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"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" by T.S.Eliot

Imagery and Themes

Josie Kearl & Denise Enders

Love

Time

Appearances

Manipulation

Passivity

Themes of the Poem

Theme: Love“Let us go then, you and

I, When the evening is

spread out against the

sky”

Prufrock suffers with the love he feels for a woman throughout the entire poem. Quite often his love is reflected through they way he views things, for example a cat in the yellow fog or singing mermaids. Love is a major theme because it is what Prufrock feels the most throughout the poem.

Theme: Time

“There will be time, there will be time To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet; There will be time to murder and create, And time for all the works and days of hands ”

Time is a major theme in this poem because we are unaware at the beginning of the passing of time, however it becomes apparent at the end of the poem that Prufrock has allowed a lot of time to pass and he is no longer able to cease his opportunities and his life has passed him by.

Theme: Appearances

“Is it perfume from a

dress 

That makes me so

digress? 

Arms that lie along a

table, or wrap about a

shawl. 

  And should I then

presume? 

  And how should I

begin? “

An important observation of the poem is the fact that there is a strong lack of bodies. Very few people are contacted in the poem, a majority of the time Prufrock is alone or surrounded by inanimate objects. It is the appearance of the lack of people and humanity in the poem that allows the reader to infer that quite possibly the poem is taking place in Hell. The appearances of the poem are critical for understanding the fact that Prufrock is isolated in his thoughts and is suffering with little human interaction.

Theme: Manipulation

“And I have known the eyes already, known them all— The eyes that fix you in a formulated phrase, And when I am formulated, sprawling on a pin, When I am pinned and wriggling on the wall, Then how should I begin”

The tone of the poem and the epigraph indicate the fact that quite possibly Prufrock is a man who is manipulating our beliefs. He is leading us down dark streets and telling us stories of mermaids. He is a negative individual that is quite possibly deceiving us manipulating our thoughts on what is true. Quite possibly Prufrock is relative to the hell we all have inside of us. A major theme of the poem is manipulation because we are always uncertain if what Prufrock is telling us is true and whether or not we should trust him.

Theme: Passivity

.

“So how should I

presume?”

The third theme we can explore is passivity. The entirety of the poem Prufrock is focused on asking his lover his “overwhelming question”. In this poem there is very little achieved.

Imagery of the Poem

“I should have been a pair of ragged claws Scuttling across the floors of silent seas. “

“But as if a magic lantern threw the nerves in patterns on a screen.”

“Combing the white hair of the waves blown back When the wind blows the water white and black. ”

“LET us go then, you and I,When the evening is spread out against the skyLike a patient etherised upon a table”

“The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by T.S. Eliot

Denise Enders & Josie Kearl