these moments daily and can have empathy for him. He wants to ask a question that would forever change his life, either for better or for worse. He realizes that his choice would have serious repercussions on himself and those around him.

The "sterile society" that Schneider mentions is seen and experienced by Prufrock and may aid in his indecision. Prufrock comments on his plain style of dress. "My morning coat, my collar mounting firmly to the chin,/My necktie rich and modest, but asserted by a simple pin . . ." (lines 41-42). Prufrock's clothing itself is sterile with such descriptive words as "rich and modest" and "simple." In Prufrock's mind and his social surroundings, there is no room for the flamboyant. The streets that he travels through are sad and full of decay. In Eliot's notebook that he titled Inventions of the March Hare, there was a piece to "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" that was never printed. It was titled "Prufrock's Pervigilium." This one section gives a detailed description of the streets that Prufrock visits. He uses words that describes the decay and sadness that weigh down on his own soul. Prufrock described the lonely men, whimpering children, women spilling out of their corsets (Ricks 43). His society is in a state of decay and worthlessness. These daily sights would soon bring a cloud of darkness over a man's vision of himself and society. Sadly, despite Prufrock's intellect, he also falls into self-loathing and indecision.

Prufrock's own room presents a saddened version of the outside world. He is troubled with sleepless nights and his own "Madness." He wakes in the morning and throws open the shudders and finds drunken men wandering the streets. Prufrock also believes that he can hear his own "Madness" singing. He finishes the "Pervigilium" with the lines, "-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 . . ." (Ricks 44). Prufrock is so unsettled with what he wants to do that his world is covered in shadows and is dissolving away. His anxiety is a result of his intellect's byproduct, which is indecision.

One of Schneider's final notes on "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" is that ". . . The poem is at once both a highly subjective and a fully dramatic portrait of a young man who has never been really young and who on the surface is correct, well-dressed, extremely self-conscious, a trifle pathetic, and a trifle absurd . . ." (Schneider 30). It is agreeable that the character of Prufrock is on the surface correct, well-dressed, self-conscious, pathetic, and absurd, but on the inside he is deep, reflective, and observant. Prufrock knows what he wants and what he can accomplish. But what plagues him is that he is, on the outside, dry and dull. This outward appearance combined with his social phobia dims the light of his greatness. It is too bad that Prufrock was never really young. The "sterile society" that Prufrock calls home destroyed his self-esteem and marred his potential greatness. He was never given a chance to be young due to his own intellect; Prufrock was too observant and too understanding. His sense betrayed him and set him in a downward spiral of self-doubt.

Although the poem ends in a tragic manner, Prufrock would still be capable of doing the impossible. This monologue represents only one moment in the life of Prufrock. It does give characterization and presents clues to the next movement of Prufrock, but there is always room for change, especially for a man like himself. He may be dry, intellectual, and lackluster, but he is a man of deep emotion and realization. There is no telling what could happen to Prufrock if he experiences an event that would boost his self-esteem and change his outlook on his own personality. Prufrock has the ability to be whatever he wishes to be, he just needs to dare.

Works Cited

Eliot, T. S. Inventions of the March Hare. Ed. Christopher Ricks. San Diego: Harcourt Brace & Company, 1996.

Eliot, T. S. Selected Poems. San Diego: Harcourt Brace & Company, 1964

Schneider, Elisabeth. T. S. Eliot: The Pattern in the Carpet. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1975.