T.S. Elliot
IN THIS ESSAY I WILL ARGUE THAT:
It is through the literary elements of Imagery, Allusion and Monologue that the characterization of Prufrock as a nervous and obsessively introspective man living a rather insignificant life is revealed.
1. IMAGERY
Elliot's vivid imagery reveals Prufrock's life to be the opposite of a heroic epic.
Imagery plays a vital role in bringing out the boredom, the frustration and the indecisiveness of the main protagonist J. Alfred Prufrock.
The relationship between Prufrock’s inner fogginess and the foggy evening is conveyed in the image of “The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window panes/ The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window panes” (15-16).
In the poem, Prufrock is constantly depreciating himself; Eliot highlights this through the use of animal imagery. His feeling of helplessness and impotence is emphasized after Prufrock imagines himself, "sprawling on a pin,/When I am pinned and wriggling on the wall" (57-58). The poem moves through a series of fairly concrete physical settings – a cityscape and serveral interiors to a series of vague ocean images conveying Prufrock’s emotional distance from the world as he comes to recognize his second rate status.
Menacing streets – it seems as though Prufrock is inviting one on a romantic walk, but the streets are somewhat misleading and refers to the misguided middle-class life he lives
Line 4-6: personification
Line 70-71: referring to a man smoking a pipe.
The fog and smoke translates into the inner probem Prufrock has with himself and the problems within 15-17
Body parts – when describing people, especially women, he diminishes them down to nothing but body parts
Line 27-28, 55-56, 62, 81-82
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PR5FMSe3EhE
Hopelessness and disappointment
Happiness in unattainable and not possible to achieve – 124-125,58-60
2. ALLUSION
Through the use of different character allusions, Eliot contrasts
It is through the literary elements of Imagery, Allusion and Monologue that the characterization of Prufrock as a nervous and obsessively introspective man living a rather insignificant life is revealed.
1. IMAGERY
Elliot's vivid imagery reveals Prufrock's life to be the opposite of a heroic epic.
Imagery plays a vital role in bringing out the boredom, the frustration and the indecisiveness of the main protagonist J. Alfred Prufrock.
The relationship between Prufrock’s inner fogginess and the foggy evening is conveyed in the image of “The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window panes/ The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window panes” (15-16).
In the poem, Prufrock is constantly depreciating himself; Eliot highlights this through the use of animal imagery. His feeling of helplessness and impotence is emphasized after Prufrock imagines himself, "sprawling on a pin,/When I am pinned and wriggling on the wall" (57-58). The poem moves through a series of fairly concrete physical settings – a cityscape and serveral interiors to a series of vague ocean images conveying Prufrock’s emotional distance from the world as he comes to recognize his second rate status.
Menacing streets – it seems as though Prufrock is inviting one on a romantic walk, but the streets are somewhat misleading and refers to the misguided middle-class life he lives
Line 4-6: personification
Line 70-71: referring to a man smoking a pipe.
The fog and smoke translates into the inner probem Prufrock has with himself and the problems within 15-17
Body parts – when describing people, especially women, he diminishes them down to nothing but body parts
Line 27-28, 55-56, 62, 81-82
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PR5FMSe3EhE
Hopelessness and disappointment
Happiness in unattainable and not possible to achieve – 124-125,58-60
2. ALLUSION
Through the use of different character allusions, Eliot contrasts