24 pages • 48 minutes read
T. S. EliotThe Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1915A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
Fragmentation of Self and Indecision
One interpretation of the poem’s “you” considers this figure as another aspect of Prufrock’s own person—a different side of himself that he constantly engages in dialogue. The back-and-forth conversational rumination suggests anxiety and fragmentation of the self, and the obsessive worrying over his “hundred indecisions” (Line 32) highlight the psychological trauma he suffers.
Prufrock’s self-doubt and anxiety fracture his character; rather than decisively acting on anything, he spirals into a dialogue of unanswered questions with himself, becoming trapped in inaction, and despairing that he will never achieve meaning. His fractured character echoes Eliot’s perspective on the state of modern humans and the impact of the social and cultural world of the early 20th century. Prufrock operates in an increasingly isolated world where humans lack connection. He is hung up on trivialities and his inability to move past this paralyzes him and prevents him from achieving a unified sense of self. He longs to be the kind of person who can "force the moment to its crisis” (Line 80), but at every turn, he is consumed by fear and indecision. Eliot speaks to the profound effect this has on the consciousness of modern man: Prufrock is a failure, and as such, the poem results in his death. Without the ability to connect with others, communicate, and form meaning, humans in the modern world will be isolated, lonely, and full of despair.
Failure of the Modern World to Create Meaning
Like many modernist works, “Prufrock” espouses a nihilistic perspective, finding the contemporary world meaningless and banal. For Prufrock, his entire life has measured up to nothing more than a his daily cups of coffee, and the social interactions he experiences are superficial and cold. The other humans in the poem are the women who “come and go / talking of Michelangelo” (Lines 35-36), implying an overriding value of fashion or elitism over intimate or frank human connection. When Prufrock tries to establish a connection with a woman, he is stymied by his inability “to say just what I mean” (Line 104), and to understand anything she attempts to tell him.
The Biblical stories that inspire Prufrock fail in the modern context, and Prufrock cannot live up to the model they set for him. By alluding to John the Baptist—a prophet-martyr—and Lazarus—a character Jesus miraculously brought back from the dead—Eliot starkly contrasts Prufrock’s life with those of action, meaning, and salvation. Eliot does not suggest, though, that Prufrock simply needs to find faith; rather, in the contemporary context, these Biblical stories fall short. Despite having “wept and fasted, wept and prayed” (Line 81), Prufrock’s attempt to be like John the Baptist remains infused with his contemporary fears as he imagines the ridiculous image of his head “grown slightly bald” (Line 82) brought in on a platter. Similarly, his desire to embody the story of Lazarus back from the dead does nothing to further his relationship with his love interest, and only serves to widen the gulf between them.
Sexual Frustration and Alienation Between Humans
Prufrock’s inability to decide and act alienates him from others and prevents him from achieving meaningful romantic or intimate relationships. While he desperately wants to connect with others and feels strong sexual urges, he cannot begin to initiate an encounter with a woman. While desiring the female figure in the poem, Prufrock is also incapable of fully imagining her as human. She is described in body parts, clothing, and scents—as parts of a whole rather than a complete, autonomous being. Like Prufrock’s understanding of himself, she is split and therefore unknowable. His sexual impotency is merely an aspect of his overarching failure.
Prufrock’s sexual frustration stems not only from his inability to say what he means to the woman, but from his inability to understand her. She repeats on multiple occasions, “That is not what I meant at all” (Line 97), adding to the frustrated mood. All other humans in the poem—most of them women—are opaque or partially drawn, and Prufrock is only capable of guessing at their thoughts or intentions. He is terrified at what these others think of him, but all of the words he puts in their mouths— “They will say: […] his hair is growing thin” (Line 41), for example—are merely things he imagines, born of his own anxiety rather than any actual understanding of the other.
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By T. S. Eliot
