imegery & allusions in poems

In “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” Prufrock, presumably a middle-aged or older man, is talking about his social and sexual anxiety. Eliot portrays Prufrock as having a weak self-image. He does not feel that he deserves a lover. He describes that he hears women discussing about Michelangelo, and that he sees the yellow fog from windows. The Woman represents his sexual anxiety. The yellow fog represents his social anxiety because he is isolated in his room and sees out side of view. When Prufrock imagines

/The eyes that fix you in a formulated phrase”(55-6) shows that he is always worried that he is judged by someone. His thought of being judged frightens him. This is expressed by the imagery of him, “pinned and sprawling on the wall”(58). He feels as if he was studied on a microscope. Prufrock repeats “In the room the women come and go/talking of Michelangelo”(13-4)(35-6). These lines also shows that he is worried that he is compared to someone who whom he has no hope to compete. The repetition of this line indicates that Prufrock finds this tedious because he has experienced it so often. At the end of the poem, he sees allusions of mermaids which images are beautiful and immortal, and these characteristics are totally opposite to the speaker himself. He hears “the mermaids singing, each to each. /I do not think that they will sing to me”(124-5). Here he again feels alienation from the women society. He thinks the mermaids never notice him.

Eliot also uses sea imagery to evoke meanings that add to Prufrock’s character. The “oyster shells”(7) evoke the sense of an overwhelming among the many because of its image of hard surface. The “paired of ragged claws/Scuttling across the floors of silent seas”(73-4) could be interpreted as Prufrock’s feelings of insignificance among the many because the vast seas will never have any scores by the claws. The “walk upon the beach”(122) suggests that he has given up his quest for love. He is satisfied with walking by himself, and in this scene he is about to see to an allusion. He is trying to escape from the reality, and then the last line, “Till human voices wake us, and we drown”(131) refers to Prufrock’s reality.

that the women are remarking about how bald and thin he is, his self-image is “hair is growing to thin”(41) and “arms and legs are thin”(44). These lines show his sexual and social anxieties well. Also, “I have known the eyes already, known them all-

identity. Browning’s use of imagery also proves his self-centered charact

Some topics in this essay:
Prufrock” Prufrock, Fra Pandolf, Duke Prufrock, Allusions Poems, Ferrara Italian, Robert Browning’s, I”9-10 Prufrock, BB Asakura, Duchess Duke, Prufrock Duke, imagery allusions, “the love song, love song, song alfred prufrock”, song alfred, alfred prufrock”, love song alfred, “the love, “my duchess”, painting duchess, women unreachable, line “till human, “till human voices, prufrock” prufrock, sexual anxiety,