The poem The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T.S. Eliot is about a man that does not have confidence in himself. He has doubts about approaching women because of appearance as it can be seen in “They will say: ‘How his hair is growing thin?'” (41) in which he assumes how they will immediately talk about his thinning hair. He is a character with low self esteem and many doubts.
In the poem the line that capture his doubts more are ” To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet; There will be time to murder and create/ A time yet for a hundred indecision, And for a hundred visions and revisions” (27-28, 32-33) in which demonstrate how he envisions having to portray this made up face that he could “murder” and recreate, imagining many scenarios in his mind and revising them time after time. These quotes capture the doubt that Prufrock has about himself and how his low self esteem are what drive his indecisiveness . Another line that very much shows how low Prufrock self esteem is when he states ” I have heard the mermaids singing each to each, I do not think they will sing to me” this is important because according to greek mythology mermaid sang to handsome men, this capture how he believes that he is not attractive enough to be sung to by the mermaids.
This is a difficult poem to read and the drastic changes make it harder to understand that why I have these questions.
- Why does Prufrock choose to focus on the yellow cat?
- Why does he focus so much on his physical appearance?
- Why the reference to Michael Angelo?
Hi Ismael,
In the poem, the writer repeats the phrase “In the room women come and go, talking of Michelangelo”. This means that Prufrock is trying to shape his own personality to match that of a great artist of Renaissance like Michelangelo, because those are the qualities that attract women, which is a problem the main character is dealing with in life.
Prufrock constantly mentions his physical appearance because he is so ashamed by it. It deters his confidence and the rest of the story revolves around the idea that Prufrock has a low self esteam. The author shows how Prufrock’s fascination with his physical appearance limits him from a full life.
Hi Ismael, to answer you first question, the yellow cat is an interesting poetic personification for the fog. Describing that the yellow fog “licked its tongue into the corners” or “rubs its muzzle on the window-panes”, T.S Eliot reminded his readers of cats’ usual activities and characteristics. They are known to be quiet, adept and flexible enough to creep into many places. Moreover, in using a “yellow” cat instead of a regular one, the author also tries to emphasize the ugliness of the polluted fog. Fog is usually beautiful, yet its color turned yellow because of a rapidly industrialized city.
Interesting comments, questions, and responses! Ismael, what do you mean by “drastic changes”? I wasn’t sure what you had in mind there. Albana, I like your comment about Michelangelo. I think that reference also reminds us how intimidating these women are for Prufrock. They are cultured and intellectual. Not only can he not measure up to Michelangelo, but he also can’t possibly meet the women’s standards or expectations. Poor Prufrock! Skylar, nice explanation for the yellow cat!