Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"

Paper Summary:

This paper examines the poem, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock", by T.S. Eliot. It shows how, by beginning the poem with a quote from Dante's "Inferno", Eliot hints that Prufrock's agony will be spiritual in nature, but he does not reveal that right away. It analyzes how J. Alfred Prufrock views his life as a kind of Hell on Earth, full of dirt created by mankind, and an unspoken agreement in society to make no note of it. It looks at how Eliot creates image after image that could have been beautiful, or at least intriguing, and casts them in an ugly, yellow light. It also shows how the poem contains images of modern society, overbuilt and in an ugly state, and how, with the combination of air pollution and fog, it gives a very negative result of the modernization of cities.

From the Paper:

"He backs down. He goes through the social niceties, dressing well and following the conventions of the day, making polite small talk at tea, but is too cowardly to speak out when in polite company about the damage they are doing to God's beautiful world. He sees this as a great sin, one he will have to atone for in the next life. The use of the word "ices" is intriguing, because lemon ice is a common flavor, and that would bring the color yellow back into his admission that he is not willing to challenge society by bringing up issues they would rather not face. He hears people talk about the beauty of Michelangelo and listen to great music, but he does not hear them say "Why has the fog turned yellow?""

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