T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” – Hailey Egan

I decided to chose lines 14 and 15 for my analysis of T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”.

In the room the women come and go

Talking of Michelangelo.

The reason I picked these lines is because not only is it repeated more than once which leads me to believe it has importance to the poem, but it also has a romantic tone to it and the lines create a picture in my head of two lovers in Italy because of the Michelangelo reference. In the literal sense, these lines are talking about a room where women come and go and while they are there, they speak of Michelangelo. This leads me to believe that this room is maybe some sort of art gallery or museum, but also a use of symbolism as a representation for the women who come and go in the narrator’s life. These lines were the first to jump out at me and they make me feel a sense of nostalgia for a different time period or a different life because I’ve always enjoyed tragic love stories and ones based in European countries like France or Italy.

These lines I picked tie together the whole idea of the poem and they are important because of the way the lines are repeated twice. The central idea of the poem is someone who is searching for love but is uncertain and despite knowing what to say and do, they are hesitant. I read that those specific lines were actually borrowed and an allude to Jule’s Laforgue’s work. Also that “Prufrock suffers from a fear of rejection and a fear of finding love. He doesn’t pursue girls as his self-doubt restrains him from making a move. This fear was illustrated using the lines “In the room the women come and go / Talking of Michelangelo”. This allusion to Michelangelo shows that the women in the poem are well-cultured. This intimidates Prufrock, as he feels that he’s not suitable enough compared to Michelangelo, a renowned artist.” (Wijanco) https://medium.com/@elleonwei/discuss-the-allusions-used-in-ts-eliots-the-love-song-of-j-64481132c358