1. Describe the setting(s). How do they reflect the character of Prufrock? What kind of world does he live in?
Il Won: The poem embarks by describing the time of the day: "When the evening is spread out." And soon Eliot tells about people around Prufrock. People are restlessly arguing and muttering outside. It is implied that the place Prufrock is at is not where nobleness would exist. Either Prufrock himself is one of those kinds of people who are roaming down the street or he is surprised by such scene. The yellow fog and smoke obviously represents industrialization in major cities. It gets clearer when Prufrock states "And indeed there will be time." In this stanza, Prufrock maintains his position in the same level as the rest of the people around him. He's meeting faces that he has seen before, people are working, and they are drinking tea, just like any ordinary days of Prufrock would have been like. Moving on to the sad part, Prufrock doesn't seem to be a great person in the following stanza. Prufrock questions "Do I dare?" What's on the top of the list is 'does Prufrock dare to change to world while he's just aging with no contributions to the world?' It is apparent that Prufrock is aging, and aging plus question equals something regretful about his past times. It turns out hat Prufrock is living a miserable life. But not surprising since any other person is no better than him. After the elipsis is where the setting changes suddenly. "I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker, / And I have seen the eternal Footman hold my coat, and snicker, / And in short, I was afraid." These lines probably indicate Prufrock's imminent death. He's aging and worrying about his past and sees these objects and people that shouldn't be there, which scare him. Last two stanza might represent that Prufrock will die soon after seeing vision of ocean. Seeing ocean and being freed from dull city life may be what Prufrock wanted before he die, which explains why he saw or dreamed about ocean before someone woke him and drowned him. 2. Analyze the rhythm and rhyme. How does it move from biblical to trivial?
3. Describe the female imagery. How does it seem to be both positive and negative?
Jung-Ah: The poet describes his attraction for his female lover. For example, he praises the smell and hair of his woman: “And I have known the arms already, known them all— / Arms that are braceleted and white and bare / [But in the lamplight, downed with light brown hair!] / Is it perfume from a dress / That makes me so digress? / Arms that lie along a table, or wrap about a shawl. / And should I then presume? / And how should I begin?” However, Prufrock also portray women as a source of stress and pain in the back of all men. Making men lonely, desperate and again, lonely. “And watched the smoke that rises from the pipes / Of lonely men in shirt-sleeves, leaning out of windows? … / I should have been a pair of ragged claws / Scuttling across the floors of silent seas” Men, like himself end up blaming himself as an unworthy and undeserving human being. However, while portraying women as a rather superior sex compared to men, the luxury of women is also seen as a less intelligent and rather light-headed. The afternoon tea and conversations of famous arts don’t seem so high-class, but rather just a form of spending and fashion for the men-stressing creatures.
Female is portrayed as gregarious, talkative, and snoopy, as if they were different creature from another planet. Women in The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock live in another universe, men dare to disturb. They gossip about how "How his hair is growing thin!", "But how his arms and legs are thin!". Not to mention the numerous time "In the room the women come and go
Talking of Michelangelo." Allusion of Michelangelo can be interpreted as epitome of masculine perfection and beauty (his piece David). As our table discussed, women love to gossip about looks; they are portrayed as shallow creatures who discourage men to dare disturb their universe. (Iljee)
I couldn't really get a grasp of whether women are describes positively or negatively, but both of your responses help me out a lot. Would it be just that he just doesn't get quite along with women? There seems to a be such distance he feels with women (although he is like that with everyone), and I think that's what makes him so observant. Instead of touching or feeling women, he observes every single detail. (Lindsay)
4. How does this poem reflect modernism and your other experiences of modern literature?
Jung-Ah: In this specific poem, it is unclear who the writer is talking to or talking of. Although the theme may seem simple, solely romantic, it gets more complicated and complex as the poem progresses. This is because Prufrock uses the literary technique ‘stream of consciousness.’ Compared to the older generation literary works, modern literature has a lot more detail / hidden meanings and symbols. For example, the novel, After Dark by Haruki Murakami, one of the most modern literatures our class has studied so far, represents the aspects that are common in today’s literary works. The story rotates not only around one protagonist, but revolves around some of the people a specific society without a specific narrator, similar to Prufrock’s poem. The story is very complex with many hidden settings, such as the television scene. Similarly, the poem has many, unclear metaphors that contrasts and parallels to aspects of society.
This poetry is definitely time consuming in order to interpret the deeper meaning. I mean it took us quite a while to figure out cat-like fog even with the clues "licked" and "leaping, and quite a while to figure the Grim Reaper from "eternal Footman". Not sure if I would call them exactly unclear though. Having focused on Haruki Murakami as my personal author, I'd have to disagree that his novel, After Dark reflects the common aspects modern literature. While Murakami's pieces concentrate on post-modernism (order in chaos, no faith/rebuilt in faith), T.S. Eliot reflects the modernism (pessimistic, chaos, loss of faith) we discussed in class. A simple example of rebuilt in faith in After Dark would be when Mari and her family does not give up on wakening of Eri, her sister who at times seem to be awake but at times seemingly sleeping eternally. (Iljee)
2. Analyze the rhythm and rhyme. How does it move from biblical to trivial?
3. Describe the female imagery. How does it seem to be both positive and negative?
Talking of Michelangelo." Allusion of Michelangelo can be interpreted as epitome of masculine perfection and beauty (his piece David). As our table discussed, women love to gossip about looks; they are portrayed as shallow creatures who discourage men to dare disturb their universe. (Iljee)
4. How does this poem reflect modernism and your other experiences of modern literature?
5. Two others of "choice."