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Postmodernity In T. S. Eliot's Poetry

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A modern writer and forbearer of postmodernity in poetry, T. S. Eliot’s poems are dark, existential, and gritty. They take a deep look into the human mind and condition and paint Eliot’s perspective on humanity in general. Poems like “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” and “The Hollow Men” take a look into the bleak potential for humanity to amount to nothing. The poems confront the reader with the harsh reality that much of life is squandered or lived superficially. To gain value from these poems, one must examine the criticism that each offers. One must heed the poems’ collective warning against wasting one’s life, and he must take action, living meaningfully and in the moment. In “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” the title character delivers a dramatic monologue to his romantic companion on a night out. It is a monologue that rambles and takes twists and turns from Prufrock’s plans for their night out to his philosophical beliefs and fears. The poem offers a vivid picture of his attitude and character. Perhaps the most significant attribute of Prufrock’s personality is his love of dawdling. This trait works in tandem with the general …show more content…

If one chooses always to live as Prufrock does, passively meandering, he pushes himself toward the line between the conscious and unconscious, the line at which hollow men dwell. The substance that the Hollow Men lack is the free will to truly live. They are only shadows, embodying the illusion of existence that breaks down when one stops to think about what human existence means. Prufrock lacks no such substance, but though he grows wiser with age, he still fails to completely see the fault in his passive way of life. Both Prufrock and the Hollow Men are blinded, both by themselves and external forces. By depicting them in this way, Eliot is urging his readers not to

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