English 2850: Great Works of Literature II

T.S. Eliot’s The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock made its mark as one of the most influential masterpieces in literary history, especially during its time at the early years of the Modernist movement, for being one of the first pieces to make use of stream-of-consciousness writing to portray a dream-like world. In summary, the poem revolves around a man named J. Alfred Prufrock who doesn’t seem to have the courage to tell his feelings to the woman he loves, and so he comes up with doubts and insecurities in his head, all of which stops him and he eventually, metaphorically speaking, dies of drowning.

In relation to the current generation, the poem is reflective of the insecurity and anxiety many of us are experiencing. As pop culture progresses further and technologies advance, our perception of beauty has been changing dramatically. What has been considered the benchmark then is romanticized by most people to be different. The LGBTQ community, for example, is under fire and highly criticized, which leaves most of its members insecure of them/him/her/itself and anxious of revealing their/his/her/its personalities and true selves. Moreover, fashion trends for women and bases of beauty has varied and so some, if not all, women are having insecurities and self-doubt for not being slim enough, not having the latest makeup collection, or whatnot. Therefore, some of them are body-shamed for not meeting the expected definition of ‘pretty,’ which leads to hate themselves and their body the same way Prufrock is with his bald spot. Conversely, men are also shamed for not having the expected six-pack abs or toned muscles, which leads them to become insecure and have the fear to approach women as much as they want to. All in all, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock reflects the mental health many of us are struggling with.

However, I believe that another message that the poem is trying to convey, which reflects the Modernist approach to conventional relationships, is the loss of human connection. In the poem, Prufrock tries to connect with the women, or perhaps his beloved, but does not get the courage to do so. In relation to world events, I feel that this can be related to the current issue of the COVID-19 pandemic. I believe that because of the stay-at-home order and self-quarantine, we become alienated to the feeling of genuine human connection. The normal we knew then, such as handshakes and hugs, would become different. Therefore, I feel that Prufrock’s wavering confidence to say what he wants to say could reflect us trying to establish a bond when we go back to ‘normal’ life.

For I have known them all already, known them all:
Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons,
I have measured out my life with coffee spoons;
…
So how should I presume?
(49-51, 54)

Presume, according to the Cambridge Dictionary, is defined as “to believe something to be true because it is very likely, although you are not certain.” In the passage, Prufrock assures himself that “he [has] measured out [his] life with coffee spoons,” which means that he has everything calculated and figured out the small details (Dahl). This is because, if taken literally, a coffee spoon is small and holds approximately 10 grams or 0.36 ounces. In this case, Prufrock measures everything he does and so he does not account for changes or mistakes. Additionally, the first two lines of this stanza indicates that Prufrock may not be young for he has “known them all already,” which could be another way of saying the phrase: “I have seen better days.” Going back to Cambridge Dictionary’s definition, this passage means that Prufrock assures himself for he has experienced everything and accounted for anything that could change his life or his habits, and so he asks himself the rhetorical question, “Where should I be uncertain?” (Dahl).

I chose this passage not just because it contains one of T.S. Eliot’s iconic lines, which is “I have measured out my life with coffee spoons,” but also because I kind of relate to it. As an introvert, I try to calculate everything, especially when giving an oral presentation in class or usually the first days of class when professors ask everyone to introduce themselves, but I also leave space for uncertainty and adventure. In relation to the poem as a whole, I believe that this passage encapsulates Prufrock’s wavering confidence as it conveys the message of reassurance, which sort of contradicts Prufrock’s self-doubt and insecurity.

References
https://bit.ly/354jyKM – Coffee spoons
https://bit.ly/354jyKM – “I have measured out my life with coffee spoons”
https://bit.ly/359yyHs – Cambridge Dictionary

1. The story’s narrator is revisiting a place he once lived.  Explain the significance that this “revisiting” has in relation to the themes of the story.

Although it’s hard to pin-point a theme in this play, I’ll say that in relation to the central focus of this story, which is basically a conversation between old friends, who were old classmates and colleagues, they both were revisiting their hometown, and we can see that the length and direction of the conversation is solely tied to their revisit. Wei Fu focuses on what he had been up to since he returned to the Southeast, and not necessarily what he had been doing in the 10 years that he had been away, although he briefly talks about it. We also see them reminiscing about old times which is also tied to revisiting. Wei Fu says; “Yes, I still remember the time when we went together to the Tutelary God’s Temple to pull off the images’ beards, how all day long we used to discuss methods of revolutionizing China until we even came to blows.”

3)   Describe an instance of Filial Piety in the story. What is its significance?

An instance of filial piety in the story will be when Wei Fu’s mother told him to buy artificial red flowers for Ah Shun, recalling that she wanted it so much when she was a little girl. On getting to her house, he finds out that she passed, and instead of telling his mother the truth about her death, he goes ahead to give the flowers to her sister Ah Chao. He says; “and I have only to tell my mother that Ah Shun was delighted with them, and that will be that” His main focus was making his mother happy, and this is similar to the other incident with his brother’s grave. All he wanted was for her mind to be at rest even if it meant him lying to her. I feel like he did all of this because he felt like he had not achieved all what he wanted in life that will make his mother very proud of him, like a good paying job as he mentions that he earned $@0 a month which is really on the low side, so he tried to make sure that he makes her happy in the little way he could by doing everything she wanted “right.”

Describe an instance of filial piety in the story. What is its significance?

An instance that depicts filial piety in this short story is when WeiFu went back to the country looking for his little brother’s grave because his cousin wrote him and his mother a letter that saying that the ground besides his little brother’s grave have been swamped “ This spring an elder cousin wrote to tell us that the ground beside his grave was gradually being swamped, and he was afraid before long it would slip into the river” . Due to his mother request, WeiFu went to his hometown to rebury his little brother’s body. Soon after he went and digged the grave and found out that his little brother’s gave has  sunk in and the only thing that was left over was a “heap of splinters and small fragments of wood”. However, WeiFu did stop there, he took the new empty coffin that he bought and buried it next his father. This is a great example of of filial piety because WeiFu did this whole thing in respect to his mother. Not just that, he buried an empty coffin which he thought is “futile”. I believe this is beyond filial piety. He could have just left the graveyard and could have told his mother that he reburied the body.

Weifu recalls when he and the narrator used to pull the beards off religious statues in the Temple when they were younger.  What is the significance of this memory?

The significance of this memory is to show how WeiFu and the narrator was like in the past and how they have change. The act of pulling the beards off religious status in the temple signifies their stand against the teachings of Confucianism and their traditional value. However, WeiFe have changed and he let go of his intolerance which hell also mentioned that “if my old friends were to see me now, probably they would no longer acknowledge me as a friend.’ But this is what I am like now.” This shows that Wei-fu have changed to the point where his old friends won’t acknowledge him as friends because he let go of his beliefs. Not just that,  Wei-Fu mentions that “ When I have muddled through New Year I shall go back to teaching the Confucian classics as before”. Wei-fu  didn’t just let go of his revolutionary attitude but also started teaching Confucianism which only adds to the fact that WeiFu is pro the teachings of Confucianism.

      “In the room the women come and go

Talking of Michelangelo”

The standalone couplet first appears between the first and second stanza on lines 13 and 14. The infringing rhyme can either be intended as an obstruction in mood between eerie stanzas or as a bridge of unknown time passing between surreal scenes.  The first stanza ends with,  “Let us go and make our visit”(12). The word ’us’ makes the action personal to the narrator as well as engaging to the audience. But the free-standing rhyme shows no signs of the narrator connecting with anyone. The women in the room, If anything, seem distant.  They just come and go. The duad then repeats again between stanzas three and four on lines 34 and 35.   The repetition of the standalone couplet is a faultless technique in provoking extensive analysis of the message beyond the rhyme.  Regarding the literal sense, the duad is overly candid. That is if you know who Michelangelo is. Yet it is extremely vague in detail. In respect to addressing the artist, A footnote in the text states, “Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475–1564), famous Italian Renaissance sculptor, painter, architect, and poet; here, merely a topic of fashionable conversation”(541).   Michelangelo is best known for his painting of the Sistine Chapel along with his expertise in sculpture and architecture. His artistry in such fields could perhaps be the Michelangelo talk circulating the room.  Perhaps his work encompasses the room. An interesting note is the sense of only women. It is interesting Prufrock only acknowledges the women. Is this because there are truly no men or that Prufrock is only interested and concentrated on the women who come and go. Nevertheless, in the literal sense, the women are forever changing but Michelangelo is an unfading name that will be mentioned ‘in the room’ until doomsday. Thus, it is indefinite.

“Do I dare

 Disturbed the universe?

 In a minute there is time

 For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse”

(Line # 45-49 )

The way that I perceive the meaning of this passage, from “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by T.S. Eliot, is that do I decide to do something if it potentially could be reversed. In other words, is there any point in doing anything at all if the outcome isn’t anything new. Is the risk of this action even worth anything? This is something that I admittedly have asked myself more times than I could count. And it has definitely worked in convincing me to not do something. This is why I find it so interesting, we never know what an outcome will be until we take it but taking that risk is the hardest part. You could run an entire simulation in your head that analyzes every single potential risk and every single potential outcome but they’ll never truly tell you what will really happen. And since I’m a pretty analytical person, questions like this is what has helped me back in the past. And this could be with anything, in this case it’s about love and passion but it could apply to anything that’s out of our comfort zones. But if we could tell the future then there would be nothing interesting to experience. And this is obviously a rhyme that speaks on why to disturb the universe, if the action taken could be reversed. Furthermore, this idea of questioning a potential action is the foundation of the entire poem. Prufrock is constantly questioning his own capabilities and likability just to even let a girl know that he’s interested in her. In his head, he’s making this the most important action he has taken in the entirety of his life. And this is something that most likely everyone in the world has done. In addition, getting nervous to talk to a girl is part of the foundation of growing up. Maybe the luckiest people in the world or the most confident person ever has never felt the feeling that he’s going through in this poem.

Eliot, T.S. “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.” 1922. The Norton Anthology of World Literature: Volume F, W.W. Norton & Company, 2012, p. 542.

“Do i dare

Disturb the universe?

In a minute there is time

For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse”(lines 45-48).

In this passage, it clearly shows that Prufrock seems to be hesitant to say something important to the women he loves and keeps asking himself “ do i dare”. Prufrock is talking about how in a minute every decision we made can change( reversed). Instead, there is a lot of time in our hands to just not make any decisions because if we did, those decisions can change in a minute. Prufrock seems to be insecure about himself when he described himself as bald and thin in previous lines whic why I believe that Prufrock used “time” as an excuse to hide his weak side which is his looks. Prufrock kept telling himself that there’s plenty of time to make a decision to go talk to the women he loves and kept delaying which is in reality if we to say we have plenty of time not to make any decisions, death will come and still we haven’t made a single decision. I chose this passage because it mentions an important theme of the poem which is time. while i was reading the poem, “there is time” and “ do I dare?” Seemed to have a lot of reputation which caught  my attention. Also, as a reader i was eager to know  about the important things that Prufrock said he will talk about in this poem, but he kept saying “there will be time” . In addition, the last line in this passage explains why he was resistant to not make any decisions and it’s the line that i had difficulty understanding because it has a literally meaning that is understood based on the events you know that occur since the beginning of the poem and of course everyone has their own understanding of this line.

REFERENCES

https://poemanalysis.com/t-s-eliot/the-love-song-of-j-alfred-prufrock/

https://owlcation.com/humanities/Analysis-of-Poem-The-Love-Song-of-J-Alfred-Prufrock-by-TS-Eliot

“S’io credesse che mia risposta fosse
A persona che mai tornasse al mondo,
Questa fiamma staria senza piu scosse.
Ma perciocche giammai di questo fondo
Non torno vivo alcun, s’i’odo il vero,
Senza tema d’infamia ti rispondo.” (Epigraph)

Instead of analyzing a stanza of T.S. Elliot’s poem, I chose to analyze the epigraph of his poem because it provides prominent insight to Elliot’s poem as a whole. This epigraph is a direct quotation out of Canto 27 of the Inferno by the Renaissance Italian poet Dante Alighieri. In english, the epigraph translates to:

“If I but thought that my response were made
to one perhaps returning to the world,
this tongue of flame would cease to flicker.
But since, up from these depths, no one has yet
returned alive, if what I hear is true,
I answer without fear of being shamed.” (Language and Literature III 1) 

Initially, reading the epigraph made me wonder, why did Elliot choose to put this quote before his own work? After doing some research on the Inferno by Dante Alighieri, I came to understand the plot. It was about a guy(Dante) who essentially ruined his life and needed help from people in heaven. To scare Dante, heaven sends Dante a poet to guide him through hell and show him the horrors of hell. There, Dante meets many evil people of hell(enotes 1).

The quote is said by one of the evil people of hell called Guido da Montefeltro (footnote 1) . In the story, Dante is curious of how Guido ended up in hell, but Guido does not like telling his sins because he is afraid people will find out(enotes 1). However, since it is hell and “no one has yet returned alive…,” Guido is fine with telling Dante. Sadly for Guido, Dante can leave, hurting Guido’s reputation.

Then, why this epigraph? It could be possible that Elliot put this epigraph to show that the setting of his poem is not a good place, and it likely resembles hell. There are multiple instances where Elliot mentions dreadful settings like cheap hotels, sawdust restaurants, and yellow smoke (line 6-7 and 16). Also, it is apparent that Prufrock is worried about himself like Guido from hell.  What I do not understand about this epigraph is why he does not translate the quote?

“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?…” (Eliot, lines 70-73)

In the literal sense, these three lines are quite basic. They describe Prufrock walking through the streets of some unknown city and regarding numerous men he sees leaning out of their respective windows alone. The only term I was unsure of was “shirt-sleeves”; after looking it up I found it means to be informally dressed. 

I chose this passage, not because it was difficult to understand, but the imagery of these few lines was a poignant representation of the theme of loneliness in the modern age this poem explores. Through the time of modernity, urbanization was at the forefront. As we spoke about in class, although the technological advancements of the age brought people closer together whether, in proximity or means of communication, it also brought devastation at much higher rates. In a city where millions of people live together, the world Prufrock sees is full of lonely men. 

Eliot, T.S. “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.” 1922. The Norton Anthology of World Literature: Volume F, W.W. Norton & Company, 2012, p. 543.

6. What aspects of this short story seem to you to be particularly modernist?

   Two are the most obvious aspects of this story that seem to be modernist. One of them is the lack of a plot that is a characteristic of modernist. In the story of “In The Wine shop” we only see two men meeting in a wine shop and having a conversation, and nothing particular is happening besides that. The second characteristic is how we see our protagonist Lu Wei-fu being an anti-hero. In both the stories he mentioned in their conversation we see that he couldn’t do them because he was late so he “missed the opportunity” to be the hero. I also think that as we saw on our previous reading from T.S Eliot, “The Love Song Of J. Alfred Prufrock” in modernist literature there is an emphasis on the thoughts and the character himself rather than what is around him. We see Lu Wei-fu towards the end telling to the other man “ Because I know very well how unwelcome I am, I have even come to dislike myself and, knowing this, why should I inflict myself on others? “ As Prufrock did, he criticizes himself and what others might think about him.

5.Describe an instance of filial piety in the story. What is the significance? 

  An instance of filial piety in the story is where Lu Wei-fu is doing what his mother told him even if he didn’t believe it is going to make a difference. When he went to move his brother’s grave and he finds that there is nothing there he still buries an empty coffin just because his mother told him to in order for her to be calm. I think that has a connection with him being a rebel back in the days when he was trying to revolutionize China as he said to his friend and it shows a contrast on what he is now. Also this particular story emphasizes the anti-hero characteristic of modernist, to connect it to my previous answer. A hero would not have acted that way, he would stick on his beliefs of his rebel past.