The application of the New Critical technique of close reading to T. S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” reveals a central, unifying theme of man’s neurotic impotence. Paralysis invariably settles upon people when the world about them appears to collapse. This underlying journey or quest for human contact, which you accompany the narrator, Prufrock, on, is connected to the poem’s central theme. We discover that the image of idealized beauty that Prufrock seeks is not attained because of his supposed, persistent inadequacy in social situations. Rather, he convinces himself that he is a failure and he retreats to his private world.

The poem begins with a dramatic monologue. Prufrock asks you to walk with him through the streets of the city. The monologue is specifically directed at a listener or listeners whose presence is not directly referenced but is merely suggested in the speaker's words. In this form, the speaker seems to be addressing himself but is really speaking to the reader, who plays the part of the silent listener. It is possible that Prufrock is speaking to a potential lover, but it seems unlikely considering the manner in whi

As the image of the cat unable to enter the house alludes, Prufrock cannot make a decision and follow through with his intentions. The fog/cat seems to be looking in on the roomful of fashionable women "talking of Michelangelo.” Unable to enter, it stagnantly resides on the outside of the house, and we can imagine Prufrock pathetically avoiding, yet yearning for human contact in a similar way. Prufrock’s persistent social indecision is underscored throughout the poem by Eliot’s repetition of particular phrases and words. For example the phrase the women “talking of Michelangelo” echoes Prufrock’s self-isolation.

ch he confides in the listener. As the first strophe begins, the opening two lines seem fairly romantic, but that assumption is dissipated by the simile of the “patient etherized upon a table.” This line is far from romantic, at least in the normal sense of the word, and

measures. Prufrock speaks of changing his appearance to remind himself that he is getting older by the minute. As this verse draws to a close, Prufrock’s sense of unworthiness again comes to the fore as he describes the singing of the mermaids and the fact that they will not “sing to me.” Mermaids are depicted combing their hair with a mirror, so they are presented to Prufrock as symbols of vanity and lush beauty. They are "wreathed with seaweed red and brown." They possess a threat to Prufrock, whose thinning hair is perhaps now a salt-and-pepper mixture of "white and black" and no longer "red and brown.”

As Prufrock moves through the labyrinth of the city, images of the desolation and sordidness lead to the assumption that some blight has befallen the community. Prufrock’s mind then leaps ahead to his destination, a room in which women "come and go/Talking of Michelangelo” (12-13). Next, Prufrock's attention turns to the smoke and fog that inhabit the narrow streets that he is traversing. The "yellow fog" in the fourth strophe, could be interpreted to reflect the polluted environment of the modern city. The image

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