![]() To spit out all the butt-ends of my days and ways? When I am pinned and wriggling on the wall, The eyes that fix you in a formulated phrase,Īnd when I am formulated, sprawling on a pin, He is paralyzed by the fear of social criticism:Īnd I have known the eyes already, known them all – Every utterance is thought out and analyzed in his mind a hundred times. He does not know how to act and does not know how to say what he wants to say. It is clear that the actions of everyday life bring great turmoil to Prufrock. The simple “taking of a toast and tea” requires “a hundred indecisions” and “a hundred visions and revisions.” He is so repressed that tea is a major trial. He must “prepare a face to meet the faces” that he meets, for he cannot simply be who he is. The stanza mentioned in the previous paragraph illustrates Prufrock’s constant internal turmoil. ![]() He can only speak to a great void, certain that he will not be heard. He has all the time he needs now, yet his true time has passed. The tragedy is now that Prufrock is finally speaking his mind, his words will nevertheless remain unheard. He thought that time would be limitless (“There will be time, there will be time”), and he found that it wasn’t. Prufrock’s time to act was limited, but he didn’t know it. To prepare a face for the faces that you meet Īnd time for all the works and days of hands…īefore the taking of a toast and tea. He seemed to feel that he had all of the time in the world to act on his feelings:įor the yellow smoke that slides along the street… He always meant to say what had been plaguing him. ![]() Yet it seems Prufrock had been planning to make his declaration. Had Prufrock sung the song he meant to sing, he would not be in hell. Essentially, Prufrock has proved himself to be a coward. His inability to speak his feelings and the fear of what implications that would hold have confined him to where he is. Fittingly, Prufrock’s world is cast in this yellow light because his world is a world of cowardice. Yellow is a color associated with cowardice. Images of yellow overwhelming the landscape abound: “The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes, the yellow smoke that rubs its back upon the window-panes”. He has been condemned to a kind of hell by his inaction. Only now, where nobody can hear him, can Prufrock finally declare what cannot be said. Eliot’s Prufrock faces the same situation he has a story to tell – a love song to sing – that he didn’t dare to declare among the living. Being translated, it says: “If I thought that I was speaking/ to someone who would go back to the world,/ this flame would shake no more./ But since nobody has ever/ gone back alive from this place, if what I hear is true,/ I answer you without fear of infamy.” The speaker, in this case, will only tell his story with the knowledge that living ears will never hear it. Alfred Prufrock” begins with an epigraph from Dante’s Inferno. The poem serves as a poignant exploration of the human condition, depicting the tragic consequences of fear, indecision, and self-doubt. Ultimately, Prufrock's inner conflict leads to a resignation to his fate, symbolized by the mermaids who sing to him in his dreams but remain elusive in reality. This fear culminates in a powerful climax where he envisions a woman's response that would shatter his fragile self-esteem. He is paralyzed by the fear of rejection and misunderstanding, leading him to question whether declaring his feelings would have been worth the risk. The overwhelming question that haunts Prufrock throughout the poem is one of love. He fears the judgmental gaze of others, which he likens to being pinned and exposed like a specimen. His inability to act and express himself freely in social situations is a source of immense distress. Prufrock's struggle is marked by his obsession with time, symbolized by the relentless progression of yellow light, a color associated with cowardice. Alfred Prufrock," the protagonist, Prufrock, grapples with profound emotional conflict, revealing his fear of rejection, a sense of physical decay, and the paralyzing effect of social scrutiny.
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