Ts Eliot Essay, Research Paper

Man, Love, and Women Speaking of Michelangelo

“Poetry is of course not to be defined by its uses…It may effect revolutions in sensibility such as are periodically needed; may help to break up the conventional modes of perception and valuation which are perpetually forming, and make people see the world afresh, or some new part of it. It may make us from time to time a little more aware of the deeper, unnamed feelings which form the substratum of our being, to which we rarely penetrate; for our lives are mostly a constant evasion of ourselves, and an evasion of the visible and sensible world. But to say all this is only to say what you know already, if you have felt poetry and thought about your feelings.”

—-T. S. Eliot, The Use of Poetry and the Use of Criticism

Poetry is a way that people can express and truly relate aspects of life, love, and being. It doesn t seem logical or even forthright that an exposition, such as writing, that is so unnatural in basic human respect can be viewed as one of the more natural forms of release. Love is something that people and society deal with in every way that it can be transcribed. People see it in television, other forms of basic media, in their own lives, and through standards of literature. One such an example can be found through T.S. Eliot s work, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.” In this piece, Eliot repetition supported with hyperbole, allusion, and internal monologue coupled with imagery to create the distinction between man and its adversely quaint relationship with love and an explanation of man s soul, heart, and reason for being.

Thomas Stearns Eliot was born in St. Louis, Missouri USA on September 26, 1888 to Henry Ware (a businessman) and Charlotte Stearns Eliot (a poetess). Eliot’s family line can be traced back to the earliest of New England settlers, and the family produced many a distinguished male in letters and religion throughout their long history in Boston, Massachusetts where “America’s cultural aristocracy” ruled. The influence of this family also extended to St. Louis, where Eliot’s paternal grandfather established and presided over Washington University. Endowed with and proud of their social connections and respectability, the Eliot family made the most of it. Accordingly, Eliot went to only the very best schools: Smith Academy in St. Louis (grammar school), Milton Academy in Massachusetts (secondary school). By 1906 he was a freshman at Harvard University This is not to say that Eliot was only there because of who he knew; quite the contrary–he finished his bachelor’s degree in only 3 years, was a grad. student in philosophy from 1910-1914, and even studied at the Sorbonne in Paris for a year. Eliot never received his doctoral degree however, as he had taken up residence in England and liked it so much he decided not to return to America. Part of this decision had to do with his falling in love with a beautiful English girl named Vivienne Haigh-Wood. Eliot only returned home for occasional visits, and became a British citizen in 1927 after a period of much soul-searching. This explains why Eliot can be found in both the English Poets and American Poets section of one’s local libraries and bookstores. Nevertheless, Eliot has said that he should be considered an American rather than an English poet. In 1915 Eliot married Vivienne, a relationship chronicled in the movie Tom and Viv starring Willem Dafoe as Eliot and Miranda Richardson as Vivienne. Vivienne would later die in 1945 after a long period of increasingly degenerate health (both physical and mental). Eliot would not remarry until 1957 to Valerie Fletcher, a happy marriage for both.

Eliot held many different kinds of jobs throughout his lifetime, as writing poetry was not and still is not the most lucrative of occupations when one is not well-known. His occupations varied from schoolmaster, bank clerk, free-lance writer, assistant editor (of the Egoist), editor (of The Criterion), publisher (with Faber and Faber) and even professor of poetry at Harvard.

Being an introspective kind of person, as most poets are, Eliot underwent a profound religious calling. After much soul-searching and inner turmoil, Eliot was confirmed as a member of the Anglican church in 1927. This brought him a much more positive attitude towards life that can be seen in his writings after this date. Eliot died on January 4, 1965.

In his poem “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” Eliot explores the timeless issues of love and self-awareness – popular themes in literature. However, through his use of Prufrock’s profound self-consciousness he skews the reader’s expectations of a “Love Song” and takes a serious perspective on the subject of love, which many authors do, but few can create characters as deep and multi-layered as Prufrock. “His early poetry, including Prufrock, deals with spiritually exhausted people who exist in the impersonal modern city”(Kennedy 2). This is probably the reason that this poem still remains, arguably, Eliot’s most famous. The beginning of the poem is pre-empted by an excerpt from Dante’s Inferno which Eliot uses to create the poem’s serious tone, but also to begin his exploration of Prufrock’s self-consciousness. By inserting this quote, a parallel is created between Prufrock and the speaker, Guido da Montefeltro, who is very aware of his position in “hell” and his personal situation concerning the fate of his life. Prufrock feels much the same way, but his hell and the fate of his life are more in his own mind and have less to do with the people around him. The issue of his fate leads Prufrock to an “overwhelming question…”(10) which is never identified, asked, or answered in the poem. This “question” is associated somehow to his psyche, but both its ambiguity to the reader and Prufrock’s denial to even ask “What is it?”(11) gives some insight into his state of internal turmoil and inability to reason. Prufrock’s dissatisfaction in his personal appearance is one, but not the most important of his idiosyncrasies. “Prufrock is a representative character who cannot reconcile his thoughts and understanding with his feelings and will. The poem displays several levels of irony, the most important of which grows out of the vain, weak man’s insights into his sterile life and his lack of will to change that life”(Van Leewen 17). Not only is he unhappy with the nature of his appearance, having “To Prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet;” but he is fearful of what others will have to say about him: “They will say: How his hair is growing thin!’”(41) and “… But how his arms and legs are thin! “(44). Prufrock is insecure and frightened of peoples’ reactions to his balding head and slim, aging body. Unfortunately, his lack of confidence isn’t limited to his looks. Prufrock has difficulty communicating with people – not surprising considering his extreme lack of confidence in his appearance. He’s indecisive and unsuccessful in his attempts to communicate with other people, repeating “visions and revisions”(33) and “decisions and revisions…”(48). Eliot uses repetition here to emphasize the concept of Prufrock’s alterations in behavior – whether he does change his behavior or not is another issue… most likely he doesn’t because he also repeats the question ” Do I dare?’ and, Do I dare? “(38). Possibly, he’s asking if he should dare “and drop a question on your plate;”(30) meaning one of his “dares” could be something that he’d like to ask a woman but can’t; he also asks “Do I dare/ Disturb the universe?”(45-46). In this case Eliot uses hyperbole that backs his sense of repetition in order to give the reader the impression of the seriousness of Prufrock’s insecurities – they are his whole “universe.” However, this is only one explanation where there are a number of possibilities.

Once again, Eliot uses the device of ambiguity attached to internal monologue to reflect the intimate struggle in Prufrock and lead the reader to ask themselves again “What is the overwhelming question that Prufrock is asking?” Unfortunately even Prufrock himself doesn’t have the answer…even recognizing the issue itself is beyond the simplicity of his mind, which he confesses by saying “I am no prophet- and here’s no great matter;”(84). “The poem is replete with images of enervation and paralysis, such as the evening described as etherized, immobile. Prufrock understands that he and his associates lack authenticity”(Kennedy 4). By downplaying the importance of the issue, Prufrock echoes his lack of self-worth. In fact, to Prufrock, the issue is extremely important – the fate of his life depends on it. His declaration that he isn’t a prophet indicates Prufrock’s view on his position in society, which he is as confused about as everything else. To interject a little history: Eliot wrote this poem during a time in which social customs, especially in Europe, were still a very important issue. There were basically two classes – rich and poor, neither of which Prufrock really fits into. Eliot s personal experiences definitely show as an influence here. Eliot creates the idea of Prufrock being caught between the two classes in the very beginning of the poem, (if not by J. Alfred Prufrock’s unusual pompous/working class sounding name) when he juxtaposes the images in the monologue of “restless nights in one-night cheap hotels/ And sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells”(4-5) and the women who “come and go Talking of Michelangelo”(13-14). These two images represent two completely different ways of life. The first image is of a dingy lifestyle – living among the “half-deserted streets”(4) while the second is the lifestyle that Prufrock longs to be associated with – much like the image of Michelangelo’s painting on the ceiling of the Sistine chapel where God and Adam’s hands are nearly touching, but not quite. “Eliot helped to set the modernist fashion for blending references to the classics with the most sordid type of realism, then expressing the blend in majestic language which seems to mock the subject”(Vendler 9). While Prufrock doesn’t belong to either of these two classes completely, he does have characteristics of both. He claims to be “Full of high sentence; but a bit obtuse” while “At times, indeed, almost ridiculous-”(117-118). Being the outsider that he is, Prufrock will not be accepted by either class; even though he can clearly make the distinction between the two and recognize their members: “I know the voices dying with a dying fall/ Beneath the music from a farther room.”(52-53). This Shakespearean allusion (Twelfth Night 1.1.4) – “If music be the food of love, play on…That strain again! It had a dying fall.” suggests that Prufrock is just out of reach of the group of people that he wishes to be associated with in life and love, but most likely his feelings of insignificance prevent him from associating with anyone at all. He sees himself as a unique “specimen” of nature, in a class all by himself – “And when I am formulated, sprawling on a pin/ When I am pinned and wriggling on the wall,”(57-58). This image shown during the train of thought of his monologue suggests that not only is he an object for speculation, but he is trapped in that role; a situation which he is obviously unhappy with but has no idea how to change; he asks himself, “Then how should I begin”(59). At this point in the poem, Prufrock is beginning to feel especially detached from society and burdened by his awareness of it. He thinks “I should have been a pair of ragged claws/ Scuttling across the floors of silent seas.” Eliot not only uses imagery here in the digression to create a picture of a headless crab scuttling around at the bottom of the ocean, but he uses the form of the poem itself to help emphasize his point here. The head is detached from the crab, and the lines are detached from the poem in their own stanza, much like Prufrock wishes his self-consciousness would just “detach” itself. This concept is echoed in the very next stanza when he says, “Though I have seen my head (grown slightly bald) brought in/ upon a platter,”(83), an allusion to the beheading of John the Baptist by Princess Salome. These two headless images represent Prufrock’s desire to be rid of his self-consciousness (obviously in his head) and possibly some suicidal tendencies which can be tied into just about all of the ambiguous questions Prufrock asks of himself throughout the poem.

Prufrock’s series of questions can also be tied into his unsuccessful attempts at relationships with women. His insecurities keep him from doing the things he wants to do; he feels inadequate and unable to express his true feelings to women, “Should I, after tea and cakes and ices,/ Have the strength to force the moment to its crisis?”(79-80). He knows what he wants to say, but doesn’t have the confidence or mental capacity to put his feelings into words. He compares himself to Hamlet, “No! I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be;”(111), who, in contrast, was able to express his feelings very successfully to his lover – an ability which Prufrock is envious of, characterized by his emphatic “No!” He is also second-guessing himself constantly throughout the poem: “Do I dare?”(38), “So how should I presume?”(54) and “Then how should I begin”(59) are all questions Prufrock repeats to himself during his monologue. His feelings of inadequacy toward women are not only related to his appearance and lack of mental strength, but to the passage of time and its effect on him.

Throughout the poem, Prufrock struggles with the concept of time. He tries to keep reassuring himself that “indeed there will be time”(23), an allusion to a love story (Andrew Marvell – To His Coy Mistress – “Had we but world enough and time.”) which suggests that Prufrock fears that he will in fact not have time for love before the prime of his life is over. His obsession with the passage of time is characterized by its repetition throughout the poem, especially the beginning of the poem. Eliot uses the allusion of time as a tool to shape Prufrock’s complicated, disturbed psyche into the form of a mid-life crisis. Prufrock keeps assuring himself that, “indeed, there will be time” to do all of the things he wants to do in his life, but first he must come to terms with his insecurities. However, his insecurities are related to his aging and the passage of time, so he is truly a tragic, doomed character. This is not to say, however, that Prufrock is unaware of the connection between time, his aging, and his unsuccessful attempt at a social life… on the contrary, he claims that he’s “measured out his life with coffee spoons,”(51) a true testament to the self-proclaimed insignificance of his life. Prufrock claims that “I have known them all already, known them all-”(49) referring to the “evenings, mornings, and afternoons”(50) of his life which he has seen pass by, insignificantly. He also says “And I have known the eyes already, known them all-”(55) and “I have known the arms already, known them all-”(61) which illustrate both his failure with and fear of women. Ironically, Prufrock dreams of saying: “I am Lazarus, come from the dead,/ Come back to tell you all, I shall tell you all”(94-95), a biblical allusion to Lazarus, an elderly man brought back to life by Jesus – unfortunately for Prufrock, even if his dream came true, he still wouldn’t know what to tell them all, or how. Prufrock echoes the old clich “Ah… to be young again; and know then what I know now.” Unfortunately for Prufrock, it will take a miracle to make him either younger or give him the knowledge he seeks.

Eliot doesn’t give any sense of hope for him in the poem – he remains a doomed character until the very end. Prufrock even admits that he has “seen the moment of my greatness flicker,”(84) – a victim of time and natural selection. Prufrock’s connection to nature and the cycle of life is also an important factor in understanding his state of mind. In the third stanza, Eliot creates an image of yellow fog, connecting Prufrock’s consciousness and emotions to nature in a lazy, animal-like way. This connection echoes not only the insignificance of Prufrock’s emotional state in a “natural world” context, but the futility of Prufrock’s efforts should he try to contend with Mother Nature and change his behavior – relating to Prufrock’s feeling of entrapment and inability to change his situation. He wishes to himself, instead, that he could be a mindless crab, scurrying around the bottom of the ocean; another example of Prufrock’s impression of his position in the natural world – rarely comparing himself to real people. In fact, in his dream sequence at the end when he imagines how his life might end up, he envisions himself as an ocean creature, surrounded by mermaids “Till human voices wake us, and we drown.” Once again, Eliot disconnects Prufrock from the real world. Even though Prufrock’s fantasies to be a crab, swim with the mermaids, be young again like Lazarus, talk to women about Michelangelo with the poise and eloquence of Hamlet, slink around the city like a lazy yellow fog, and have his head chopped off like John the Baptist give him a detachment from his day-to-day worries about love and aging, he will never stop torturing himself trying to figure out that “overwhelming question.” The only hope that Eliot gives the reader out of this poem is the hope that we don’t end up like Prufrock.

In conclusion, poetry is a strong and viable source that one can obtain insight into one s own life and the existence of the world that lives around them. Eliot dives onto, grabs it by the horns, and explains to the reader everything that he (Eliot) possibly can about love, life, and all the intricacies that aren t as fair. Through the use of many devices such as repetition, allusion and interior monologue he conveys a message that has been understood and represented over time. He has just achieved this sense with a different view and style. Eliot, like in most of his works, accomplishes this in “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.” Poetry has been depicted as an outlet for the thoughts and feelings of what and who Eliot is. It is the most conceivable source for him. He has successfully conveyed this to the reader. He makes it clear that he is Prufrock and that simply, we are Prufrock. Eliot poses in this piece, whether or not we decide to enact upon the same kind of cynically questioning existence that Prufrock has. Eliot explains where he went wrong and where we can learn from his mistakes.