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A THEMATIC ANALYSIS OF THE LOVE SONG OF J. ALFRED PROFROCK.

The poem “The Love Song of J. Alfred Profrock” has its context at the beginning of the First

World War. The normal nature of the society has been altered and the society has turned to a

society filled with chaos and uncertainty amongst each other. T.S. Elliot uses this context in a

unique way to bring out various themes throughout the poem. Some of these themes include self-

consciousness, alienation, Modernization, isolation etc. This paper will explore the theme of

alienation and will show various ways the author has used to demonstrate this theme in the

poem. Various ways the author has used the context of the poem to show this theme clearly will

also be discussed.

Alienation from modern life and the fear of change is the first major aspect of alienation the

author has demonstrated in the poem. The poem follows the life of Profrock, who ecstatically

starts the poem with the remark ‘Let us go, you and I.’ However, later in the evening Profrock is

hesitant to explore the modern and sophisticated nightlife and instead prefers to have a self-

introspection session. Profrock alienates himself from the city life and hesitantly approaches

everything in the city (Guven, 81).

Profrock’s alienation and hesitancy with the modern life is also seen when he makes an appeal to

the second person to make a visit to the city with him. He feels disconnected from the busy city
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life and the moral issues in the city. He describes various aspects of social decay such as

corruption, prostitution and pollution using terms such as “cheap hotels,” “the yellow fogs,” and

“sawdust restaurants” (Eliot). His many issues with the city increases his inability to interact

with people hence his alienation from the modern life.

Profrock’s need for company as he explores the city clearly portrays his hesitancy to interact

with the modern and new environment. Secondly, he uses a much-distorted form of comparison

to describe the streets in the city. He refers to them as “half deserted streets” which means that

despite the streets being filled with people he still felt lonely. Throughout the poem, we see

Prufrock observing the happenings of the city as an outsider and hardly involves himself with

any of them.

Similarly, Profrock isolates himself from the opposite sex. We see Profrock almost turning to go

back a few times as he ascends down the stairs to a room filled with beautiful and fashionable

women who were drinking tea. He expresses his reserve to join them by comparing himself to a

butterfly pinned to a collector’s board. “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 to split out all the butt ends of my

days and ways? And how should I presume?

The phrases he uses shows his fear that the women will regard him as an alien species and give

him eyes of wonder and askance. He also shows his inability to interact with women as he can

only describe how they come and go out of their rooms. He also describes how he saw a few of

them pretending to know who Michelangelo is and admiring one of his paintings. Should he have

been able to interact with them, we would have seen him takes advantage of the many situations

he has to talk and interact with them (Mandal&Arrindam, 4).

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Profrock’s awkward nature also makes him alienate himself from other men. He is not only

unable to interact with women but also men as well. Profrock’s solo walks through the streets

and his reference to them as half deserted despite also previously describing how busy and noisy

people are on the same streets describes his apparent loneliness. We often see himself speaking

to himself against the silent and lonely city. Profrock’s loneliness is also depicted through the

imagery of a cat (Eliot). The yellow fog is personified and ‘curls’ around the house and

eventually ‘falls’ asleep. Cats are often seen roaming through the streets by themselves. This

imagery is therefore the perfect description of prufrock, who lives by himself and hardly

interacts with people. He is as much of a loner as the cats are.

The use of fog and smoke by prufrock is also a signification of his loneliness and alienation from

the people. Fog and smoke is often seen around industrialized areas far away from the people.

His use of this symbolism during his introspections and solo conversations shows how much he

relates to them. Similarly, the poem starts in a smoke setting with Profrost having an out of body

experience. This setting is also used by the author to introduce us to the theme of alienation to

also foreshadow his loneliness throughout the poem (Guven, 85).

Additionally, the metaphor of the smoke “licking its tongue into the corners of the evening”

highlights his alienation. The room could be interpreted as the claustrophobic feeling Prufrock

feels in the world and hence likens the very vast space to a small room. The act of licking the

corners of the room further illustrates how small he feels the city is. The room could perhaps also

be the same room the ladies he is unable to talk and interact with keep going in and out of thus

further confirming to him his isolation.

The stanza ‘ shall I say, I have gone at dusk through the narrow streets and watched the smoke

that rises from the pipes of lonely men in t-shirt sleeves, leaning out of windows?’ perfectly
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captures Prufrock’s alienation from the society. Although he is of a higher social class, his

kinship to the men cannot go unnoticed. This is because a fairly social and happy man would

either have been at home or somewhere visiting his friends or not roaming around the streets

(Eliot).

Towards the end of the poem, Prufrock contemplates aging alone. His words “I have heard the

mermaids singing, each to each. I do not think that they will sing to me.” This further confirms

the feelings of alienation and loneliness that he has to the point that he is not hopeful of ever

being able to interact with people until he dies. He also is not hopeful of getting a wife or a life

partner hence his thoughts that he will die by himself.

Profrock also shows alienation from himself. At the beginning of the poem, he describes staring

at a body that is not yet dead but is completely unmoving. This gives us a peak at Profrock’s

awkward personality. His awkward personality shows us Profrock isolating from himself. For

example, Prufrock goes out of his way to avoid interactions with people even when he nears

interactions by either actively avoiding them or drifting off in his own thoughts. One instance in

which he actively avoided interactions is when he urged his addressee to go and make their visit

then his mind goes off to imaginations of smoke and fog behaving like a cat ( Guven, 87). He

uses this tactic due to the fear of being isolated by the people.

Prufrock’s own characterization of himself as a loner and disconnected with the world is shown

in his thoughts of ascending the stairs then turning back and descending the stairs later. An

assumption that the inevitable ascension of the stairs then forces him to descend it symbolizes his

attempt to join the social circles then changing his mind and leaving before making any

interactions. This is because stairs always lead somewhere and ascending them could symbolize

growth in this case.

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The above illustrations show that the theme of alienation is a theme that is seen throughout the

poem. This theme informs the character traits as well as the actions of the persona. Profrock’s

alienation is contributed to highly by his ability to isolate himself from himself and from others

including the ladies, who are of the opposite gender. His inability to adapt to the new city

environment and the constant fear of being ridiculed by others also greatly contributes to his

alienation.

Works cited

Eliot, Thomas Stearns. The love song of J. Alfred Prufrock. Strelbytskyy Multimedia Publishing,

2021.

Mandal, Annesha, and Arindam Modak. "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock: A Postmodern

Poem with a Postmodern Hero." The Criterion: An International Journal in English 3.12 (2018):

1-6.

Güven, Samet. "A Modernist Approach to TS Eliot’s The Love Song of J. Alfred

Prufrock." Journal of History Culture and Art Research 4.2 (2017): 80-87.