Eliot

Symbols represent an important aspect in the system of objective correlative. Jules Laforgue, a French symbolist, believes that "life should be represented in literature through symbolic and not realistic form". In "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock", symbols are employed through certain images which are specific and symbolic in addition to some textual symbols which are purely Eliotian. Eliot knows how to choose some mythical symbols and other symbols which he derives from different cultures and employs them in his text in a clever way that they become part of the text. They are intermingled with the other aspects of his text and become a vehicle to express certain emotion. The physical journey, for instance, suggested by Prufrock to his audience is also a mental journey. The dirty urban streets don not only represent the ugly life of the town; but also a certain life in the speaker's mind. The coffee spoon which "symbolizes the amount of the information appreciation for the real world that these people have "only such a small amount, no more no less".
However, most of the outstanding symbols in this poem are related to sex and the overwhelming question "Can I" is the core of the matter. Prufrock's "inability to feel love has something to do with his inability to make love, too…. A simple desire, lust, is more than honest Prufrock can cope with as he mounts the stair". This matter is depicted through the feline image at the beginning of the poem when Prufrock sees the fog as a cat. Prufrock intensely uses this image and it seems that his "effeminacy emerges through the cat, as felines generally have feminine associations". The second important symbol of sex is the peach which Prufrock does not dare to eat:
“Do I dare to eat a peach?”
A superficial reading of this line may denote that Prufrock is never going to express his passion to a woman whose love he seeks. Prufrock's real problem is related to sex because "the peach, through shape and texture, has long