T. S. Eliot(Thomas Stearns)

• Born in St. Louis, to wealthy family

• Went to Harvard as undergraduate – Published number of poems

in Harvard Advocate.

• When W W 1 broke out, he went to live in England

• Influenced by Ezra Pound– Urged him to publish “The

Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”

• Early works focused on frustration and despair of life in modern times and utilized new techniques

• In 1922, he published his most influential work: The Waste Land– This poem contrasts the lack of spirituality in

modern Europe with the values of the past

• Became an English citizen in 1927 and a member of the Church of England in 1928

• Changes in his citizenship and focus on religion enabled him to change the themes of his writing

• Eliot felt these new themes could serve as a healer for the spiritually lacking society he wrote about in The Waste Land

• He also became a playwright.– First major play was

Murder in the Cathedral, based on the death of Thomas a Becket

• Received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1948.

“The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”

• Stream of Consciousness writing style

• Narrator uses “you” and “I” when referring to himself because he sees himself as conflicted– One part eager to take

action– One part wants to hold

back

• This poem is a variation of a dramatic monologue

Summary of Poem• Prufrock is main character: modern man--overeducated,

eloquent, neurotic, and emotionally unequipped

• Prufrock wants to tell this woman how he feels about her, but he never really does.

• Instead he just debates with himself if he should tell her how he feels.

• His self image is not a good one, often referring to himself as aging, a Fool, and going unnoticed by younger women

Dramatic Monologue

• Like a soliloquy

• Has 3 main components

– The speech is specifically addressed to a specific person in a particular moment

– The person the speaker is addressing is not really present, but rather implied

– The purpose of the monologue is to reveal character traits of the speaker

Does this poem meet the 3 criteria of a dramatic monologue?

Questions

• What allusions are used in the poem?

• What does the “yellow smoke”/”yellow fog” in lines 15-21 refer to?

• What is Prufrock’s image of himself? (lines 39-44; line 83; lines 109-120)

• In lines 109-118, list 4 adjectives he uses to describe himself. Do you see a conflict between them?

Why would the women be coming and going talking of Michelangelo?

• Prufrock is acknowledging that he is NOT in fact someone they, the women, would talk about.

• Contrasting his image of himself to that of Michelangelo’s work

• (see lines 39-44)

What about Hamlet?• Prufrock acknowledges he is

NOT the Prince of Denmark

• Mocking the fact that he is aging and the only way he could be younger is if he could go backwards like a crab.

• By the way, crabs are bottom feeders of the sea

– Interesting it is this animal he wishes he should be

And Lazarus?

• The love of this woman would bring him back from the dead, but since he won’t tell her, he won’t be resurrected at all.