Poem analysis of: 'The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock' - Essay Example

As a result, his life has been largely empty, repetitive and without joy. These views are easily traced through the author’s use of imagery, monologue and intended audience. Imagery perhaps plays the largest role in helping the reader to understand the true nature of the poem. The scene Eliot paints for Prufrock to wander through is ‘restless’ in its ugliness and loneliness. Prufrock talks of the “yellow fog” that “rubs its back upon the window-panes” (15) as if it were a cat constantly seeking admittance to the love and affection all cats seem to crave.

Emphasizing the idea of an animal attempting to find warmth, shelter and human companionship, the narrator provides yet more imagery regarding this yellow smoke as it “rubs its muzzle on the window panes” (16), “licked its tongue into the corners” (17) as if starving for food as well as love and then finally “curled once about the house and fell asleep” (22). With other additions, such as the “soot that falls from chimneys” (19) and the evening spread out “like a patient etherized upon a table” (3), the scene takes on a great deal of darkness and assumes a numbed state of being.

This state of being is echoed in the voice of the narrator as he attempts to describe his life to the reader. This mood is conveyed in the way in which the narrator tends to see the world around him. He describes the night as ‘restless’ but does not people the streets with individuals hurrying to get from one place to another or provide any indication that he is accompanied by anyone other than the reader. The streets are characterized by Prufrock as “tedious arguments of insidious intent” (8-9).

While he may be indicating that this part of town is indeed dangerous to those who walk along its streets, it could also be inferred from this monologue that the streets are unwilling to answer the speaker’s most heartfelt