T. S. Eliot an unprecedented part of the early 20 th century was deeply influenced by his age. The current social, economical & political condition had a tremendous effect on him. After the First World War, the western world suffered a loss of faith in the existing values. Moreover, the moral disintegration caused by violence & destruction fueled the sufferings of urban civilization.
During this time, emerged the modern man, sophisticated but absorbed in personal embarrassments &disillusions. An interior dramatic monologue, ‘the love song of J. Alfred Prufrock’ mirrors the frustration of one such modern man, Prufrock. He is a victim of the urban civilization, caught up in a modern society, which by contrast emphasizes his isolation. The protagonist, prufrock is too proud to admit his despair to another person, but he can suggest that to a part of his own self. This is evident from the quotation of Dante’s Inferno.
He is an embodiment of split personality. Evening is lifeless and unattractive to prufrock. He says: “When the evening is spread out against the sky Like a patient etherized upon a table; It rather reminds him of disease & death. Other phrases like, ‘eternal footman’, ‘I am Lazarus’, gives evidence of pfufrock’s or modern man’s obsession with death. The feline character of fog resembles prufrock who is secretive & self-indulgent. He puts on his mask of happiness when he meets other people.
The Essay on Ideas On Modernism Modern Man
MODERNISM Victorianism - Modernism has its roots in the 19 th century and it covers the great majority of that century. The century has a change in the ways of life. - Victorianism refers to the Queen Victoria when she ruled England in 1837-1901. That time England was a great country. That had it influence on the types of people's life. - In 1840 the second period of the industrial revolution ...
Prufrock denies he’s not like hamlet, the celebrated hero of all time impact. He is like Polonium, middle-aged submissive & at times ridiculous. The incapability, insignificance, tottering, indecisive nature of prufrock reflects the character of a modern man. Thus, the poem is about the complexities of modern man projected through prufrock..
