The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock

The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock

1. Techniques

   • Allusions to historical and literary figures
     • I am not Price Hamlet, nor was meant to be; Am an attendant lord, one that will do ..... Almost, at time, the Fool.
   • Dramatic Monologue
     • Shows disjointed thought process
     • Presents us with a setting, characters, dialogue (internal), conflict and tension
   • Repitition
     • There will be time, there will be time
   • Metaphors
     • Compares the drifting of the fog and smoke through the city to the movements of a cat
       • The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window panes
       • Made a sudden leap .... and fell asleep
     • The 'you' and 'I' are two sides to his personality
   • Personification
     • Streets that follow like a tedious argument of insidious intent

2. Tone

   • Self-critical
   • Fearful
     • Time yet for a hundred indecisions and for a hundred visions and revisions
   • Regret
     • Would it have been worth it?
     • In short I was afraid
     • I should have been a pair of ragged claws scuttling across the floor

3. Themes

   • Isolation / Social Alienation
   • Loneliness / Inability to Communicate
     • It is impossible to say just what I mean

4. Imagery

   • City depicted in sordid, shabby images
     • Sawdust restaurants
     • One night cheap hotels
   • Depicts his social anxiety
     • To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet
     • Eyes that fix you in a formulated phrase
     • Pinned and wriggling on the wall
     • Like a patient etherised upon a table
   • Monotonous life
     • I have measured out my life with coffee spoons
   • Questions modern society
     • In the room the women come and go talking of Michelango