A psychoanalytical approach to

T.S. Eliot’s The Love Song of J.

Alfred Prufrock

Stanciu Raluca Teodora

Table of Contents

01 Theoretical framework
04 References
02 Repression and Lack of
Communication
05 Sexual Images

03 The Formation of the

Self
 Theoretical framework
 Freud divided the human psyche into three parts: the id,
the ego and the superego.

 The id is described by Freud as the dark, inaccessible

part of our personality, being the only one which exists
wholly within the unconscious (where profound, hidden
drives and impulses, desires, thoughts and memories
are found), and acting according to the pleasure
principle.
 The superego embodies the social values of humanity. It opposes the id. It
consists of two systems: the conscience and the ideal self. The superego is
seen as the purveyor of rewards (pride and satisfaction) and punishments
(shame and guilt) depending on which part (the ego-ideal or conscious) is
activated.

 The permanent internal conflict between the id and the super-ego is

mediated by the ego. Therefore, it functions as a harmonizing act between
the two, id and super-ego, adjusting the needs of the id to the communal
anticipations of the super-ego.
(Anderson and Taylor, 2008: 92)
Consciousness is, in general, a very highly
fugitive condition.
What is conscious is conscious only for a
moment.

- Sigmund Freud
 Oedipus Complex and The Inferiority Complex
 Freud claims that every psychological disorder begins from Oedipus
complex. The oedipal complex is manifested through a desire for
sexual involvement with the parent of the opposite sex and a sense
of rivalry with the parent of the same sex. The superego intervenes
and helps the individual overcome the complex, by identifying
himself with the parent of the same sex and repressing his sexual
instincts.

 However, if the parental reactions are not appropriate, there appears

an infantile neurosis, with major consequences in his future adult
life. The complex is not resolved but remains buried in the
unconscious.
 According to Adler, many personality disorders are generated by
the complex of inferiority.

 It is defined as a basic feeling of inadequacy and insecurity,

deriving from actual or imagined physical or psychological
deficiency. However, it becomes a pathological condition only
when the sense of inadequacy overwhelms the individual and,
far from stimulating him to useful activity, makes him depressed
and incapable of development.
 Repression and Lack of Communication
 The damaged psyche of humanity is releaved through Prufrock’s sexual
neurosis and existential paralysis. Eliot allows the readers to enter Prufrock’s
‘mental landscape’- full of anxiety (Grant, 81).

 As powerful as Prufrock’s id may seem, it is repressed by the super-ego. In

this way, the pleasure principle is annihilated by the reality principles.

 Unfortunately, this repression culminates in a compulsion to repeat

(Goulimari, 129), leaving Prufrock trapped between a
hundred indecisions and a hundred visions and revisions,
unable to interact with other people.
And indeed there will be 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
That lift and drop a question on your plate;
Time for you and time for me,
And time yet for a hundred indecisions,
And for a hundred visions and revisions,
…
And indeed there will be time
To wonder, “Do I dare?” and, “Do I dare?”
Time to turn back…
Do I dare?
Do I dare?

They will say:

“How his hair is growing
Lack thin!”
of C They will say:
o mm “But how his arms and legs
unic
ati on are thin!”
 The lack of communication becomes a real problem for Prufrock. Not only
that he fails to create a connection with somebody else (especially women),
but the extreme repression of his deepest desires and feelings almost
dehumanize him and substantialy narrow his worldview.

 Prufrock cannot exteriorize himself, because of his fragmented and

inconsistent self. In this way, his existence is on the one hand limited to the
material world, and on the other hand, he only lives connected to his mind
(microcosm), without being a part of the external world (macrocosm).

 Imagination occupies a central role in Prufrock’s psyche. However, instead of

working as a liberating, cathartic force, it functions as a trap, incessantly
pulsing negative ideas in his mind, and leading to permanent overthinking
(the overwhelming question).
 The Formation of the Self
 The reader may infer that Prufrock’s social paralysis appears as
a result of a childhood trauma, when the boy tries to
overcome the Oedipus complex.

 Eagleton claims Oedipus complex as being the nucleus of the

neuroses.

 Moreover, Eagleton says that the boy develops castration

complex and thinks he will be punished for his incestuous love
for his mother. So he tries to adjust with the reality principles
and detaches himself from mother and negotiates with father.
He tries to follow his father to develop manhood. He tries to
bury forbidden desires into the place we call the unconscious.
 References
I.
I am no prophet — and here’s no great matter
And in short, I was afraid.
…
I am Lazarus, come from the dead,  1) FEAR OF DEATH;
(EROS and THANATOS)
2) The two men called Lazarus
Come back to tell you all, I shall tell you all 3) Prufrock lacks the courage to
… face life; he is afraid to express his
Should say: “That is not what I meant at all; hidden desires;
That is not it, at all.”
 II.
No! I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be;
Am an attendant lord, one that will do
… I grow old ... I grow old ...
Full of high sentence, but a bit obtuse; I shall wear the bottoms
At times, indeed, almost ridiculous— of my trousers rolled.
Almost, at times, the Fool.

 Prufrock admits he is not a Hamlet, although there

is a great similarity between them: just like
Hamlet, Prufrock examines his mind BUT unlike
Hamlet, Prufrock never really acts.

 Prufrock recognizes himself in Polonius:

cowardly, fawning and ineffectual.
 Sexual Images

 Cornered by anxiety, with his ego (and even super-ego) dominating his id
(which is seen in his fear of rejection, self-defense, and harsh self-
criticism), Prufrock’s sexual frustration and crisis in masculinity are
illustrated through various images:

one-night cheap hotels  place of the sexual intercourse;

oyster-shells  1) female imagery, resembling the vulva;

2) aphrodisiac, enhancing the libido;
rubs its back…rubs its muzzle…
Licked its tongue
depiction of the sexual act
Let fall upon its back…
Slipped…, made a sudden leap

Curled…
reference to the snake, phallic symbol
… slides

pipes, long fingers, ices other phallic symbols

plate, toast and tea, cakes, peach female imagery (womb, breast)

a magic lantern threw the nerves in patterns on a screen ejaculation

 The focus on body parts (tongue, eyes, chin, arms, hair) suggests that
Prufrock’s senses are completely captured by his sexual fantasy.
Is it perfume from a dress
That makes me so digress?

 The mermaids illustrate the peak of female sexuality, the greatest erotic
temptation (part of his IMAGINATION!). Not only do their moves lure
Prufrock, but they also increase his excessive feelings of hopelesness,
anxiety and even self-disgust.
I do not think that they will sing to me.
…
We have lingered in the chambers of the sea
…
Till human voices wake us, and we drown.
 Let’s discuss:

 How would you describe Prufrock? Do you believe in his duality

(as he physically exists both in the world of the lower and the
one of the upper class)?

 Could we use Jung’s animus and anima to analyse Prufrock’s

behaviour? How?
 Sources:
o Freud, Sigmund. New Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis, New York: W.W. Norton & Co.
Inc., 1933, p.104
o Freud, Sigmund. The Ego and the Id, https://sigmundfreud.net/the-ego-and-the-id.pdf, pp. 2-25,
Accessed on the 12th of March
o Hidayat, Bernadus. Body parts, sex, and landscapes: an Explications of Eliot’s Symbolism in The
Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, 2009, pp. 314-320
o Muhammad, Asma. Fearful and Hesitant Modern Men in ‘The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’
1917, 2018, pp. 93- 97
o Tyson, Lois. Critical Theory Today. A User-Friendly Guide, Routledge, 2006, pp. 11-26
o https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/44212/the-love-song-of-j-alfred-
prufrock