Barbara Benjamin
16 March 1994
1685 words
Essay:
"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"
Though Prufrock appears
to be passive and indecisive, bound up in meaningless routines and social expectations,
and fears to reveal his inner feelings, he isn't the weak, spineless character
that others attribute to him. Rather, he is a man of unusual sensitivities
and introspection, and he has come to this ineffectual state because of the shallow
world in which he lives. His world bears
similarities to that of a growing group of people in today's society: single people.
At the time of this poem, 1917, a new group of people were emerging in
the relatively new industrialized society. These
were people alienated and separated from their families and living in large, depersonalized
urban areas. Single people at that time
would not have been unlike the large groups of single people now.
A single person's life is quite different from life
as a married person or life with a long-term intimate partner. Single people are far more isolated from other
people than their married counterparts, and their lives are much more fragmented.
Most single people have no thread of continuity running through their lives. That is, there is no one to come home to daily
and relate the small incidental happenings of their days. Instead, when they come home, the house is empty.
Whether they had a good day or a bad day is of little consequence to anyone.
There is no one to tell, so the daily events become locked up inside them. Their friends hear only selected highlights
of their lives. Relationships with other
people are incidental, at social events, or at family gatherings. In other words, there is a reason to get together,
making the environment somewhat artificial. They aren't together "naturally" as
people are at home and away from social faces.
The single person at home is totally alone.
Of the people we know, there are only five types of
relationships:
1. Business associates
2. Acquaintances
3. Friendships
4. Relatives
5. Spouses (or significant others).
Of these relationships, there is only one in which
we are free to be intimate (sexually and otherwise), and that is with a spouse
(or an intimate partner). This relationship
allows us to be ourselves, without pretenses or inhibitions. It is the only relationship which allows us
to be completely ourselves, and that another person can know us
completely. All other relationships have
restrictions regarding proper behavior, thus, we can't be wholly intimate. Single people who are without long-term intimate
partners, then, only experience the other four restrictive relationships.
They aren't free to be completely themselves with anyone.
No one knows them intimately. As
a result, large parts of their days and nights are lived inside their own heads.
I see Prufrock's dilemma
related to the fact that he is a single person.
He attends the parties and other social events, regardless of how dull
or unsatisfying, because without them, there are few--if any--other social options
available, for instance, "one-night cheap hotels." Over the years, he feels more and more weary
of these events, and sees them as superficial, fragmented, and fruitless. He expresses his dislike of these endless, dull
social routines when he says, "For I have known them already, known them
all." He repeats this statement three
different times, which emphasizes his boredom with his social life.
His life blurs into one long event, which is suggested
by the yellow fog mentioned in the fourth and fifth stanzas. Fog is hazy and prevents clear vision. This yellow fog is everywhere, inside and out,
and seems as endless and dull as the social gatherings. It's heavy and lethargic and seems to reflect
his state of mind. It's also seeking to
get inside some secure haven, like a stray animal.
Prufrock's passive, self-conscious, and inhibited
personality isn't due to a flaw in his character. Rather, it is the depth of Prufrock's awareness, which is the source of his depression. His sensitivities make him more acutely aware
than most other people of the circumstances. He's
a victim of his own awareness.
There are three basic personality types, in regards
to awareness levels. The first type, and
by far the most common, is those who simply never look inward and question. They concern themselves with social convention
and activities and live, more or less, on the exterior of life. They are conscious outside of themselves, but
unconscious inside of themselves. For the
most part, their eyes glaze over if you talk to them about inner feelings or things
on an introspective level.
The second type is people who have a vague awareness,
and a generalized sense of unfulfillment and unhappiness.
However, they lack the introspective qualities--or perhaps they fear them--and,
thus, they don't quite comprehend the source of their dissatisfaction. They tend to be pessimistic or depressive.
However, I've observed that these people usually complain about their dissatisfaction,
but they seem to avoid taking action about it.
When others offer suggestions to help them, they reply with a "yes,
but" kind of excuse, relieving them of the responsibility of action, and
continue life as it is.
The third type, and the least common, is people who
have a special sensitivity or awareness, and who are introspective. Prufrock belongs to
this group. He's not a complainer like
those in the second group. As Frederik Rusch says, "Prufrock understands his own predicament quite well. Although he calls himself
a fool, he has wisdom about himself and his predicament" (915).
Introspective type people tend to be inward and hesitant
to express their inner thoughts. This tendency,
to some extent, is because few people understand, or care to hear about another's
inner thoughts and feelings. This is even more true
of men. Others seem uncomfortable or feel
threatened by intimate disclosures, thus avoid these kinds of conversations.
An introspective person, then, has a more difficult
time finding others who share their own depth of awareness. When engaged in social discourse, they have
a heightened consciousness of its superficiality or triviality, but there is no
relief from it short of relinquishing all social contact.
So, whom should Prufrock
talk to? It seems that the people in his
world are typical of most people. Because
of his heightened sensitivities, he's acutely aware of the mundane way people
see him: "How his hair is growing
thin!" (40), and, "But how his arms and legs are thin!" (43).
I disagree with Robert Cook, who says, "Prufrock
is paralyzed by his fears of what people think" (912). Prufrock is merely
becoming overwhelmed by this fragmented, superficial world. He has turned inward because there's no where
else to go. Prufrock
is frustrated because there is no one he can be honest with about his inner thoughts
and feelings. He's already familiar with
the reactions of others:
Would it have been worth while
If one, settling a pillow or throwing off a shawl,
And turning toward the window, should say: "That is not it at/all,
That is not what I meant, at all. (106-110)
The woman in this imaginary conversation seems disinterested
with the conversation, as seen by her action of settling a pillow or throwing
off a shawl. Someone interested wouldn't
be fidgeting like this. These are acts
of mild boredom and disinterest. She then
turns toward the window, presumably away from him, and speaks. This is an act of rejection. I think he's already experienced this kind of
reaction. I don't think he merely imagines
that this would be her reply if he spoke to her. Nancy Gish describes
him, thus:
He cannot act because he fears that nothing in the external
world will correspond with his felt reality, that the lady has no similar feelings
and will only say, 'That is not what I
meant at all' . . . . Though he wishes to reveal the torture of living in an empty
world and to ask for human contact, he fears the contempt of the very world he
recognizes as trivial and divorced from his real desires.
(17)
Unlike Gish, who attributes
Prufrock's fear to his own inadequacy, (13), I believe
his fear is based on his own experience, the fact that there is no one who understands.
By necessity, he is driven into his own thoughts and he goes through the
dreary repetition of daily life because without it, there is nothing. I'm most in agreement with Rusch's Frommian view of Prufrock's predicament. Frommian
theory asserts that is it a fundamental need of man to be part of something, that
"the individual's needs and drives have a social component" (915). Prufrock "gets
no comfort, no nurturing from his environment" (Rusch,
916).
The Dante's Hell that Prufrock
lives is that he can reveal himself only to himself. He is both the "you and I," his outer
self conversing with his inner self. There
is no way out of his stale, lifeless world, just as no one ever returns from Hell.
Prufrock's experience is the Hell of isolation,
of being a single man, of being cutoff from revealing or releasing his inner life,
and of receiving no understanding or empathy.
But his isolation is not of his own making.
It is beyond his ability to change it.
It is a larger problem created by the structure of his society.
No one returns from it, except through death.
WORKS CITED
Gish,
Nancy K. Time In
The Poetry of T. S. Eliot.
Kenner, Hugh. The Invisible Poet: T. S. Eliot;
Rusch,
Frederik L. "Society and Character in 'Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.'"
Rev. of "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" by T. S. Eliot. The
Cook, Robert G. "The Influence of
Emerson's 'Self-Reliance' on Prufrock." Rev. of "The Love Song
of J. Alfred Prufrock" by T. S. Eliot. The
Unpublished work ©
1994 Barbara Benjamin