Which Event From the Lovesong of J Alfred Prufrock Best Shows This Theme Pufrock Despises Modern Art

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

Table of Contents

Past barraging readers with a seemingly disjointed collage of images, T.South. Eliot uses the distinctly modernist style of Imagism to construct his verse form, "The Beloved 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 but words that are admittedly necessary to enhancing the description should be used in verse. Ezra Pound, ane of the nigh influential Imagist poets, defined this motility by saying: "We are not a school of painters, merely nosotros believe that poetry should render particulars exactly and non deal in vague generalities, yet magnificent and sonorous." Knowing Eliot's involvement with this movement, his use of imagery and clarification becomes specially important to the reader. His use of precise language invites readers to examine each discussion and prototype closely. In order to understand the pregnant behind this verse form, the reader must dissect Eliot'southward imagery, clarify its symbolic meaning, and find thematic patterns. This site intends to practise just 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 chief themes of this poem. While the explications of the images on this page follow the aforementioned disjointed blueprint of organization as Eliot'south images themselves, I promise to show that while each image or image cluster are distinct and seemingly unrelated, they are tied together though thematic elements. Through his use of imagery and innuendo in this verse form, Eliot deals with themes that revolve around the fragile and self-conscious man condition, touching on the ideas of inadequacy, sexual anxiety and fear of mortality.

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

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Thinning and Alopecia

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

The reoccurring image of alopecia, and furthermore Prufrock's obsessive feet nearly his own thinning hair, draws the reader's attention to the theme of self-consciousness in this verse form. Equally mentioned by critic Margaret Blum, Prufrock alludes to his own baldness or thinning hair on four different occasions during his dramatic monologue. Prufrock's anxiety about his own baldness, and also about the feebleness of his body, can be related to his obsessive fearfulness regarding aging and death. This theme is again echoed as Prufrock proclaims: "I have seen the Eternal footman agree my glaze, and snicker, And in short I was afraid" (lines 85-86). Hither, Prufrock expresses the belief that death itself mocks him in his onetime historic period. Through this passage, Eliot again displays Prufrock's self-consciousness and fear every bit he nears the finish of his life. The protagonist'due south constant introspection and feet about his own death develops the theme of the mortality and fragility of homo life. Prufrock's apparent concern with his paradigm and the way in which he is perceived by the guests at the party also serves to highlight his difficulties and anxieties regarding homo interaction- a theme that is echoed throughout the verse form in various other images.

Michelangelo

In the room the women come up and go
Talking of Michelangelo (thirteen-xiv)

This repeated mention of Michelangelo by the women in "The Beloved Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" serves as more than just a representation of the idle chatter of the attendees of the tea party. This allusion highlights the theme of sexual anxiety every bit suggested by Tepper in her article "Nation and Eros." Michelangelo, a world-renown painter, sculptor and poet, serves as a model of the quintessential "Renaissance homo", the male ideal for perfection. An image also associated with Michelangelo is his sculpture of David, considered to be the embodiment of male person physical perfection. As discussed in terms of Prufrock's fear of aging and decease, he also faces severe sexual anxiety when faced with this idea of this epitome for the perfect male person and his own inadequacy. Unable to compare with Michelangelo'due south status as a Renaissance human or David's standard of physical perfection, Prufrock turns self-conciously inward to obsess over his ain "decisions and revisions" and the way in which he appears to members of the opposite sex. In many ways, every bit this allusion and Prufrock'due south reaction demonstrate, this verse form deals with the inherent inadequacy we experience and the anxiety we experience as human being beings interacting with one another. Adding to the previously discussed themes of mortality and fragility, the allusion to Michelangelo and Prufrock's inability to compare with the male ideal display the self-consciousness that comes with man interaction.

Individual Female Torso Parts

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

Adding to the theme of sexual anxiety in this verse form, literary critic Michelle Tepper as well asserts that Prufrock'southward self-conciousness and fright of human being interaction, especially interaction with women, causes him to "reduce [female person] bodies to artillery and legs." Equally the female attendees of the tea party are described in Prufrock'south monologue it is truthful that they are ofttimes severed into "arms that prevarication forth a tabular array" or "optics that prepare y'all in a formulated phrase." In a Petrarchan sense, this division of female body parts creates a blazon – a literary device in which the poet praises individual parts of a woman'south body often with flowery, figurative language. Yet this device, while it seems to compliment the female person object of the verse form, is not entirely an innocent form of flattery. The partitioning of the female body into mere pieces is a ways of objectification and the deprival of her existence every bit a whole human beingness. Still, Prufrock's division and objectification of female body parts does not 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 human beings and instead must view them equally individual body parts. Furthermore, Prufrock's anxiety leads to his ain self-objectification, adding more complication to the effects of his fear of human interaction every bit reflected in his self-paradigm and the mode in which he deals with others. The protagonist's tendency to regard himself and others every bit fragmented, objectified beings expresses his sexual anxiety as well as the difficulties of human interaction. The ideas of a disconnect in human 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 homo 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 image of "ragged claws scuttling beyond the floors of silent seas" reiterates the previously discussed theme of crumbling and mortality and as well can be read equally an innuendo to Shakespeare'south Hamlet, a play that is referenced several times in the poem. Only earlier analyzing this line as an allusion in the context of Village, many critics, like Robert Fleissner, argue that the prototype has an innate meaning that fits well with the ideas woven together in this poem. Fleissner views the utilize of this crustacean as a symbol of growing sometime and futile. The utilise of the crab, especially, conjures images of futility, of moving slowly and with not bad difficulty- images also associated with the process of aging and approaching death. In a colloquial sense, this image of the crab bring to mind the idea of "crabbiness" or sick-tempered petulance that is also often linked to growing quondam and senile. While ane interpretation of this image is based on its context inside the poem, other some believe that information technology takes on a more fully-developed pregnant when read as an allusion to Hamlet. Many critics wait to Polonius's line to Hamlet, "if, similar a crab, y'all could go backward" (two.2.205-206), to translate Eliot'due south mention of "ragged claws scuttling." In this light, his alignment of Prufrock with the image 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 end of his life and begin to grapple with his own bloodshed, he turns fretfully inward and wishes regretfully the be able to revise his own past. As seen though both interpretations of this image, it furthers Eliot's theme of aging and death also equally the anxiety and self-consciousness that comes well-nigh in response to this procedure.

The Peach

Shall I role my hair from backside? Practice I dare eat a peach? (122)

While Eliot only briefly mentions the peach in this verse form, it has come to be 1 of the most critically contested images, in terms of deciphering its significant. In his book, Ascending the Prufrockian Stair, Robert Fleissner dedicates an unabridged affiliate to offering various interpretations of "Prufrock'southward Peach." Firstly, he considers the thought that the peach, in this context, could be a reference to the Forbidden Fruit of the biblical Creation story. With this estimation, Prufrock must cull between knowledge and immortality. This struggle fits in closely with Prufrock'due south abiding grappling with his ain mortality. In Prufrock's eyes, he has already eaten the biblical fruit and must now heed the consequences: a crushing awareness of the world around him and his own budgeted death. Another estimation by Fleissner likewise broaches the topic of Prufrock'due south fright of crumbling. He believe that Prufrock's uneasiness in biting into the peach stems from his fear of losing his teeth while doing and so. Much like with his obsession with his thinning hair, Prufrock is plagued by cocky-consiousness and panic that his body will fail him even in everyday tasks such equally eating. Finally, many critics agree on the idea that the peach tin exist taken as a sexual symbol, representative of Prufrock's reoccuring feelings of sexual inadequacy and anxiety when faced with human being interaction. With the image of the peach representing female sexuality, and especially with his self-uncertainty in because whether to eat 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'south tendency to represent women as mere torso parts, this objectification is a consequence of Prufrock's feet when faced with human being interaction. This anxiety, information technology seems, is simply intensified when dealing with the potential of sexual relations. While at that place is no conclusive agreement every bit to the significant of the peach, most critical interpretations are in accord that this image in some fashion 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 Beloved Vocal of J. Alfred Prufrock'." Mod Language 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.South. Eliot. Cambridge University Printing: New York, 2004.

Photos:

Tea Party: Painting by Frank 50. http://www.forgottentreasurez.com/servlet/Detail?no=573</bridge>
Peach: Texas A&M Depatment of Horticulture. http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/syllabi/319/1peach.html
David: Wikimedia Eatables.
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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