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Personification In The Lovesong Of J Alfred Prufrock

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In T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” the point of view of an indecisive, self-conscious young man is given. He is constantly questioning himself and has a fear of introducing himself to people and into relationships. The author illustrates the difficulties of overcoming self-doubt and insecurities by using personification in order to stretch the boundaries of reality and make the poem more understandable, using similes to create distinct images throughout the poem, and using symbols to connect the speaker’s thoughts together in one piece, all conveying the damage one’s mind can cause to their own personal image. Eliot begins by deploying personification in order to further the reader’s understanding of the poem and convey the speaker’s perspective of life around him. Specifically, the speaker uses personification whenever he personifies the yellow fog as a cat-like creature. “The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes, / The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window-panes, / Licked its tongue into the corners of the evening, / Lingered upon the pools that stand in drains, / Let fall upon its back the …show more content…

The main symbolism is that throughout his love song, Prufrock comes to accept himself and his feelings. He shifts from using “I” to using “We”, symbolizing how he has come to understand that he is not alone in this feeling of hopelessness. Another piece of symbolism, which I mentioned earlier in my essay, is the yellow fog. The yellow fog represents light, which shines bright in the city on an October night. In stanza 6, we get a fragmented view of Prufrock’s appearance. This convey show Prufrock himself is also fragmented. He closes himself off but he wants to become more open. The use of these symbols is that they connect the pieces of Prufrock’s thoughts and give readers a more complete view of

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He is constantly questioning himself and his actions, and he is unable to escape his own thoughts. He says, "I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be; / Am an attendant lord, one that will do / To swell a progress, start a scene or two" (lines 65-67). This suggests that Prufrock feels that he is not living up to his full potential, and that he is trapped in a role that he did not choose for

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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

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It symbolizes him reliving what used to be and how he used to be. (line 22) “The term and concept of symbolism (and symbol) is so vast that it cannot even be sketched within the limits of this paper” (Wellek, 1970) Symbols seem to be everywhere, they just have to be looked for. A symbol can be something simple to something extremely complicated.

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As life goes on he mopes about how as they mingle with one another he can't help but feel hopeless. He wants so badly to talk to “her” but constantly let's himself down because he is always too afraid to speak. Prufrock that he may be better off living the lonely, vast, quiet ocean than in a society of other people. He says, “Till human voices wake us, and we drown” the ocean symbolizes how Prufrock feels when trying to interact with people, he feels empty, dark, and overwhelmed. This is relatable because everyone feels disappointed in themselves when they don't live up to the expectations of themselves and

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