Modern Man in T. S. Eliots The Love Song of J. Alfred...

Modern Man in T. S. Eliot’s The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock Thomas Stearns Eliot’s poetry has been of great influence in revealing to man his real identity during the last fifty years. To Eliot, the modern man is no longer the best creature ever created by God. He is neither a being supreme in everything. Nor is he the all-knowing, the most determined, and the sociable creature one might think of. How is this modern man depicted in his poetry is a question that would take time and meticulous effort to be answered. Nevertheless some characteristics of man are more evident in his poetry: Man suffers an impoverishment of emotional vitality. He lives according to the rules of the empty social conventions and those of a†¦show more content†¦The two selves, that is, the personal and the social, have to tolerate each other (188 – 9). For treating each self Prufrock, however, has some strategies. To the people in the society Prufrock, the representative of the modern Man, has a different self to put forward. This self as Eliot expresses is something artificial that should be prepared: â€Å"There will be time, there will be time to prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet† (Lines 26-27). This notion, however, needs to be explained somehow. Man, in order to be accepted by others, tries to make himself as similar to them as possible. Joseph Conrad strikes the idea even further. He states that, â€Å"We can at times be compelled into a mysterious recognition of our opposite as our true self† (The Norton Anthology of English Literature 847). Man is nevertheless, instinctively and naturally a creature different from what he puts forward in the public. It is palpable, for example, in his getting bored with his fellowmen as soon as they try to penetrate to his personal life. In this sense man is a hypocrite, a double dealer. Man, again, has a sense of duplicity regarding his own self. He suffers in the society yet he is unwilling, actually unable, to do something about it. In a book entitled T.S. Eliot. The Longer Poems, Derek Teraversi is of the opinion that the badness is within the Man not in the society.Show MoreRelatedAnalysis Of The Love Song Of J. Alfred Prufrock1386 Words   |  6 Pagesâ€Å"The Love Song of T.S Eliot† In â€Å"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock† the reader can clearly understand that T.S Eliot is straightforward as one can get within a poem. In the beginning of the poem, one can infer that Prufrock is being used as a facade to convey Eliot’s inner self who is an introvert that doesn’t quite fit in with the modern day society. â€Å"Prufrock† sees his personal life as a burden that he cannot mend while he tries to conform into the middle class society that everyone views asRead More The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T.S. Eliot Essay example1535 Words   |  7 PagesThe Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T.S. Eliot The poetry of the modernist movement is characterized by an emphasis on the alienation of the individual from the broader community in which he or she exists. In the works of T. S. Eliot, this alienation is expressed as a symptom of spiritual and moral decay within communities, societies, and entire civilizations. Eliot’s modernism, which was strongly influenced by his conversion to Anglo-Catholicism, is a harsh critique of the pervasive self-obsessionRead MoreThe Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock Essay1266 Words   |  6 PagesT.S. Eliot’s â€Å"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock† is an ironic depiction of a man’s inability to take decisive action in a modern society that is void of meaningful human connection. The poem reinforces its central idea through the techniques of fragmentation, and through the use of Eliot’s commentary about Prufrock’s social world. Using a series of natural images, Eliot uses fragmentation to show Prufrockâ€⠄¢s inability to act, as well as his fear of society. Eliot’s commentary about Prufrock’s socialRead MoreThe Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock1729 Words   |  7 PagesThe Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock The dramatic monologue â€Å"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock was written by Thomas Stearns Eliot and published in June of 1915. Eliot was born in St Louis, Missouri on September 26, 1888, where he grew up and lived until the age of eighteen. After high school, Eliot studied at Harvard University in Cambridge, MA and the Sorbonne in Paris, France. Eventually, Eliot ended up in England where he married his wife Vivien and spent the remainder of his lifeRead MoreThe Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock Essay1524 Words   |  7 Pagesï » ¿Question: Part A: Analyze the social and historical context of a particular poem Poem: T. S. Eliot, ‘The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock The context of any given text whether poetry, novels or a movie is always integral to its understanding. Social and historical context of not only the given text, but the writer’s context and reader’s context play an important role in the interpretation and understanding of the major ideas, issues, values and beliefs within the text. T.S (Thomas Stearns) EliotRead MoreThe Love Character Of J. Alfred Prufrock As A Modern Man765 Words   |  4 PagesJ. Alfred Prufrock isnt your standard heroic â€Å"alpha-male†. He is a representation of the typical modern man. Prufrock is overeducated, fearful, timid, overly sensitive, and graceful. He continuously ponders lost opportunities and unanswered questions. This is the modern man, not strong and silent but weak and accessible. He represents the modern man by openly displaying disappointment and vulnerability. Eliot personally feels that modern man has an exiguous view on the quality of life and the trulyRead MoreT. S. E liots Poetic Devices Essay1038 Words   |  5 PagesT.S. Eliots Poetical Devices T.S. Eliot was one of the great early 20th Century poets. He wrote many poems throughout his career including The Waste Land(1922), The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock(1917), and Ash Wednesday(1930). Throughout his poems, he uses the same poetic devices to express emotion and give an added depth to his poetry and act like a trademark in his works. One of the devices used throughout is his personification of nature. The second device he often uses is allusionsRead MoreThe Hollow Men And The Love Song Of J. Alfred Prufrock Essay1444 Words   |  6 PagesT. S. Eliot’s modernist style critiques the lifestyle of modern society during the Roaring Twenties. He expresses the false values found in society that affects their perception of themselves, and cause them to lose direction in their lives. Through his poems â€Å"The Hollow Men† and â€Å"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock† Eliot explores the modern underlying issues of both society and man as being lost, stagn ant, and aimless. He advocates for change through de-romanticizing the human condition via theRead More Analysis of T.S. Eliots The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock1424 Words   |  6 PagesAnalysis of T.S. Eliots The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock demonstrates the effects of social and economic pressure in the life of a Victorian man. T.S. Eliot shows us, in an ironic monologue, how the reality of age and social position paralyzes his character with fear. The poem opens with six lines from Dante?s ?Infernio?. This particular stanza explains that the speaker is in hell and the message can only be told to someone else in hell. TheRead MoreAnalysis Of The Appearance Theme By T. S. Eliot, Tennessee Williams, And Arthur Miller2539 Words   |  11 PagesAnalysis of the Appearance Theme in Three Works by T. S. Eliot, Tennessee Williams, and Arthur Miller â€Å"Once you allow yourself to identify with the people in a story, then you might begin to see yourself in that story even if on the surface it s far removed from your situation. This is what I try to tell my students: this is one great thing that literature can do -- it can make us identify with situations and people far away. If it does that, it s a miracle,† remarked Chinua Achebe, novelist, poet