Literary Allusions in The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock - Research Paper Example

Literary Allusions in The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock Emphasis on the use of an aesthetic language and such techniques as meter, repetition, and rhyme among others distinguishes poetry from a work of prose. Poems are usually known for their immense use of word association and imagery for a quick convey of emotions. The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock is an example of a poem that illustrates a number of literary terms. The Love Song is the earliest of Eliot’s works. It was completed in 1910, but only published in 1915. The poem examines the tortured nature and psyche of the modern man who is eloquent, overeducated, emotionally stilted, and neurotic (Batra 24). Like all other literary writers, Eliot uses a number of literary allusions in the effort to communicate his message. Like most other modernist writers, Eliot was interested in expressing the fragile psychological nature of human around the twentieth century. The Victorian ideals and the effects of the First World War was a challenge to the traditional norms on masculine identity. This resulted to artists questioning the ideal of poetry altering the world through verse. Modernists writers were interested in capturing the world, which they viewed as alienated, fractured, and denigrated. Eliot felt that the society was wounded and paralyzed, imagining that culture was dissolving and crumbling (Batra 23). The Love Song of J. Alfred Profrock illustrates his feelings through the words of the persona. The collectively damaged psyche of humanity prevented them from communicating with each other, a fact that Ellliot illuminates in a variety of his works. One of the most evident literary forms that Eliot employs in the poem is a dramatic monologue. This became a common form of poetry especially with most of his predecessors. This is similar to soliloquies that are employed in plays. Poetic monologues are characterized by utterances made a given individual at a given time. A further characterization is that utterances are directed to listeners whose presence is not certain, but is suggested by the words of the speaker. Another characterization of poetic monologue is that it primarily focuses on the revelation and development of the character of the speaker. These three characteristics are evident in the Eliot’s poem. Eliot however modernizes this form by the removal of the implied audience and focusing on the isolation and interiority of Prufrock. Rhyme is another literary allusion common with poems. The rhyme scheme of Eliot’s poem is irregular. Although sections of the poem resemble free verse, the poem is a keenly structured amalgamation. Another of the most evident characteristics of Eliot’s poem is the use of refrains. His continued return to the woman helps him describe the neurotic modern individual. The use of fragments of a sonnet nature is another literary illusion that Eliot employs. He uses fragmentation to illustrate the chaotic nature of modern existence as well as juxtapose literary texts against each other. According to him, the psyche of humanity had been shattered. Presenting pieces and bits of images, dialogue, foreign words, scholarly ideas, tones, as well as formal styles within a single poetic work was a way of presenting humanity’s destroyed psyche and the barrage sensory perceptions of the modern world (Ackerley 10). The use of such fragments helps Eliot highlight recurrent themes in literary tradition. Another style that Eliot employs is his poem is the modernist imagism. Imagism is a literary movement that has a close link to modernism. It relies on the principle that a poem should be constructed on a description of images that are concrete. This movement emphasizes that words are necessary in description in poetry. Eliot was involved in this movement, a fact that makes his description and imagery clear to readers. For one to understand Eliot’s poem, there is a need for critical analysis of the images as well as thematic patterns. Symbols are important literary devices that poets employ in their effort to communicate a message. Eliot employs a variety of symbols in his poem. Water is the most significant of all symbols used in the poem. As a symbol, water represents life and death. The characters in the poem need water to quench their thirst, they cry for rain to come and quench their earth, and they watch as rivers overflow the banks. Although water has the ability of restoring fertility and life, it also can lead to death and drowning. Traditionally, water was implied Christianity baptism, as well as the figure of Christ. Eliot draws from these meanings to imply that water cleanses and provides solace. The fisher king has also been used symbolically in the poem. Eliot drew most of his symbols form a book on the Holy Grail written by Jessie Weston. Weston’s book illustrated the connections between Christianity and early fertility rites. It also included the evolution of the Fisher King as an early representation of Jesus Christ. Historically, the death or impotence of Fisher King resulted to famine and unhappiness. Eliot used the Fisher King as a symbol for humanity who has been deprived of his sexual potency of the modern world. Images in the poem The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock , can also be used in analyzing the themes. The reoccurring use of the image of thinning and baldness in the poem draws the attention of the readers to self-consciousness as a theme. Prufrock alludes to these conditions on four different times in the poem in his monologues. His anxiety about his baldness and the feeble body can be related to his fear about aging and death. This theme has also been repeated in lines 85 and 86 when he talks about his fear of eternal footman (Ackerley 27). This theme can be enhanced to fragility and mortality of human life. Individual female body parts as used in the poem bring the theme of sexual anxiety. The division of female parts of a body is a way of denying their existence as a being. Prufrock’s interaction with females leads to his reduction to their body parts to legs and arms. The peach has also been used symbolically in the poem to indicate the Biblical forbidden fruit, which Prufrock has seemingly eaten. A further interpretation of the peach by critics is that it represents Prufrock’s fear of death and age. This image therefore enhances the theme of the protagonist’s fear of death and aging. Repetition is a common literary illusion among poets. Eliot has constantly used this device in his poem. Repetition is a significant device for emphasis of particular ideas and themes. The repetition of the word time in stanza three, for instance, emphasizes the amount of time that Prufrock believes is available for a variety of things to be carried out. This is however, despite the fact that his age is running fast. In addition to this, rhetorical questions, another common literary illusion is evident in the poem. Rhetorical questions provoke readers to read think as well as enhancing some themes. This literary device is evident in Eliot’s work. For instance, the rhetorical question in stanza four, line two emphasizes on the theme of human mortality. This is because Prufrock wonders whether he shall be able to descent the stairs even with his old age. Work cited Ackerley, C J. T S Eliot: 'The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock' and 'The Waste Land'. New Jersey: Humanities-Ebooks. 2007. 1-40. Print. Batra, Shakti. T.S. Eliot. New Delhi: Sarup & Sons. 2001. 23-45. Print. Read More