How does T.S Eliot influence our response to Prufrock in his social and cultural isolation and how effective is he in doing this?
Eliot has effectively influenced and enforced the fact that J. Alfred Prufrock is an isolated individual in society both socially and culturally. He achieves this outcome through the extensive use of an array of language features and devices, which relate directly and indirectly to the structure demonstrated in the poem. The poem is an inquest into the mind of Prufrock, who is seemly brought across as an ineffectual communicator who struggles to come to terms with his place in society. The techniques Eliot disposes throughout the poem ineffectively illustrate Prufrocks social reclusion and cultural detachment.
Prufrocks social and cultural isolation is representational of a combination of his personal attributes and the part they play in holding him back from realising his true potential in life. His bleak view on life is impacted by his indecisive nature where he is always thinking over everything and never acting on impulse. These kinds of occurrences in Prufrocks mind establish a well-built barrier separating himself, the hopeless individual, from all aspects of society. Eliot conveys these notions to the reader through the development of Prufrocks introspective identity. Eliots description of this characters persona relies upon the figurative language devices to effectively communicate the idea of social and cultural isolation.
The epigraph from Dantes Inferno inserted at the beginning of Prufrock expresses Eliots decision to contribute to the socially isolated perspective. It entails a descriptive voice of a person damned in hell who becomes a symbol of Prufrocks ideal listener. This is a secretive being that is just at unease to the situation as the reader, and would keep to themselves the content of Prufrocks current confessions. As such a concerned being does not exist, Prufrock is forced be complacent with personal reflection and this becomes a major issue as it contributes to his over-thinking.
Eliots aim in using the epigraph as a language device may have connotations to being in hell, suggesting hopelessness and effectively represents Prufrocks situation of suffrage in relation to his social and cultural isolation.
Animal imagery stands as a dominating form of figurative language and clearly justifies Eliots purpose to effectively epitomise Prufrocks social and cultural isolation. The quote: I should have been a pair of claws/scuttling across the floors of silent seas represents the comparison of Prufrock to merely an insignificant, bottom feeding crab that scuttles sideways and never gets anywhere. This is a direct metaphor that suggests the perspective from where Prufrock sees himself standing in society; at the bottom of the chain, and that he will never get anywhere or achieve anything. He feels he leads an unachieving, unfulfilling life and he doesnt even consider attempting interaction with people - at the expense of revealing himself and being perceived ineptly - as he will still end up on the very bottom of the depths (of society). This also reflects his bleak, pessimistic view on life, which revolves around reoccurrences of hopelessness and rejection.
Prufrocks complete and utter inability to communicate and interact with people and women in particular is shown through the way Eliot uses the line: To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet as if he is disembodying them, simply referring to them as faces. He feels as if he has to change his appearance and personality in the quest to be accepted, also reflecting his severe self-conscious nature and lack of self-confidence. It is all based around the insecurities that shape his dismal and disheartening sense of self, which Eliot successfully achieves in showing relation to the more versatile theme of the individuals disconnection and distancing from society and people in general.
The repetition of phrases, meaningless in themselves is a realisation of Prufrocks procrastinative nature. There will be time, there will be time demonstrates Eliots use of the repeated phrase to make clear the torment and tribulations Prufrock experiences in coming to terms with the past, the present and the future. He is also illustrating how the isolated individual dwells on the expectation that there will always be another chance, another amount of time in which he will work up the courage to exert himself.
The use of assonance in: And time yet for a hundred indecisions/And for a hundred visions and divisions follows on a similar pathway, demonstrating Prufrocks extreme case of indecisiveness which is representational of the socially and culturally isolated individual, that Eliot manages to specify effectively throughout. It is almost as if Prufrocks mind is built on a constant, reoccurring cycle of nothingness where his mind is always running on overdrive. He is imprisoned in his own world and the line above suggests he may be suffering internally, having to process thoughts obsessively while never actually accomplishing anything.
Prufrocks particularly defeatist mentality is implied in the rhetorical questions: And should I then presume? And how should I begin? as these unfinished thoughts represent the agonizing and anguishing reality of an individual isolated from society. The individual battle of reassessing the outcomes of making an action is put on the plate as Eliot refers to the fact that Prufrock possesses a pessimistic mentality where he would rather not risk interaction with women as failure would overcome him, and that he is unsure about how his actions would be perceived as his acting out would be too big a change. Eliot forces us to comptemplate the meaning of life in these lines as it contributes to the rising desperation, tension and anticipation of an individual stuck in a cycle of cultural and social reservation.
Prufrocks inaptitude in coping in a modern world context is shown through the use of fragmentated sentences, which parallels with the way he sees himself as socially unfit within the modern, urban landscape. Let us go, through half-deserted streets, The muttering retreats/ Of restless nights in one night cheap hotels represents Eliots prerogative in terms of creating a drab, even somewhat disturbing representation of the cityscape. Uneasy thoughts are generated and linked to this environment forcing the isolated individual in society being Prufrock, to feel fearful and cautious of the way society may dare to treat him, all concerns aside.
The poem has no discernable verse structure because it is a formulation of declarations and retrospection, which we read as the character thinks. Metaphorically, the use of fragmentation accounts for Prufrocks life in pieces which resemble nothing but a complete detachment to society and his true identity and persona he could only wish to display.
Have the strength to force the moment to its crisis demonstrates his ideal plan of attack which he feels he may never feel inclined to perform, thus supporting Eliots idea of the socially and culturally isolated individual in society.
Rhyme is dispersed irregularly throughout the poem to accentuate meaning and the effect of reoccurring instances such as in I grow old... I grow old... I shall wear my trousers rolled. In this line Prufrocks fear of aging comes into play and the repetition of I grow old reflects the emptiness of his life, and what he feels he has not yet achieved. The idea of the isolated, unfulfilled individual in society is again recognised by Eliot in this instance.
Eliot uses the format of a sonnet, a three lined stanza as well as a rhyming couplet in We have lingered in the chambers of the sea/ By sea girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown/ Till human voices wake us, and we drown in the conclusion of the poem. Prufrock is coming to terms with the fact that he has done nothing in life to be proud of, symbolizing his life as almost a worthless waste of time through Eliots use of the word lingered. The beautiful sea girls represent the women he had always felt too intimidated by to approach, and the fantasy represents the barriers that exist between people that are impossible to break. The use of the word drown signals the reality breaking in on this illusion and as it dissolves, Eliot ensures that the isolated individual in particular is woken by human voices that startle him even more so as to represent effectively the resulting of social and cultural isolation.
Eliot influences the reader that Prufrock is in many ways, suffering a severe lack of social and cultural interaction and consequentially is isolated within his own mind. This
Is shown successfully through the repeated use of figurative language and various language techniques as well as structure, which confirms his feelings of inadequacy and self-resentment. These feelings of torture, frustration and conflict within himself are strong and may result in his failure to never let such feelings rise to the surface and find expression in a social or cultural situation. Eliot conveys Prufrocks social and cultural isolation very effectively and flawlessly throughout the poem The Love Song Of J. Alfred Prufrock.
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