Critical Analysis of The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
Critical Analysis of "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"
It Is Impossible To Say Just What I Mean!” To What Extent Can This Quotation From ‘The Love Song Of J.Alfred Prufrock’ Be Said To Summarize The Poem?" The ambiguity that Eliot creates in ‘Prufrock’s Love Song’, with his often obscure and random streams of consciousness that are so characteristic of modernist literature, ensures that it is quite a challenging read. Similarly, it often seems that Prufrock, who throughout the poem constantly avoids and prolongs the asking of an ‘overwhelming question’, seems to find it quite a challenge to say exactly what he means. In many ways, the line ‘It is impossible to say just what I mean’ seems to summarize this inability and unwillingness of Prufrock to voice what he feels, and also encapsulates the modernist characteristics of the poem.
Prufrock appears to be in a constant state of frightened isolation, and although the narrator talks of ‘you and I’, it soon becomes evident that he is alone. He is often deep in contemplation, which allows his stream of consciousness to flow. However, despite this heavy deliberation taking him to extreme levels of, often dream-like, emotion, Prufrock never physically gets further than daring himself to ask this ‘overwhelming question’
And indeed there will be time
To wonder, ‘Do I dare?’ and, Do I dare?’
Time to turn back and descend the stair
It could be said that Prufrock is only willing and capable of engaging himself with these thoughts, because he knows that no one will overhear him. Indeed, Williamson (1968) identifies Prufrock’s unwillingness to act out his thoughts, claiming that ‘the point of calling this poem a Love Song, lies in the irony that it will never be sung; that Prufrock will never dare to voice what he feels’. Certainly, a prominent fear for Prufrock seems to be the public revelation of his sensitivity
But as if a magic lantern threw the nerves in patterns on a screen
Would it have been worthwhile
Prufrock’s insecurities seem to restrain him, and are a prominent reason why he cannot bring himself to say just what he means. However, taking Prufrock’s own words – that it is ‘impossible’ to say what he means – this suggests that he is not simply unwilling, but incapable of confronting this ‘overwhelming question’. Certainly, the abrupt break after the...