Critical Analysis J.Alfred Prufrock - 2179 Words

At the beginning of T. S. Eliot s poem The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, there stands an epigraph from Dantes Inferno, Canto 27. This epigraph unifies the text and brings, through its imagery and context, a deeper understanding of Eliots poem. Prufrock represents both of the characters in this section of the Inferno, corresponding to Dante in the first section and Guido da Montefeltro in the second and third. Dante represents the antithesis of Prufrock as well as the ideal that Prufrock strives for. The flame-bound Guido da Montefeltro represents through his words and condition, the isolated and wasteful state that Prufrock has condemned himself to inhabit. In this manner, the epigraph brings the poem full circle, allowing the reader†¦show more content†¦However, the epigraph also makes a social comment about how modern life can isolate and destroy individual self-worth. Prufrock does not ask the overwhelming question because he fears judgment and rejection. His self-consciousness, produced by the society around him, brutalizes him from within. He says, With a bald spot in the middle of my hair / (they will say: how his hair is growing thin!) and My necktie rich and modest, but asserted by a simple pin / (They will say: how his arms and legs are thin!) Prufrock has been filled with painful insecurity because he has been formulated, sprawling on a pin by the people around him. The refore, to return alive from this pit as Guido says, would mean to rise above the constrictions and cruel judgementalism of modern life: a truly heroic act. Prufrock, crushed under the pressures of modern life, crumbles from within. He shuts himself off from society and the woman that he loves: all because of his deep self-loathing and fear. This internal catastrophe describes the isolating and lonely nature of modern existence, where cultural norms become internalized and people watch themselves, as from the guard tower of a prison, hoping to catch themselves in the act of individualizing before becoming a deviant in the eyes of society. The poems epigraph fuses all of these concepts and figures together into a summation that brings the reader a deeper and richer understanding of the poem, and another powerfulShow MoreRelatedANALIZ TEXT INTERPRETATION AND ANALYSIS28843 Words   |  116 Pagesï » ¿TEXT INTERPRETATION AND ANALYSIS The purpose of Text Interpretation and Analysis is a literary and linguistic commentary in which the reader explains what the text reveals under close examination. Any literary work is unique. It is created by the author in accordance with his vision and is permeated with his idea of the world. The reader’s interpretation is also highly individual and depends to a great extent on his knowledge and personal experience. That’s why one cannot lay down a fixed â€Å"model†