1- The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by T.S. Eliot is a poem about a man who feels very unconfident and uncertain about himself. He seems to have “the complex of inferiority”, which make him to be incapable to have relationships with women. This complex makes him to be worried and nervous with women, but he is also unsociable and detached from the society in general. As a result he lives in solitude and pessimism. Throughout the poem we can see how he feels distant from the society, because of his low self-esteem for himself.
“I should have been a pair of ragged claws
Scuttling across the floors of silent seas” (73-74).
He thinks that he is fool and ridiculous, but he does not want to believe this.
“Full of high sentence, but a bit obtuse;
At times, indeed, almost ridiculous –
Almost, at times, the Fool” (117-119)
2- At the end of the poem, Prufrock looks like he identifies his self more with mermaids than with real people. We can see this in the use of the pronoun “we” when speak of the mermaids.
“We have lingered in the chambers of the sea
By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown” (129-130).
These lines makes us think that Prufrock wishes to escape humanity and the isolation of modern life and live surrounded by the mythical or supernatural.
In the final line of the poem, his fantasy world is devastated by humanity and comes crashing down:
“Till human voices wake us, and we drown” (line 131).
He has impossible, exasperated, desire for women who reject him. He cannot have any of those girls and any sign of the social world “human voices” drowns him down, like Dante, in his “inferno”.
3- Every reader reads and interprets poetry differently. The ideas and interpretations of other people help us to understand better the poetry. For this reason, I am including the following questions:
a- Why does Prufrock have so much difficulty making decisions?
b- What is the narrator thinks: “It is impossible to say just what I mean!”
c- Do you think Prufrock suffers from a psychological disorders, like paranoia or depression?
A) I think the inability to make decisions results from Prufrock’s lack of self-confidence since he is constantly worried about how it will be perceived by the surrounding world. He is nervous that he might do the wrong thing and subject himself to further isolation. This leads to indecisiveness because he would rather not act then take action that could be viewed negatively by others.
C) While I am no psychologist, I definitely feel as if Prufrock suffers from some sort of mental disorder based upon this short story. Whether it stems from how he views himself in relation to society or it was ingrained into him from birth, the signs of depression from the character are glaring. Even if somebody wants to be of the opinion that he is devoid of any psychological disorder, it is clear that he does not possess the confidence or self-esteem need to get him out of this rut and allow him to achieve happiness in life.
Nice, thoughtful questions and responses. Albana, I think you probably know the answer to your second question. Prufrock, like many of us, feels misunderstood. Part of his hesitation about approaching the women is his fear of saying the wrong thing, or being laughed at.
One small comment – I don’t think that Prufrock “identifies” with the mermaids. I think he wishes the mermaids would sing to/for him, but they don’t.