What a shame it would be to never do certain things, but have all the time in the world to. In “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T. S. Eliot, that’s just the case. This poem was written about a man looking back on his life. This man, J. Alfred Prufrock, seemingly regrets not doing things, such as finding love, while he still had the chance. Throughout the poem, Prufrock is hesitant about love because he wants something meaningful for himself. T.S. Eliot uses literary devices like allusion and imagery to not only express the meaning, but to build the plot vividly. It is mentioned several places throughout this poem that Prufrock will have time to do things. “Time for you and time for me and time yet for a hundred visions and revisions,” …show more content…
Alfred Prufrock has chosen not to do things, and to put things off, finding love is not something that he purposely avoids. It’s not because he doesn’t necessarily want it to happen, it was because it just didn’t happen. “But though I have wept and fasted, wept and prayed, though I have seen my head (grown slightly bald) and brought upon a platter…” (line 81-83). This biblical allusion shows that he has hoped and prayed that he receives something more than just any general relationship. He wants something meaningful and special. To me, this is why he is so hesitant of finding love, because he is afraid that he will settle for something less than what a real relationship is supposed to be worth. “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T. S. Eliot is indeed a poem written with great intelligence. Using literary devices such as allusion and imagery helps express the true meaning with much detail and depth. From my understanding, J. Alfred Prufrock is a man that is full of regret, wishing that he would have actually done certain things while he had time, and wishing that he could have found love. What I have taken from this poem is definitely this, do things while there is still time, or look back and regret not doing
Edith Wharton masterfully weaves mythological references and influences throughout "The Age of Innocence" to enhance the narrative's depth and explore timeless themes. Through the characters of Newland Archer and Ellen Olenska, Wharton draws upon the foolish "hero" archetype and the figure of the forbidden temptress, connecting their struggles to those of mythological figures such as Orpheus and Helen of Troy. The Goddess Diana and the myth of Icarus symbolize the power of societal expectations and the potential consequences of deviating from them, as well as the damaging nature of man to misinterpret and discredit the true depth of the women in their life. By incorporating these mythological elements, Wharton highlights the enduring nature
Elliot simply used these allusions to tell his own story, sometimes giving new meanings to quotes, or adding emphasis to new words or phrases. Often, these references had to be understood themselves for a reader to truly know what was being said in one of Elliot’s works. One such work that contains so many references to past writers and works, is “The Love Story of J. Alfred Prufrock”. The story of Prufrock is an intriguing one dominated by allusions and many references to earlier works of literature that Elliot himself read, and applied to a story of a modern man.
Since the beginning of human civilization, a form of government has been enacted to ensure a nation’s continuity; however, these institutions often become exceedingly powerful over their people. In Brave New World, the author, Aldous Huxley creates a theme expressing the significant danger that resides in the existence of extreme, administrative control over a populace, as leaders will retain their power continuously and unregulated. At the time when the this narrative was devised, the rise of communism and dictatorships were a threat to human rights. Through the creation of the dystopian society indicated in the novel, people are able to realize the effects of these types of governments. The thematic political issues are developed by utilizing
cigarette and hummed a bit from “Madama Butterfly” ” (23). To explain, Madama Butterfly is a very famous play based off a situation where the audience didn’t know the full picture, and so the use of this allusion prompts readers to second guess what they know. Similarly, just before General Zaroff goes off to bed, he heads to his library to read, “In his library he read, to soothe himself, from the works of Marcus Aurelius”(24). Perhaps, Zaroff enjoys Marcus Aurelius’ views on life because in a way it justifies his own views. Connell adds tension to his story using allusions; and the use of these allusions hint to something more than what is on the pages.
Throughout H.G. Wells’s short novel, The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896), the assortment of Biblical allusions creates an underlying religious tone that can be discovered by reading between the lines of the novel. Doctor Moreau’s creations, the Beast Folk, often quote the Law, an eerily spiritual mantra that advises the creatures to not go on all fours, eat flesh or fish, or chase other men (Wells 114). These fundamental principles of the Law, which the Beast Folk tenaciously obey, embody basic humanistic traits required for civilization. Their eternal search for authority and the meaning of life, the basis of most religions throughout the world, reveals their spiritual tendencies through their actions as well as their words. The Beast Folk’s
Nathaniel Hawthorne, a famous American author from the antebellum period, notices the emphasis on individual freedoms in the works by Ralph Waldo Emerson and other Transcendentalists during his residency in the Brook Farm’s community. In response to these ideas, Hawthorne writes The Scarlet Letter, a historical novel about Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale’s lives as they go through ignominy, penance, and deprecation from their Puritan community to express their strong love for each other. Their love, even though it is true, is not considered as holy nor pure because of Hester past marriage to Roger Chillingworth, and thus Hester gained the Scarlet Letter for being an adulterer. Hawthorne utilizes biblical allusions, such as the stories of
In T.S. Eliot’s work “The LoveSong of J. Alfred Prufrock”, he uses diction to give an underlying meaning and tone to his poem in order to express the downfall of a man. The author uses his diction to give this poem Its tone as if he regrets what he did in life. He also shows great tone changes in this work, giving this poem a dramatic, almost tragic outlook. Many of his word choices also give his work an underlying meaning and adds to his theme and messages. A large part of his poem is also using metaphors to add to this underlying meaning and give more force to this tone he is trying to create.
The pursuit of love can feel like an endless journey, never ceasing until you’ve found the one. The Great Gatsby is a story told from the perspective of Nick Carraway, an up-and-coming bond salesman living in a small cottage in West Egg next to the affluent Jay Gatsby. Across the bay in East Egg is Nick’s distant cousin Daisy Buchanan and her husband Tom. “anyone lived in a pretty how town” can be interpreted as a poem about two lovers, named anyone and no one. They lived together happily and when it’s their time to go they’re buried next to one another.
The poem's theme of love and heartbreak is emphasized through the use of imagery, as well as showing how challenging it is to leave a relationship, even one that is toxic. By using imagery in the poem I am able to convey the theme of love and heartbreak in the poem as well as show how difficult it is to leave a relationship even if it's a toxic one. I use irony to show how people can hold onto unrealistic expectations and expect the impossible but ultimately receive nothing. This irony illustrates the issue of love and heartbreak and demonstrates how challenging it is to let go of unrealistic expectations when you are in love. The phrase "I really loved you, I gave you my whole heart"
Because of that, he never brings up the courage to ask his life changing question that he wants to ask. The poet is afraid of rejection, stating his worst fear is his love telling him, "That is not it at all,/ That is not what I meant, at all. "(97-98) Prufrock ends up dying an old man, never having completed anything amazing and interesting in his life. Eliot's poem of this man, shows his distaste and hatred for others like this, as well as his fear for ending up as someone with a lot of regrets. He produced a lot of poetry and books during his time, and he was someone that did not want to live as Alfred Prufrock
While time itself does not do the damage, throughout our lifetime it is a certainty that each person will experience some type of loss, pain, or physical ailment. Abbott utilizes a metaphor to describe the concept of wounded time. In lines 28-30, “...On my roof, healing, / healing the jagged wound / of time.” he ties the poem together by displaying the reason why healing is a necessary component in life. By choosing to use the metaphor to describe the wound time can leave, it strengthens the theme by stressing the reason people need to be healed and rejuvenated.
This self-denial gives him further resolve at the end of the poem to still refuse to propose. Eliot’s allusion to Shakespeare’s Hamlet is clever in this way because in the play Hamlet is also indecisive; so much so that he needs a reminder from his father’s ghost to kill his uncle, Claudius, who killed his father, took the throne, and married his mother (Shmoop). In this same portion of the poem as the Hamlet allusion, Prufrock admits that he thinks he’s too old to marry, that he is so old fashioned he still “wear[s] the bottoms of [his] trousers rolled” (Greenblatt 1304, line 121). This shows the reader that Prufrock still is adamant that he is not going to propose to the
Eliot believed that people were getting dumber and dumber and his message to his readers were in fact to get to a library if you didn’t understand what he was talking or referring to. Today, as the 21st century is a very technological era, we rely fully on “Googling” when we don’t understand what something means. If Eliot lived in this era, I think it would be a lot similar to the world that he thought he lived in back in the 20th century. Instead of knowing logically what something means, we all rely on the Internet to find our
Social Isolation and Loneliness Social isolation has become much more common in a society that constantly tries to stereotype us. The poems, “A Supermarket in California,” by Allen Ginsberg and “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” by T.S. Eliot, display the way that loneliness is affecting people. In “A Supermarket in California” imagery is used heavily, while with “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” relies on personification to show the loneliness of isolation. Both poems use objects such as the lonely streets and night time to make the reader feel the isolation.
It is through this conceptual connection that Prufrock essentially accompanies the prostitute, the homeless person and the unidentified persona in Preludes as a witness to this recurrent suffering. Additionally, the unknown persona has also observed the lack of identity and spirituality in his own reality, where the common people are described as “masquerades” rushing “to early coffee stands” in the second prelude - the masquerades being metonymic of the facades that rob people of individual identity. Yet as Roger Mitchell writes of Eliot and the modernist poets that “they see the world and themselves with unflattering exactness” , they “cannot or will