Alfred Prufrock

Alfred Prufrock is an older man who is painfully aware of his aging. Although initially when looking at the poem, you would imagine a nice, rhythmic, and upbeat love song, simply by seeing the name Prufrock this trend is bucked. This is because the name Prufrock does not roll of the tong and sound very poetic. Indeed, Prufrock is a very usual name that is fitting for a seemingly unusual man. Right from the beginning of the poem it also becomes clear that the “love song” is a cruel irony. “Let us go then you and I/When the evening is spread out against the sky/Like a patient etherised upon a table.” This last image of a patient on a table is a very jarring one that makes it clear that the poem is not a classic love song. There is also a clear

“The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the widow- panes,/Licked its tongue into the corners of the evenings/Lingered upon the pools that stand in drains/Let fall upon its back the soot that falls from chimneys.” In this stanza there is this really effective image of an insidious fog and or pollution. This fog is a sickly and depressing yellow color, which echoes the classic American story the yellow wallpaper. Similarly to this story, the yellow fog is heavy, gross, and disgusting and permeates everything around it, giving a seeming uncomfortable claustrophobic feeling to the poem. It is through fleeting images and fragments that we begin to learn about the character Profrock. We learn that he is a very anxious guy, who is afraid of being alone, and yet is paralyzed by the moment, and too scared to do anything about his unhappiness. He is also aware of this fault as well as the passage of time, and so his wheels are constantly spinning in this kind of devastating internal conversation. This is the reason why the poem is presented through a series of images and fragments thoughts because it gives us insight into Prufrock’s devastating internal conversation, random thoughts and