Read the Following Lines From the Lovesong of J Alfred Prufrock and Would It Have Been

Imagery in "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"

Table of Contents

Past barraging readers with a seemingly disjointed collage of images, T.Due south. Eliot uses the distinctly modernist fashion of Imagism to construct his poem, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock." Imagism, a literary movement closely linked to modernism, is based on the principles that poetry should be constructed of precise descriptions of concrete images. The language used by Imagists is clear and exact. They held that only words that are absolutely necessary to enhancing the clarification should be used in poetry. Ezra Pound, i of the about influential Imagist poets, divers this move past saying: "We are not a schoolhouse of painters, but we believe that poetry should render particulars exactly and not deal in vague generalities, however magnificent and sonorous." Knowing Eliot'southward involvement with this movement, his use of imagery and description becomes particularly important to the reader. His use of precise language invites readers to examine each word and paradigm closely. In club to understand the meaning behind this poem, the reader must dissect Eliot'south imagery, analyze its symbolic pregnant, and detect thematic patterns. This site intends to do merely that. By highlighting a few dominant images and allusions in the poem, I hope to gain some insight into Eliot's use of imagery to relate the main themes of this poem. While the explications of the images on this folio follow the aforementioned disjointed pattern of organization every bit Eliot's images themselves, I hope to show that while each image or image cluster are distinct and seemingly unrelated, they are tied together though thematic elements. Through his utilise of imagery and innuendo in this poem, Eliot deals with themes that circumduct around the fragile and self-witting man condition, touching on the ideas of inadequacy, sexual anxiety and fearfulness of mortality.

"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" – Full Text
Listen to "The Dearest Vocal of J. Alfred Prufrock"

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Thinning and Baldness

With a bald spot in the middle of my hair-
[They will say: "How his hair is growing thin!"]…
My tie rich and modest, just asserted by a simple pivot-
[They will say: "Just how his artillery and legs are thin!" (40-44)

The reoccurring image of baldness, and furthermore Prufrock'southward obsessive anxiety about his ain thinning hair, draws the reader's attention to the theme of self-consciousness in this poem. Equally mentioned by critic Margaret Blum, Prufrock alludes to his ain baldness or thinning hair on four different occasions during his dramatic monologue. Prufrock's feet about his own alopecia, and too well-nigh the feebleness of his body, tin can be related to his obsessive fright regarding aging and decease. This theme is once again echoed every bit Prufrock proclaims: "I have seen the Eternal footman concord my coat, and snicker, And in brusk I was afraid" (lines 85-86). Hither, Prufrock expresses the belief that expiry itself mocks him in his quondam historic period. Through this passage, Eliot once more displays Prufrock's self-consciousness and fear equally he nears the end of his life. The protagonist's constant introspection and feet about his own expiry develops the theme of the mortality and fragility of human life. Prufrock's apparent concern with his prototype and the way in which he is perceived by the guests at the political party likewise serves to highlight his difficulties and anxieties regarding man interaction- a theme that is echoed throughout the poem in various other images.

Michelangelo

In the room the women come and become
Talking of Michelangelo (13-14)

This repeated mention of Michelangelo past the women in "The Love Vocal of J. Alfred Prufrock" serves as more than simply a representation of the idle churr of the attendees of the tea party. This innuendo highlights the theme of sexual anxiety as suggested by Tepper in her article "Nation and Eros." Michelangelo, a globe-renown painter, sculptor and poet, serves equally a model of the quintessential "Renaissance man", the male ideal for perfection. An paradigm also associated with Michelangelo is his sculpture of David, considered to be the embodiment of male physical perfection. As discussed in terms of Prufrock's fear of aging and death, he also faces astringent sexual anxiety when faced with this idea of this paradigm for the perfect male and his ain inadequacy. Unable to compare with Michelangelo's status as a Renaissance man or David's standard of physical perfection, Prufrock turns self-conciously inward to obsess over his own "decisions and revisions" and the way in which he appears to members of the contrary sex. In many ways, as this allusion and Prufrock's reaction demonstrate, this verse form deals with the inherent inadequacy we feel and the feet we experience as human beings interacting with one some other. Adding to the previously discussed themes of bloodshed and fragility, the allusion to Michelangelo and Prufrock's inability to compare with the male person platonic brandish the self-consciousness that comes with human interaction.

Individual Female Body Parts

And I have known the eyes already, known them all-
The optics that fix y'all in a formulated phrase…
And I have known the arms already, known them all-
Arms that are braceleted and white and bare…
Arms lie forth a table, or wrap around a shawl. (55 – 66)

Adding to the theme of sexual feet in this poem, literary critic Michelle Tepper also asserts that Prufrock's self-conciousness and fear of human interaction, peculiarly interaction with women, causes him to "reduce [female person] bodies to arms and legs." Equally the female person attendees of the tea party are described in Prufrock's monologue information technology is true that they are often severed into "artillery that lie forth a table" or "optics that fix you in a formulated phrase." In a Petrarchan sense, this partition of female body parts creates a blazon – a literary device in which the poet praises individual parts of a woman's body often with flowery, figurative linguistic communication. Notwithstanding this device, while information technology seems to compliment the female object of the poem, is not entirely an innocent form of flattery. The division of the female body into mere pieces is a ways of objectification and the denial of her existence equally a whole human. Notwithstanding, Prufrock's sectionalization and objectification of female trunk parts does non seem intentional. Rather, due to his anxiety in his relations with others, Prufrock is subconsciously unable to recognize the females he interacts with as whole homo beings and instead must view them as individual body parts. Furthermore, Prufrock's anxiety leads to his own self-objectification, adding more complexity to the effects of his fear of human interaction as reflected in his self-image and the way in which he deals with others. The protagonist's trend to regard himself and others as fragmented, objectified beings expresses his sexual anxiety as well every bit the difficulties of homo interaction. The ideas of a disconnect in man interaction and the failures of advice are prevalent among Modernist writers and poets. Eliot uses Prufrock's dramatic monologue to highlight the characteristically Modernist theme of a rift in human interaction within this poem.

"Ragged Claws" and Allusions to Village

I should have been a pair of ragged claws
Scuttling beyond the floors of silent seas (73-74)

This paradigm of "ragged claws scuttling across the floors of silent seas" reiterates the previously discussed theme of aging and mortality and also tin can be read as an innuendo to Shakespeare's Hamlet, a play that is referenced several times in the verse form. Merely before analyzing this line as an allusion in the context of Village, many critics, like Robert Fleissner, debate that the epitome has an innate pregnant that fits well with the ideas woven together in this poem. Fleissner views the use of this crustacean equally a symbol of growing erstwhile and futile. The use of the crab, especially, conjures images of futility, of moving slowly and with cracking difficulty- images as well associated with the process of aging and approaching death. In a colloquial sense, this paradigm of the crab bring to listen the idea of "crabbiness" or ill-tempered petulance that is also oft linked to growing quondam and senile. While one interpretation of this image is based on its context inside the poem, other some believe that information technology takes on a more than fully-developed meaning when read as an allusion to Hamlet. Many critics look to Polonius'south line to Village, "if, like a crab, you could go backward" (2.2.205-206), to interpret Eliot'southward mention of "ragged claws scuttling." In this calorie-free, his alignment of Prufrock with the prototype of a crab ties dorsum to the protagonist's feelings of self-consciousness and regret and echoes his obsession with "decisions and revisions." As Prufrock nears the stop of his life and begin to grapple with his own mortality, he turns fretfully inward and wishes regretfully the be able to revise his own by. As seen though both interpretations of this image, information technology furthers Eliot'southward theme of aging and death besides as the anxiety and self-consciousness that comes nigh in response to this procedure.

The Peach

Shall I part my pilus from backside? Practise I dare eat a peach? (122)

While Eliot only briefly mentions the peach in this poem, it has come to be one of the most critically contested images, in terms of deciphering its significant. In his volume, Ascending the Prufrockian Stair, Robert Fleissner dedicates an unabridged chapter to offering various interpretations of "Prufrock's Peach." Firstly, he considers the idea that the peach, in this context, could be a reference to the Forbidden Fruit of the biblical Creation story. With this interpretation, Prufrock must choose between knowledge and immortality. This struggle fits in closely with Prufrock's constant grappling with his own mortality. In Prufrock's eyes, he has already eaten the biblical fruit and must now heed the consequences: a crushing awareness of the earth around him and his own budgeted death. Another interpretation by Fleissner as well broaches the topic of Prufrock's fear of crumbling. He believe that Prufrock'due south uneasiness in bitter into the peach stems from his fear of losing his teeth while doing so. Much like with his obsession with his thinning hair, Prufrock is plagued by self-consiousness and panic that his body will neglect him even in everyday tasks such as eating. Finally, many critics concur on the idea that the peach tin can be taken as a sexual symbol, representative of Prufrock's reoccuring feelings of sexual inadequacy and feet when faced with human interaction. With the image of the peach representing female sexuality, and especially with his self-doubt in considering whether to consume the peach, Prufrock revisits the feelings of inadequacy that he presents in his disability to compare to Michelangelo's David. Notably, the peach is used as a means to objectify women and female sexuality. As explained previously with the speaker's tendency to represent women as mere body parts, this objectification is a consequence of Prufrock's anxiety when faced with homo interaction. This anxiety, it seems, is only intensified when dealing with the potential of sexual relations. While in that location is no conclusive understanding as to the meaning of the peach, near critical interpretations are in accordance that this paradigm in some way enhances the themes of Prufrock's fear of aging and death, his feelings of inadequacy and self-deprecation, or his panic when interacting with other humans.

Listen to the verse form:

prufrock.mp3

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Works Cited

Blum, Margaret Morton. "The Fool in 'The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock'." Modern Linguistic communication Notes, Vol. 72, No. 6 (Jun., 1957), pp. 424-426
Fleissner, Robert F. Ascending the Prufrockian Stair: Studies in Dissociated Sensibility. Peter Lang: New York, 1988.
Tepper, Michelle. "Nation and eros". Gender, Desire and Sexuality in T.S. Eliot. Cambridge University Press: New York, 2004.

Photos:

Tea Party: Painting by Frank L. http://www.forgottentreasurez.com/servlet/Detail?no=573</span>
Peach: Texas A&M Depatment of Horticulture. http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/syllabi/319/1peach.html
David: Wikimedia Commons.
https://sites.udel.edu/britlitwiki/files//2018/06/FileDavid_von_Michelangelo.jpg

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Source: https://sites.udel.edu/britlitwiki/the-love-song-of-j-alfred-prufrock/

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