Social anxiety and ruminating in The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
Social anxiety and ruminating in The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
I was very interested in investigating and understanding The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock since there are certain coincidences between Prufrock and me. These coincidences are based on behavior, ways of thinking and social performance. In some way I can relate with the anxiety that Prufrock experiences, since I also suffer from (mild) social anxiety. I believe that by analyzing Prufrock’s anxiety I can better understand how it affects other people, myself included.
Social anxiety is not as rare as we think, but whilst suffering from it we do not necessarily consider how it might affect other people. . In order to better understand Prufrock’s descriptions, we need to have an understanding of social anxiety.:
Social anxiety is the fear of social situations and the interaction with other people that can automatically bring on feelings of self-consciousness, judgment, evaluation, and inferiority. Social anxiety is the fear and anxiety of being judged and evaluated negatively by other people, leading to feelings of inadequacy, inferiority, embarrassment, humiliation, and depression.
Considering this definition, I will analyze the stanzas of this poem, detecting the parts where social anxiety could be present and the way the images, fragments and memorable phrases build a portrait of the character. This poem can be read in several ways and have different meanings. The following analysis is focused on Prufrock the character, as opposed to Eliot the Poet.
It is very important to take into consideration the era in which this poem was published, as at that time there was nothing similar to this poem. The way the author portrays an inner monologue, conscious of his surroundings, is what later would be considered the stream of consciousness in poetry. “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock represents a complete break with the nineteenth-century tradition, and a new start. It must have
I was very interested in investigating and understanding The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock since there are certain coincidences between Prufrock and me. These coincidences are based on behavior, ways of thinking and social performance. In some way I can relate with the anxiety that Prufrock experiences, since I also suffer from (mild) social anxiety. I believe that by analyzing Prufrock’s anxiety I can better understand how it affects other people, myself included.
Social anxiety is not as rare as we think, but whilst suffering from it we do not necessarily consider how it might affect other people. . In order to better understand Prufrock’s descriptions, we need to have an understanding of social anxiety.:
Social anxiety is the fear of social situations and the interaction with other people that can automatically bring on feelings of self-consciousness, judgment, evaluation, and inferiority. Social anxiety is the fear and anxiety of being judged and evaluated negatively by other people, leading to feelings of inadequacy, inferiority, embarrassment, humiliation, and depression.
Considering this definition, I will analyze the stanzas of this poem, detecting the parts where social anxiety could be present and the way the images, fragments and memorable phrases build a portrait of the character. This poem can be read in several ways and have different meanings. The following analysis is focused on Prufrock the character, as opposed to Eliot the Poet.
It is very important to take into consideration the era in which this poem was published, as at that time there was nothing similar to this poem. The way the author portrays an inner monologue, conscious of his surroundings, is what later would be considered the stream of consciousness in poetry. “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock represents a complete break with the nineteenth-century tradition, and a new start. It must have
Bibliography: Carter, Roland. Penguin Guide to English Literature: Britain and Ireland. Middlesex: Penguin Books, 1996. Cox, C.B. T.S. Eliot The Waste Land. London 1978: Macmillan Student Editions, 1978. Ediciones Euroméxico S.A. de C.V. Diccionario de Psicología. México: Ediciones Euroméxico, 2001. Eliot, T.S. Poetry and Drama. London: Faber & Faber LTD, 1950. Kenner, Hugh. The Invisible Poet: T.S. Eliot. London: W.H. Allen, 1960. Lucas, John. Modern English Poetry from Hardy to Hughes. London: Batsford, 1986. Richards, Thomas A. http://www.socialanxietyinstitute.org/what-is-social-anxiety. n.d. May 2013. Rosenthal, M.L. Sailing into the Unknown. New York: Oxfor Univeristy Press, 1978. Southam, B.C., ed. 'Prufrock ', 'Gerontion ', Ash Wednesday and Other Shorter Poems. Great Britain: Macmillan Student Editions, 1978.