Even though this is already one of my
favorite poems, I definitely saw things a second time around that I
hadn't before. I really paid attention to the introduction in Norton,
not only because T.S. Eliot is my favorite poet, but because I really
wanted to see just how much I missed the first few times I read
Prufrock. I noticed that
overall, the poem was a reflection of Eliot's disproval of the
Romanticist idea of self-indulgence. It kinda makes sense, because
of all the self-loathing he does throughout the work. Prufrock
mentions his bald spots multiple times, his skinny limbs, even going
so far as to say the mermaid's whose voices he used to hear won't
sing to him any longer. His regard for self-intellect vs
self-indulgence is present in that much of the time, he is analyzing
things from an almost scientific perspective, claiming that he “known
already” many different things, or has “formulated” others. He
is very indecisive and hesitant, and since he has known and seen so
many things already as stated in the poem, maybe this is grounds for
why he feels he doesn't
need to make any immediate decisions or take any risks.
Prufrock
also manipulates time frequently, the reason to me being so he can
avoid the reveal of his true inner self. Many of the actions that
take place in the poem are described as past
events or as
happening in the future. The fact that he is never really describing
things as happening now, shows the passiveness of his character. He
keeps repeating how he has seen all these things, and done all these
things, yet when it comes down to doing things in the now, he just
chooses to “turn back and descend the stair.” He spends so much
time contemplating time that he doesn't realize time has passed.
Prufrock looks toward the future by planning to get things done
“before toast and tea” (“there will be time”), yet, he wastes
a whole entire stanza talking about yellow fog and smoke, and then
tries to justify that wasted time instead of telling the reader the
question that has been on his mind the whole time. His repetition of
“there will be time” so many times in the poem tells me that he
is not very convinced himself that he has as much time to dawdle as
he is making it seem. I find it ironic that he is not comfortable
with being analyzed or studied himself, (And
when I am formulated, sprawling on a pin, When I am pinned and
wriggling on the wall,)
yet he spends so
much time analyzing the
pieces of others, whether that be white hair, bracelets on arms,
eyes, etc. He continues to
self-loathe, claiming that “I have seen the moment of my greatness
flicker” in order to avoid the introspection that is required to
ask the question that is on his mind. The only thing that is ever
revealed about his personality is in line 86 when he reveals that he
is afraid. Other than that, he chooses to focus on superficial
aspects such as his clothing to make up for this.
I
can't fail to mention all the Dante references...another one of my
favorite books. This might be a stretch, but Prufrock's character
kind of reminds me of Guido in Dante.
The significance of Dante is
presented in the beginning, with the direct quote translating to:
“If I thought that my reply would be to one who would ever return
to the world, this flame would stay without further movement; but
since none has ever returned alive from this depth, if what I hear is
true, I answer you without fear of infamy.”
Guido tells his shame to Dante because he believes Dante will never
make it out of Hell alive to tell everyone of Guido's wrongs. Guido
knows no one has ever made it out alive, so his story will be
confined to one place and no one will ever think less of him. So,
Guido chose to tell Dante his story specifically because he valued
his reputation so much. Even though Prufrock is self-loathing, his
comment on his nice clothing hints at his value of superficiality and
reputation as well. The scenery described, and the fact that the
same actions are being performed repeatedly (In the room the women
come and go, talking of Michelangelo) makes me think that this is
Prufrock's idea of his own personal, monotonous hell that is seen in
Dante's Inferno. When he mentions the footman holding the
coat, it seems as if he is about to enter a place he might not come
out of again, (hi again Dante and Hell), but could also be reflective
of how he feels about proposing the question he wants to ask, aka
point of no return/anxiety about asking that question. Prufrock is
always mentioning fragments of human beings (arms, eyes, bald spots),
which could also be reflective of him not wanting to reveal the
question or the entirety of true self. He pays so much attention to
clothing, even sea girls are wreathed with seaweed, arms are in
bracelets. These are all ways to digress from the actual self. I
think this accurately displays T.S Eliot's disproval of
self-indulgence and Prufrock's fear of being studied as well as
Guido's value of reputation in Dante.
However,
what strikes me the most is that the poem begins in the future, but
ends in the past. So did time ever really pass at all or was it all
just a dream?
I like the question you bring up at the end - does time actually pass by? Time was one thing that kind of confused me with the poem. He often seems to be stuck on things that happened in the past or things that he hopes we will accomplish in the future. He is not to concerned with the present because "there will be time." I also agree with in his attention to detail - however I didn't a first read as a response to Romanticist idea of self-indulgence. After reading that, I do agree that he is hung up on details and appearances of himself and the people around him. I have never read Dante, but I can see some parallels that you pointed out in both characters.
ReplyDeleteI really liked your response on the time element in this poem. A reference to time in this poem that struck me most was, "I should have been a pair of ragged claws
ReplyDeleteScuttling across the floors of silent seas." This suggests that Prufrock believes he should have been born or is most similar to that of a crab. Crabs are known to move across the sea-floor in both a clever and yet divergent type of motion-this is perhaps the most accurate description of how Prufrock presents his argument throughout the entire poem. Prufrock has this huge question to ask his lover (so it may be assumed), and yet he always finds a reason to avoid actually asking it because he can only imagine that a worst-case scenario may actually ensue. Like a crab, Profruck "scuttles" around what actually needs to be done.
I liked what you said about Prufrock’s knowledge maybe being the reason why he never seems to act. I think all of the things that Prufrock has experienced may be holding him back from making decisions, too. Because he is so analytical, he spends so much time contemplating that he can only focus on the negative outcomes of every scenario. Prufrock does all this speculating instead of taking any leaps of faith, which is sometimes necessary in life for the situations which cannot be predicted. As for his analysis of people, Prufrock does spend a lot of time speculating about what people are doing. Because he spends so much time studying other people that I think he feels that people are constantly doing the same thing to him. Prufrock only feels so self-conscious about what others are thinking of him and the judgements they make because he does it kind of obsessively to others in society. I feel like this shows the mentality of belonging and fitting in which is instilled by a society that is always watching.
ReplyDeleteI feel like time in the poem is both specific and unspecific. The poem mentions discreet measurements, but there is no real way to tell how much time has actually passed. If it is actually all in Prufrock’s mind then the whole thing could just be his thought process that does not last any longer than what it takes to read the poem. If Prufrock is actually physically moving through each of these experiences it would take much larger gaps of time. I feel like it is more likely that it really is actually only happening in his mind because of the line, “in a minute there is time,” which supports that thought because all of his mental wondering is only the thoughts of a few minutes. Just a minute can make an impact in Prufrock’s world, which makes it seem that he isn’t moving physically through life, rather it’s only mentally. I could be totally wrong though.
ReplyDeleteCarly,
ReplyDeleteI like the point you made where Prufrock does not want to be analyzed, yet he analyzes others. Continuing in the poem after your quote I think that he does not want to be analyzed because he does not know what to do himself and that makes him insecure. He says “Then how shall I begin / To spit out all the butt-ends of my days and ways?”. That to me made it seem like Prufrock does not even know where to begin to change because he needs to change the way he thinks and acts so he does not waste his days anymore. He knows his own insecurities, like where you pointed out he thinks the girls will says his hair is thin and his limbs are skinny, which makes him not want to be analyzed because he knows what is wrong, he just does not think he has the ability to fix those things.
Daniel Pietaro
Time, whether it passed or not in the reality of the poem, is the insurmountable hurdle in all of humanity. Prufrock analyzes the people around but hates being analyzed because he know that he has nothing to show for his life. He thinks about the women he never got to be with and all the lives he never got to play out, and he eventually concerns himself with the triviality of his clothing and how he fits in with the rest of society. I always understood it as a very me vs. the rest of the world situation. It is also a trait of Modernism to see things in fragments. Where do I fit in? And when I figure out where that is, do I actually want to be there? There are huge questions of importance and things worth living for, which after the war was not clear. Profrock is the embodiment of confusion and the inability to utilize time.
ReplyDeleteWow, you certainly picked up on a lot of things that I completely missed! I've read this poem countless times and I guess I just never realized his lack of talking about the present, but it makes the poem that much stonger. First of all, he's too stuck in the past, because he "knows" too many things. This reminded me of a few other things we read in this class. There's always that wonder if knowledge is power or if knowing is actually worse, because you know all the things you can't control. I think Prufrock very much has this feeling whenever he talks of the past. He knows things that people have said about him and knows of the men who are stuck in shirt sleeves or whatever. So he decides to plan! He can change all that, right? He can change his face, change his personality, change everything he needs to to avoid everything that his past has told him. But, because he knows too much, he only plans for the future and doesn't do anything in the present.
ReplyDeleteI also didn't realize that he never really talked about his personality, but that fits in with my feels about the rest of the poem. He's too focus on the superficial and doesn't think about the things that really matter. He's caught up in the tide of society and worrying about all the wrong things, that he misses his chance to really live. Poor Prufrock, if only you weren't such a dumby.
Fun fact! The first time I ever read this was in my american literature class. Eliot is interesting because he uses the works and writers before him in a really obvious way in this poem. You obviously picked up on Dante, but Shakespeare raises his head a few times in this poem as well.
ReplyDeleteI think that the influences Eliot has working on him would indicate that time is indeed passing, and passing hellishly because of his own inabilities. Prufrock is also really aware of his failings, which makes for an interesting poem, as well as a different type of character than what we have seen in this class. Has anyone noticed that since we read Wilde, we've been seeing a different scene of writers?
I liked that you pointed out all of the references to Dante's Inferno in this poem! We read this in one of my classes in high school and talked about the similarities and references we saw. The epigraph of this poem is a direct quotation from the Inferno and like you said translates to "If I thought that my reply would be to someone who would ever return to earth, this flame would remain without further movement; but as no one has ever returned alive from this gulf, if what I hear is true, I can answer you with no fear of infamy." The connection between this quote and the poem is that first of all, the setting from the Inferno is obviously Hell, and the setting from the poem seems like a type of Hell, with the descriptions of the fog and scenery. We also get the feeling that this poem might not be about genuine and good people, but about evil people pretending to be genuine, which is what the Inferno is about. We also see that Prufrock is worried about his reputation throughout this poem, which is exactly how Guido feels in the Inferno.
ReplyDeleteI'd say that Prufrock's constant references to time: "There is time" time time time is Prufrock's self denial. Like Jackie said, old Prufy spends too much time thinking about the superficial instead of the important questions in life. I think that Prufrock is aware of this, but feels trapped "pinned and wriggling on the wall." Prufrock has made this life for himself on a very superficial path, worry about his appearance and how people perceive him. He wants to change and diverge from this path, but feels as though he can't. So he tries to fight time--which we all know isn't smart because time is the ultimate leveler. He tries to outrun it (which is why I think the poem starts in the future and ends in the past). In attempting to outrun time, his whole life has passed him by. But during those moments when Prufy tells himself he has more time, he is giving himself some comfort. He knows that he is not where he wants to be or doing what he wants to be doing, but in telling himself that there is time to think of the important stuff later, Prufrock is telling himself that it's all going to be okay... though in the end, I guess it isn't.
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