The Love Song Of J. Alfred Prufrock, By T. S.

The modernist period in literature began during a period of rapid technological, economic, and social development. The traumatic losses of World War One had forced the world to question its values, and caused a massive . The Romantic period in literature was over, and the lone Romantic figure was replaced with the new Modernist hero. This hero demonstrated the plight of the modern Westerner – they struggled to adapt to the conventions and expectations placed upon them by the new society, and were ultimately incapacitated by their lack of traditional heroic qualities. Classic works from Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby to Franx Kafka’s Metamophosis cast this modern man as their protagonist, exploring the changing relationship of the average individual

Eliot describes a man paralysed by his social anxieties. Allusions to other literary works, particularly Shakespeare’s Hamlet, cast the central character as the paragon of indecision, the something something. Prufrock’s central struggle is to find his place in a society that no longer accepts his shortcomings, and this is shown primarily through his interactions with women. Prufrock gazes upon women passing by, but lacks the courage to ‘force the moment to its crisis’. In the early 20th century, women had gained more rights and freedoms when they had replaced the male workers who were off fighting in the war. Many of the men who returned alive felt that their masculinity was threatened by the cultural and political shifts, which is demonstrated in the poem with the description fo Prufrock’s hair and limbs ‘growing thin’. Eliot's Prufrock is the type of man he felt that the hostile environment of the 20th century would create - ineffectual, weak and unmanly. The poet describes the mental anguish of the modern man through the use of free, disjointed verse and stream-of-consciousness, in the form of a dramatic interior monologue. The poem is the narrator's internal dialogue, an unorganised flow of feelings and thoughts that allows the readers to do thing . Another technique used by Eliot was the repetition of the simple phrase ‘ Do I dare’, emphasising the constant crippling insecurity that prevents Prufrock from engaging with other members of the society he wishes to be accepted into. Prufrock is distinguished by his hesitation and inability to overcome the pressures of the evolving