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Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

1. The document contains 16 discussion questions about T.S. Eliot's poem "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock." The questions analyze various aspects of the poem including the character of Prufrock, imagery, themes of time and inactivity, and literary allusions. 2. A major theme explored is the conflicted and timid nature of Prufrock, who wants to make romantic gestures but is too afraid. Imagery of the sea and drowning may represent Prufrock's desire to lose himself but also his inability to act. 3. Eliot's style in the poem, with its complex allusions and indirect language, aims to capture the complexity of

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Muhammad Mubashir
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808 views1 page

Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

1. The document contains 16 discussion questions about T.S. Eliot's poem "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock." The questions analyze various aspects of the poem including the character of Prufrock, imagery, themes of time and inactivity, and literary allusions. 2. A major theme explored is the conflicted and timid nature of Prufrock, who wants to make romantic gestures but is too afraid. Imagery of the sea and drowning may represent Prufrock's desire to lose himself but also his inability to act. 3. Eliot's style in the poem, with its complex allusions and indirect language, aims to capture the complexity of

Uploaded by

Muhammad Mubashir
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock (1917) T.S.

Eliot

Discussion Questions

1. What does J. Alfred Prufrock’s name connote? How would you characterize him? From what of class of
society does he come? What one line especially well sums up the nature of his past life?

2. What do you think is the purpose of the epigraph from Dante’s Inferno? What is the purpose of the
reference to and image of Lazarus (lines 94-95)?

3. What is it that Prufrock wants to do? (Where is he going? What does he want to do when he gets there?)
How does he behave? What does he think of himself? Does he or does he not do what he sets out to do?

4. Who is the “you” of line 1 and the “we” in the final lines? Critics usually offer three possibilities for the
speaker and/or listener: a) the Ego—the timid, repressed self— speaking to the ID—the amorous, desirous
self; b) a man speaking to a woman; or c) the man talking to a friend. Why do you think it is a, b, or c? Is
Prufrock’s nature conflicted?

5. What is the purpose of the mock-heroic couplet: “In the room the women come and go/Talking of
Michelangelo”?

6. Discuss the imagery in the poem. What are the dominant images? Do they repeat? What do you make of the
opening image of “a patient etherized on a table,” or the image of the somnolent cat, or the sea imagery
(particularly the sea imagery)—or any other imagery that evokes an emotion consistent with the traits and
predicament of J. Alfred Prufrock?

7. What are the similarities or differences between Prufrock and Hamlet?

8. Explain the hidden logic, if any, of the paradoxical ending: “Till human voices wake us and we drown.”

9. What role does frustrated desire play in this poem? Are there concrete examples of this or merely hints?

10. What role does time play in this poem? Are there concrete examples of this or merely hints?

11. What role does drowning play in this poem? Are there concrete examples of this or merely hints?

12. What role does inactivity and passivity play in this poem? Are there concrete examples of this or merely
hints?

13. What is the climax of this poem? Why is this the climax?

14. Review the many literary allusions, striking or unusual figures of speech and images. What do they tend to
reflect about Prufrock’s nature?

15. Relate Eliot’s comment from his essay “The Function of Criticism” to “Prufrock”:
“The romantic is deficient or undeveloped in his ability to distinguish between fact and fancy, whereas
the classicist, or adult mind, is thoroughly realist—without illusions, without day-dreams, without
hope, without bitterness, and with an abundant resignation.” Which is the Eliot of “Prufrock”? the
romantic or the classicist? Which is the persona, Prufrock, of the poem?

16. Eliot desired that modern poetry absorb and transform the great poetry of the past to meet the present,
particularly the metaphysical poets. He provided a rational for the direction his poetry took in his essay on
the metaphysical poets:
Our civilization comprehends great variety and complexity, and this variety and complexity,
playing upon a refined sensibility, must produce various and complex results. The poet must
become more and more comprehensive, more allusive, more indirect, in order to force, to dislocate
if necessary, language into his meaning.
Relate this to his technique in “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.”

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