The Love Essay of J. Joseph McBrayer

The Thought Process of J. Alfred Prufrock: A Critical Analysis

T.S. Eliot describes the thoughts of a man without hope. More specifically, the thoughts of a man without hope for himself. Our speaker, the titular J. Alfred Prufrock, could not be described as a confident man. He finds himself doubtful at every corner. T.S Eliot’s poem, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” acts as a dramatic monologue, giving readers a perspective on the thoughts of Mr. Prufrock, conveying themes of self-doubt and regret. The author’s use of metaphors to describe the suffocation Prufrock feels in his daily life emphasizes Prufrock’s belief in his own failure. Irony steeps in throughout this poem, coming in forms of simultaneous grandiosity and uncertainty from our speaker. 

Eliot begins the poem with an abundance of irony, starting with an excerpt from Dante’s Inferno. It translates into a statement on the worthiness of the listener. The fragment of Inferno that we are given describes the belief from one character that his story can be safely told because the listener is not of any danger to him. This contributes heavily to the irony of the poem. From the beginning, the reader is told that they do not matter. The listener to J. Alfred Prufrock’s musings is merely an outlet for him to release his feelings of self-doubt. Beginning the poem with an ironic statement describes not only the leading epigraph, but the title of the poem itself. Despite arguably stepping away from the New Critical lens, the title of “Prufrock” is itself ironic. The poem is not a love song, it’s anything but. The title’s implications create expectations of flowery, romantic language, but all that is found is a sardonic internal dialogue, leaping from one idea to the next. These ideas are linked, however, by the self-deprecating tone with which Prufrock expresses nearly every thought. 

Prufrock does not believe that he is enough, and he is plagued by apprehension. He feels as if each step he takes could be his last. His engagement in catastrophic thinking stops him from stepping toward anything he desires. A prime example of this concept comes in the lines “‘Do I dare?’ and, ‘Do I dare?’ / Time to turn back and descend the stair” (656). This line, specifically, demonstrates the indecision that afflicts Prufrock. The line uses the word “descend” which implies that at one point, Prufrock had already ascended the stairs. Prufrock has made a decision, but the uncertainty torments him until the very moment before the decision is final. The question, “Do I dare?” is repeated throughout the poem, each time before Prufrock must make a seemingly inconsequential decision. At one point, the speaker says “Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach?” (659). Again, the speaker sulks in anxiety over the smallest decisions. There is a clear tension created here, between Prufrock’s desires and his anxiety, which he feels is nigh insurmountable. In one stanza, Prufrock laments a past apprehension. He repeatedly asks, “And would it have been worth it, after all,” (658). This use of past tense indicates that this is not a current anxiety, but a regret seeping in over a past inaction. He compares this unknown deed, happening in a conversation, to multiple Herculean efforts. He equates this act, a presumed question, to coming back from the dead, specifically citing the biblical Lazarus. The tension of what Prufrock wants versus what he fears permeates every decision that he makes, gargantuan and inconsequential alike. 

Eliot, throughout this poem, uses imagery to convey the confinement Prufrock feels in his life. The repeated oceanic imagery is used to describe how disconnected Prufrock feels from his high society parties. These soirees introduced with the lines “In the room women come and go / Talking of Michelangelo” (655), as well as the descriptions of  being “[a]mong the porcelain” (658) create the ambiance of high-society tea parties, where people discuss subjects only focused on by the upper class, this being demonstrated by the Renaissance artist Michelangelo. Interspersed with these descriptions of the environment Prufrock finds himself in are descriptions of an environment he believes he would largely prefer. He wishes, at one point, that rather than being a human, he lived as a “pair of ragged claws / Scuttling across the floors of silent seas” (657).  He is frequently lost in his own mind, in the uncertainty that rattles him with every decision, or rather, indecision, which brings him to this marine environment. He finds himself underwater, muffling the sounds coming from outside these aquatic surroundings. In the final stanza, he describes himself as part of a group by using the word “We” (659). He says that this group has “lingered in the chambers of the sea” (659), again using this oceanic imagery to describe a disconnect between him and his human reality.  The final line of the poem reinforces this oceanic safe haven for Prufrock, saying that “... human voices wake us, and we drown” (659). Despite his humanity, Prufrock does not find himself drowning within these depths of the sea, but rather in the waking moments of these high society parties that were once muffled by the silencing comfort of the thalassic chambers. 

Prufrock is the architect of his own misery. He guides himself to these conclusions that offer nothing but misery. Prufrock himself suggests that as he descends the stairs, having changed his mind, that people will notice the “bald spot in the middle of [his] hair-” (656), and that they, being an imaginary group of spectators, will point out his hair’s thinning. He says that this group will go on to point out how thin his arms and legs are as well, revealing to his audience of one yet another insecurity. Prufrock paradoxically describes the trappings of conversation in these upper-class gatherings as pretentious and mind-numbing, whilst he describes his plight of humanity to the listener using many allusions to grandeur. He alludes to the Bible twice, likening his task of saying something that may be uncomfortable to coming back from the dead, as well as analogizing the perceived scrutiny he is under to the beheading of John the Baptist. In this comparison, Prufrock points out once more that his hair is growing thin. Further into the poem, our speaker depicts himself as a lord, though he has the humility to admit that he is not Prince Hamlet. He compares his act as a lord to be closer to an act of the Fool. Even in his grandiose comparisons, he feels obligated to assassinate his character. 

Eliot’s “Prufrock” is a study of a flawed man. It is the study of a man who falls victim to his own self-confidence, or lack thereof. In these stanzas, we are introduced to a man who believes he is simultaneously above humanity, and below the powers that be. He finds himself suffocated by the human experience rather than empowered, and decides that even the most minute of his actions would be daring to “[d]isturb the universe” (656). Prufrock mentally transports himself from the parties he finds to be so stuffy and snobbish to the bottom of the ocean, a safe haven for him not to be tormented by the apprehension that marks his humanity. He expresses the disdain he harbors for the pretentious conversation that he sees just as egotistical bauble, as he cites sources of historic value without second thought. Prufrock’s indecision stains every decision he makes, making every moment in which the decision is not final torturous. Even when these decisions are no longer malleable, Prufrock is racked with regret over his inaction. J. Alfred Prufrock is a man without hope for himself, and an unnoticed self-importance. Eliot’s poem depicts these conflicting thoughts and desires, expertly utilizing literary pillars to create a poem that shows a flawed human that lacks the self-awareness to notice each and every one. 

Works Cited

Eliot, T.S.. “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”. Literature: A Portable Anthology, edited by Janet E.             Gardner, Bedford, 2021, pp. 655-659