Free flowing verses and strewn about rhymes further this impression of delirium, while conveying the type of mindset of someone who is experiencing feelings of isolation and deeply stressed emotions, through an erratic form of abstracted conversation. (Classic) .
Another one of the fundamental aspects of a dramatic monologue is an unintended revelation of the speaker. In the case of Prufrock, we see a man who is paralyzed by his fears of a modern world, of self-consciousness, and of indecision (Dempsey). With a night sky resembling "a patient etherized upon a table," "one-night cheap motels," and "half deserted streets. that follow like a tedious argument of insidious intent," Prufrock expresses his fears of participating in such an overwhelming society. He looks upon his life and friends like a "fog that rubs its back upon the window pains," before he slips away. Prufrock's fear of aging and inadequacy are also conveyed throughout his monologue. For him, "It is impossible to say just what [he] means." As he grows old and his hair grays, he both sees and ignores the futility of wearing the bottoms of his trousers rolled, and combing hair over his balding head. He, "has heard the mermaids singing, each to each. / I do not think that they will sing to me." It is as if he has been deserted and ignored by everyone. Finally, perhaps most paralyzing of all is his inability to make choices. He so obsessed with making his existence worthwhile, that he has "measured out his life with coffee spoons." Does he "dare disturb the universe" or even perform a task as simple as the consumption of a peach? Through lines like, "and time for a hundred indecisions / and for a hundred visions and revisions," and "It is impossible to say just what I mean," Prufrock expresses feelings that he is a man, with no abilities and no apparent purpose, paralyzed by himself (Dempsey). .
In keeping with the general concept of dramatic monologues, Prufrock never explicitly reveals to whom the poem is addressed.
