1.The main character in T.S Elliot’s poem titled “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” is a man who overall seems perplexed about his life and society as a whole. This man appears to have serious confidence issues attributed to himself growing older in age.
I grow old … I grow old …
I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.
Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach?
I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach.
I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.
I do not think that they will sing to me.
We see an old man who in growing older struggles to decide what to do with his life. His certainty about walking on the beach in flannel trousers makes the reader think that he is at peace, but shortly after we see how his self consciousness and lack of confidence affects him. He talks about “mermaids singing” and how they won’t sing to him, this is clearly a figment of his imagination that relates to how he feels in real life situations and the problems that he faces internally.
- Is it perfume from a dress
That makes me so digress?
Arms that lie along a table, or wrap about a shawl.
And should I then presume?
And how should I begin?
Shall I say, I have gone at dusk through narrow streets
And watched the smoke that rises from the pipes
Of lonely men in shirt-sleeves, leaning out of windows? …
I should have been a pair of ragged claws
Scuttling across the floors of silent seas.
In this stanza I believe the man is talking about his issues with women and how the smell of perfume on a dress affects him. His lack of self-belief is compounded when he is unsure of what to say when approaching a woman. He concludes this stanza saying “I should have been a pair of ragged claws scuttling across the floors of silent seas.” This quote is meant to tell us he should’ve been a crab, which makes sense since a crab is viewed as a creature that keeps to itself.
- a.Why is “Prufrock” a “love song”?
b.What do you think Elliot means by “I should have been a pair of ragged claws Scuttling across the floors of silent seas.”?
c.What kinds of physical settings does Eliot use?
Alec-
I believe this poem is a love song because of Prufrock’s ability to describe his true feelings for this woman to readers. Although we understand from the poem that he does not tell her how he feels, he is still able to express himself to us. His frustration involving his inability to convey his emotions to this woman helps to evince Prufrock’s undying love for her. He does not know how to go about the situation, but his mere desire for wanting to know how he can presume with expressing himself to this woman shows how his words describe the love he has for her, thus making this a love song.
Hi Alec,
To answer your second question:
I believe Prufrock is referring to a Hermit crab in the line you quoted, alluding to the fact that he is thinking about being alone (a hermit). A large part of the poem is Prufrock contemplating on whether or not he should reveal the “overwhelming question” (10), which I think is his love confession. At this point of the poem, he is second guessing himself. Perhaps he is thinking that he shouldn’t have invited the woman out in the first place.
Tiffany
It’s interesting to read your comments, questions, and responses. I’m particularly interested in this question of whether there really is a special someone whom Prufrock is in love with. Even if there is a particular woman he wishes he could approach, we know that this poem doesn’t seem like a conventional love song. It’s almost an anti-love-song, since we know that the speaker is not able to voice his love (much less sing about it) since he is so paralyzed by self-doubt and fear. The fantasy of being a crab scuttling along at the bottom of the sea would, of course, get him off the hook of having to deal with all these frightening, awkward human interactions….