The poem “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” takes the reader inside the mind of a very self conscious man. Self conscious which according to the Merriam Webster dictionary is, “uncomfortably conscious of oneself as an object of the observation of others.” Prufrock is surrounded by the elite and this causes him to feel self conscious because he cannot keep up. Prufrock self consciousness effects the way he views himself and the way he thinks other people view him. Prufrock’s self consciousness ultimately leads to negative results. Prufrocks self consciousness effects the way he views himself. In the poem Prufrock spends most of the poem thinking about what is wrong with him. The clearest examples of Prufrock’s insecurities is the way he …show more content…
Prufrock over thinks everything about himself because he is afraid of being judged. It appears throughout the poem that Prufrock always feels like other people are looking at him and judging him. The critic M.L. Rosenthal wrote, “The furtive restlessness of the start, the fear of women’s ridicule, the sensual longings, the forebodings of loneliness and eternal frustration, the painful self mockery side by side with the persistent romanticism - these are the very stuff of that imagination” (Rosenthal, 388). She is breaking down all the of the things that Prufrock is afraid of, which is a lot of things. One of the points she makes is that Prufrock is afraid of “women’s ridicule” which leads to the first example. Twice throughout the poem Prufrock uses the line, “In the room women come and go/ Talking of Michelangelo” (13-14 and 35-36). It appears that Prufrock is self conscious that he will not be able to have a conversation with these ladies because he is not smart enough. He is worried that because he is not as smart as the women they will judge him. An example from the poem of Prufrock being self conscious of people looking at him and judging is in the 8th stanza when he says, “For I have known them all already, known them all— /The eyes that fix you in a formulated phrase,” (54-55). Prufrock is using imagery to describe the eyes he sees that are fixed upon him and judging every move he makes. The line, “I …show more content…
The amount of anxiety Prufrock has about the way other people view him causes him to want to escape all together. In the poem Prufrock discusses not wanting to be a human anymore. He doesn’t just want to be a different person, he just wants to stop being a person altogether. For example Prufrock thinks, “I should have been a pair of ragged claws/ Scuttling across the floors of silent seas” (73-74). This shows Prufrocks lack of self esteem because he wishes to be a creature that is hunched over on the ground and scurrying around on the bottom of the sea floor. He no longer wants to move around in public noticed, but instead walk on the ground unnoticed. The quote shows the toll the elite have taken on Prufrock because it seems all he wants to do is escape. This is not the only example of Prufrock wanting to escape from himself. In the third stanza Prufrock describes fog in depth. “The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes, / The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window-panes,” (15-16). Prufrock’s fascination with fog is interesting because fog causes everything to be muggy and not that clear. It seems that Prufrock would much rather be covered in a misty haze, so nobody can see him make mistakes or screw up. Prufrock finds comfort in the fog which not everybody does because it is not clear. The worry that other people are judging caused him to not be himself fully. In the fourth stanza Prufrock says,
Transcendentalism is a major romantic movement during the 19th century. It was a period of romance where people learned to love themselves. The poem Self-Reliance, is by Ralph Waldo Emerson. In this excerpt, he emphasizes the traits of being a transcendentalist. The selection Tia Chucha, is by Luis Rodriguez.
This shows how he wants everything to stay in place, such as himself, meaning not growing up. This quote also represents his desire to resist change and his preference for purity in childhood over the unpredictable nature of maturing/adulthood. A symbol that was reoccurring throughout the book were the ducks in central
I felt responsible for my own circumstance when the poem stated: “can seldom see through his bars of rage.” The bars of my own rage and my own emotions made me feel confined to stay where I am at, but because of my own inability to see outside of this cage of my own making. When the author wrote “his wings are clipped and/his feet are tied,” I thought about the external factors that affect this self-inflicted imprisonment of emotions. I felt out of control and as though I could not influence the circumstances of my own life. The poem later discussed how the caged bird sings “of things unknown/but longed for still.”
How to Live According to Irving Singer Throughout Irving Singer acclaimed trilogy, The Nature of Love, the viewer can observe how he unveils rich insight into fundamental aspects of human relationships through literature, the complexities of our being, and the history of ideas. In his sequel, The Pursuit of Love, Singer approaches love from a distinct standpoint; he reveals his collection of extended essays where he presents psychological and philosophical theories of his own. The audience can examine how he displays love as he systematically maps the facets of religion, sexual desire, love from a parent, family member, child or friend. Irving explores the distinction between wanting to be loved and wanting to love another, which ultimately originates from the moment an individual is born.
Do we really love what we do? In the article “In the Name of Love,” Miya Tokumitsu covers the issue that doing what you love (DWYL) gives false hope to the working class. Tokumitsu reviews how those who are given jobs ultimately cannot truly love what they do because of the employers who make jobs possible. These same employers keep their employees overlooked.
Furthermore, the superficial simplicity of Hughes’ poems is not meant to deceive, but to encourage readers to engage in poetry from different perspectives because there is more to the poem than meets the eye. Additional questions remain, however. Does Hughes’ experimentation with form threaten to mischaracterize or further objectify the subjects of his poetry? Does Hughes ascribe too much value to these ordinary objects and places? Are there limitations to Hughes’ experimentation?
From the beginning of the novel the narrator shows ignorance and prejudice towards Robert, he is fighting with his own of jealousy and insecurity. Being unhappy with his own life, the narrator sees Robert as a possible threat to his usual evening with pot and TV, without realizing that in order to be satisfied he should step out of his habitual
His mother calls him a“[p]oor bird! [who’d] never fear the net nor lime” (4.2.34). The mother says the boy does not fear things he should, using the motif of birds to both warn the boy and create a sense of foreboding. In that way, the birds warn that peace is destined to be broken. The birds’ quick shift from hopeful to foreboding highlights how order leads to chaos.
He could imagine his deception of this town “nestled in a paper landscape,” (Collins 534). This image of the speaker shows the first sign of his delusional ideas of the people in his town. Collins create a connection between the speaker’s teacher teaching life and retired life in lines five and six of the poem. These connections are “ chalk dust flurrying down in winter, nights dark as a blackboard,” which compares images that the readers can picture.
I believe this quote is very important in this short story. The narrator is very jealous of Robert and all the attention to detail that his wife is giving Robert. The wife is catering to Robert’s
The researcher decides Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray and Fitzgerald’s The Beautiful and Damned to be the objects of the study on inferiority and superiority complex causing hedonistic lifestyle in main character. The first reason, both of literary works cover the changing of each life of the main character, society and ultimately the individual. Second, they both share the same social background of the main character in The Picture of Dorian Gray, Dorian, displays a well-respected young man. He doesn’t recognize his own beauty until he sees it reflected in Basil’s portrait, and, once he does, it’s all too late. While Anthony in The Beautiful and Damned is illustrates reaching pleasure as the lifestyle and it becomes a habit.
In the story, the narrator’s narrow mindset is challenged over and over again as Robert breaks most stereotypes that the narrator held. As these stereotypes are broken, the narrator begins to feel more comfortable with Robert, and sincerely tells him that he is “glad for the company”. This release from prejudice culminates in the cathedral drawing scene of the story, where the narrator finally lets go of his bias towards blind people. Once the narrator closes his eyes, he is seemingly equal to Robert, and he consequently begins to understand Robert’s perspective. His newfound empathy towards Robert demonstrates how he has lost his prejudice towards him.
The poem begins by the speaker telling the reader that the story that would now be told is told annually, emphasizing the significance of the story to “we”, presumably a family, based on clues given later in the poem. Then, using the verse “how we peered from the windows, shades drawn” (Trethewey 2), it immediately puts us in the place of the figures in the poem, by the usage of the imagery about the shades being drawn, as if hiding from something to be scared of, and by the careful choice of the word “peering”, instead of simply “looking” or “staring”, which gives us the sense that the figures are afraid of being seen. Then, despite having set up this mood of fear, the speaker takes a step back, and seems to be trying to calm us, the readers, down by reminding us that nothing really happened and that even the environment around the incident has now returned to its original, vivid colors. Following that, however, we are put back into the mood of fear by the repetition of the verse about peering, which is a benefit the form of a pantoum provides to the poem. Writing the
In T.S. Eliot’s work “The LoveSong of J. Alfred Prufrock”, he uses diction to give an underlying meaning and tone to his poem in order to express the downfall of a man. The author uses his diction to give this poem Its tone as if he regrets what he did in life. He also shows great tone changes in this work, giving this poem a dramatic, almost tragic outlook. Many of his word choices also give his work an underlying meaning and adds to his theme and messages. A large part of his poem is also using metaphors to add to this underlying meaning and give more force to this tone he is trying to create.
It was written when Plath’s marriage to Ted Hughes was in difficulty and she was suffering with depression. We are given an insight into the her inner feelings and trouble. She uses dark, disturbing and graphic imagery which reflects her mind at the time she was writing the poem. The state she describes is almost terrifying. The description of the poppies in the opening lines is positive.