PRUFROCK, AS A MODERN MAN IN LOVE

1. IN THE HELLOF LONELINESS

Un éclair… puis la nuit ! – Fugitive beauté

Dont le regard m’a fait soudainement renaître,

Ne te verrai-je plus que dans l’éternité ?

Charles Baudelaire – Les fleurs du mal

The first words we find when we begin the reading of the poem “The Love Song of

J. Alfred Prufrock” by Thomas Sterns Eliot (1888 – 1965) come from a masterpiece of the

Western medieval vision: Divine Comedy (c. 1308). These words are said in the eight circle

of the Inferno, where counterfeiters of all kinds are locked. The epitaph corresponds to the

answer that Guido da Montefeltro gives to Dante while going down through Hell. The

partisan of the ghibelline faction answers to Dante, a partisan from the opposite faction, that

he will speak freely hence no one in hell would come back to the world of living creatures.

“S’io credesse che mia risposta fosse

A persona che mai tornasse al mondo,
Questa fiamma staria senza piu scosse.
Ma perciocche giammai di questo fondo
Non torno vivo alcun, s’i’odo il vero,
Senza tema d’infamia ti rispondo.”1

1
The quotes of “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” are taken from a version of the poem on a website:
https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/love-song-j-alfred-prufrock
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At this point, we realize that the poem is going to ask a very active participation on

the part of the reader due to the many cross-cultural allusions. It is going to present

innumerous connections to other literary works to create a “picture” of the poetic voice that

is speaking. This voice is form from the many other voices quoted in the text, from different

languages, from different periods of time, from completely opposite political, religious, or

social backgrounds. Thus, forming a “collage” of voices and this way creating a melting pot

from which the reader should struggle to get the meaning of the text. In this regard we can

quote some words about intertextuality:

“…every text is a mosaic of quotes, every text is an absorption and transformation of

another text. Instead of the concept of intersubjectivity, the idea of intertextuality
settles in, and the poetic language can be read, at least, as double.” (Kristeva, 2001,
p. 190).2

In the case of the epigraph from Dante Alighieri’s masterpiece, a man is “convicted”

in hell for cheating in religious matters, but eternity puts everyone in the right place: Guido

da Montefeltro feigned when abandoned public life to embrace the Franciscan order and

tried to get absolution as if he were trading with any other kind of good. His “sin” was not

only trading with Christian issues but not understanding the most important fact, that no one

can buy eternity. Having this in mind, we are about to read a story about love: “The Love

Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”. Does it mean this man, Prufrock, is in hell because of love?

Does it mean this modern man is already living in the underworld? We, readers may ask

2
Translated from the original in Spanish: “todo texto se constituye como un mosaico de citas, todo texto es absorción y
transformación de otro texto. En lugar de la noción de intersubjetividad se instala la de intertextualidad, y le lenguaje
poético se lee, al menos como doble.” KRISTEVA, Julia. 2001, cuarta edición. Semiótica 1. Madrid, Editorial
Fundamentos, p. 190.

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many questions: the poem is written to awaken our interest, maybe it tries to make us

wonder many things and not to give us many certainties.

To create images the poet brings other texts to form part of his/her own text. This

sequence of images is aiming at communicating emotions and feelings to the readers. In

terms of Eliot is the “objective correlative”:

“A set of objects, a situation, a chain of events which shall be the formula of that
particular emotion; such that when the external facts, which must terminate in sensory
experience, are given, the emotion is immediately evoked.”3

The first line of the poem seems a reluctance acceptance to an invitation, it seems

as if we were in the middle of a dialogue: “Let us go, then, you and I”. One is inviting and

the other one is not very convinced about going, anyway he or she accepts going. Next, we

read a comparison between a very evocative moment of the day, the sunset, and an

unconscious person lying on a table. It is a comparison where time is forced to fit in a concept

of space, the way a thinking being may become a mere and silent body, once he/she is

unconscious. According to this, the initial invitation is a declaration of intentions of the poetic

voice: “I am going to try to express myself, even though is something impossible, like talking

to an ‘etherized patient’”.

“When the evening is spread out against the sky

Like a patient etherized upon a table;
Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets,” (Lines 2 – 4)

3
T.S. Eliot, Selected Essays (London : Faber and Faber, 1999), p. 145.

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However, from the beginning it is a mental journey the poetic voice sets forth on at

the end of the day. The poetic voice is going to present to the reader a series of pictures of

his emotions and experiences like in a film, a succession of slides.

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

Would it have been worth while” (Lines 105 – 106).

But, before we continue, an essential “trifle” to have in mind is the presence of two

people in the first line, two personal pronouns, you and I. The poetic voice is addressing to

someone. Who is this second one, is it the reader?

When we mentioned the presence of other texts as part of a composing strategy

called intertextuality, we stated that we are going to be gathering information from external

sources to help in the understanding of the message. In this case, the word “etherized” leads

us to the poem “La nue” (The cloud) by the French writer Théophile Gautier (1811 – 1872).

The exact line of this poem containing that word says: “Like an ethereal Aphrodite/air foam

made”4. In this case, the intertextual link leads us to French poetry of XIX century, more

exactly to the Parnassian School, whose poets defended a refined form and avoided the

excess of sensibility and emotions of the romantic school.5 They were more in the search of

an ideal of beauty, and the sky, an ethereal cloud is a metaphor of that search. In the case

of Prufrock is he looking for an ideal, for something impossible to obtain? In line 104, we can

read: “It is impossible to say just what I mean!”; is it communication that ideal or impossible

Prufrock is looking for?

4
The translación of this lines is mine from the original in French: “Comme une Aphrodite éthérée,/Faite de l’écume de
l’air.” Retrived from http://poesie.webnet.fr/lesgrandsclassiques/poemes/theophile_gautier/la_nue.html.
5
The definition we can read at The Chancellor Encyclopedic Dictionary says: “Parnassian School, founded by Leconte
de Lisle, group of 19th-c. French poets, who insisted on the importance of form and the mot juste and distrusted
romantic sensibility and emotion as subjects of poetry.” (p. 1258, Volume L-Z).

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As we mention above, the presence of the two pronouns awakens many questions in

regard to the possible identities of the poetic personnae they correspond to. “You” can be

the reader, a woman, a friend of the poetic voice. Notwithstanding, Eliot himself give us the

clue about this mystery. As part of his critic work, he creates the concept of “dramatic

monologue” and he defines it in his essay the following way:

“The third is the voice of the poet when he attempts to create a dramatic character
speaking in verse: when he is saying, not what he would say in his own person, but
only what he can say within the limits of one imaginary character addressing another
imaginary character.” (Eliot, 1954, p. 38)6

With this idea in mind we can conclude that the second person singular the poetic

voice is addressing to is a creation of the poet. Prufrock is, thus, talking to other part of

himself, maybe his subconscious part. It is a first token a complex and divided modern man

living his loneliness in modern cities.

In most biographical material about the poet we read about the crucial discovery he

made with the book by Arthur Symons, The Symbolist Movement in Literature (1899; 1919

revised and enlarged). Thanks to it, he discovered many French writers like Jules Laforgue

(Hamlet ou les suites de la piété filiale), Tristan Corbière (Les amours jaunes) and Charles

Baudelaire (Les Fleurs du mal). For this reason, the connections to the symbolist and

Parnassian writers may imply an intertextual strategy that comes to enrich the meaning of

the poem. As part of the program they decided to follow, symbolist writers want to evade the

mere descriptions of their feelings and prefer concentrating on polished form. Baudelaire

6
ELIOT, T. S. (1954). “The Three Voices of Poetry” in The Atlantic Monthly, 1954, April, p. 38.

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also, uses the word “éthér” when he wants his spirit to see, to comprehend everything from

above, from a higher position and escape from weariness and sorrow:

“Above the lakes, above the valleys,

Mountains, forests, clouds and seas,
Beyond the sun, beyond the ethereal element,
Beyond the limits of the bright celestial bodies
Oh! My spirit, you move with grace,
…
Lucky the one who strongly-winged
Can fly over bright and calm meadows
The one whose aspirations, like a lark,
fly freely in the morning to the sky,
– The one who glides over his life, and understands with no effort
The language of flowers and all silent things!” (Baudelaire, 1972, p. 14 – 15).7

It seems the word ether in this context of Prufrock is not positive, it is a way to escape

but to his inner self, ethereal here it does not mean sublime, maybe an escape to the

subconscious world. Prufrock is addressing his subconscious part when he is saying “you”.

In other words, Prufrock does not aim at any ideal or sublime mental state, he is not in the

search of an absolute. Instead, he and his companion decided to go out to the street, where

nothing good waits for them. Then, in the street Prufrock and “his companion”, his “Id”, his

“alter ego” see many objects that describe the way he/they are feeling, this aim (objective

correlative) is obtained putting together all these objects, especially the adjectives The

7
The translation from the original in French is mine: “AU-DESSUS des étangs, au-dessus des vallées,/Des montanges,
des bois, des nuages, des mers,/Par delà le soleil, par delà les éthers,/Par delà les confins des sphères étoilées,/Mon esprit,
tu te meus avec agilité,…/Heureux celui qui peut d’une aile vigoureuse/S’élancer vers les champs lumineux et
sereins ;/Celui dont le pensers, comme des alouettes,/Vers les cieux le matin prennent un libre essor,/ – Qui plane sur la
vie, et comprend sans effort/Le langage des fleurs et des choses muettes!”(Baudelaire, 1972, p. 14 – 15).

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attributive adjectives and their corresponding names we find in lines 4 to 10 are: half-

deserted streets, restless nights, cheap hotels, sawdust restaurants, tedious argument,

insidious intent, overwhelming question. The poet creates a rough and hostile environment

when going out to the street, even if it is a mental journey.

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2. “DO I DARE DISTURB THE UNIVERSE?”

Un brouillard sale et jaune inondait tout l’espace,

Charles Baudelaire – Les fleurs du mal

Prufrock, a man whose being is divided, at least, into two: the one who is living a life

with no motivation:

“For I have known them all already, known them all—

Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons,
I have measured out my life with coffee spoons;” (Lines 49 – 51);

The other Prufrock wants to visit someone, maybe a woman, not a special one, he

just wants some company. He is alone, despite his double and we as readers are invited to

watch as he wanders, we are invited to enter his mind like in a screen of shadows.

“In the room the women come and go

Talking of Michelangelo.” (Lines 13 – 14)

In this imaginary journey, while they are in the street, the poetic voice presents

another group of images connected to modernist poets, especially Charles Baudelaire. The

yellow fog and the cat. The cat is never mentioned but what it does is explicit, verbs like:

rub, lick, linger, let fall, slip, make a leap, curl and fall asleep refer to the actions the animal

does while Prufrock is watching and we are watching it, too. It is a seduction game in which

Prufrock feels an identification with the animal, a cat, looking through the windows, while

“the women come and go talking of Michelangelo” (lines 13 – 14); maybe Prufrock is looking

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for company in the street, “lingered upon the pools that stand in drains” (line 18), or attending

social gatherings where he sees a woman he does not dare to go out, “arms that are

braceleted and white and bare” (line 62) while having some “tea and cakes and ices,” (line

79). According to John Hakac, the explanation of the passage is linked to the subconscious

desires of Prufrock, “subconsciously he associates the cat-fog’s provocative behavior with

what he most desires: love”, (Hakac, 1972, p. 52) and he feels sexually identified with the

scene where the cat and fog followed each other and caressed each other, according to

Hakac is a “cozy rest phase” after a previous “wooing phase” (Hakac, 1972, p. 53);

everything ends with an effective physical encounter, the cat “curled once about the house,

and fell asleep” (line 22); something that Prufrock does not have. He lacks the decision

needed to ask a woman however the rational part of Prufrock comforts himself: “there will

be time” (line 23).

When we read about a similar situation in Baudelaire, the encounter with a woman is

described in a more direct way, thus, after watching a woman passing by in the street we

can read: “Will I never see you again but in the eternity?” (Baudelaire, 1972, p. 223)8. But in

his poems, we perceive the contradiction women represent for him, “woman is a mystique

being, full of mystery, angel, and beast all in one” (Michaud, p.56)9. However, in the poem

by Eliot, the feelings of a man who lacks love/sex are presented through his memories and

images; we can begin to understand this just after the fog-cat scene.

Then, we are witness of the indecision of Prufrock, who is very worried and not

comfortable with his image, “They will say: ‘How his hair is growing thin!’” (Line 41). His

8
The translation from the original in French is mine : “Ne te verrai-je plus que dans l’éternité ?” BAUDELAIRE, Charles.
1972. Les fleurs du mal. Librairie Génerale Française. Paris, p 223.
9
The translation from the original in French is mine : “la Femme, être mystique et plein de mystère, à la foi ange et
bête,” MICHAUD, Guy. Message poétique du symbolisme. Librairie Nizet, Paris, 1947, p. 56.

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desire to brag about his love affairs cannot be fulfilled, he only knows about those matters

only from the distance:

“I know the voices dying with a dying fall

Beneath the music from a farther room.
So how should I presume?” (Lines 52 – 54)

Prufrock’s failure seems even deeper when he compares his “indecisions” and

“revisions” to the possible situation of other men, maybe smoking after having an encounter

with their mates.

“Shall I say, I have gone at dusk through narrow streets

And watched the smoke that rises from the pipes
Of lonely men in shirt-sleeves, leaning out of windows? …” (Lines 70 – 72)

During this mental stroll, he feels really miserable, he feels as a fool, he feels that

there is something he does not understand, that he cannot get to grip the clues of human

relations, especially love. The question of Hamlet in his case, becomes “to love or not to

love”, and because romanticism is too far, “to be alone or not to be alone”; for him smoothing

a cat is not enough.

“And the afternoon, the evening, sleeps so peacefully!

Smoothed by long fingers,
Asleep… tired… or it malingers,
Stretched on the floor, here beside you and me.” (Lines 75 – 78)

Prufrock feels completely terrible, not even to be offered on a plate, like John the

Baptist, in clear allusion to the play by Oscar Wilde, Salomé. He feels just like an attendant

lord of Prince Hamlet, whose famous wondering question about the sense of his existence

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acquires a new meaning for Prufrock, his question is about loneliness, companion, love.

Otherwise than the Danish prince, Prufrock does not feel the need of revenge in the name

of his father, but a need to fit in a world where there is no place for him.

At the end of the poet the visit never takes place. His indecision was an obstacle and

even for ideal love, the one which was the aim of the symbolist poets like Baudelaire; the

ideal, sublime love, even this is not available for Prufrock (Mokler, p.8).

“I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.

I do not think that they will sing to me.” (Lines 124 – 125)

Prufrock is not able to find a female companion and he feels in his very deep inner

self he wants the set free his most basic instincts as he has seen in the fog-cat scene. He

cannot pop up the question to the women he encounters in his day after day life. Not the

women talking of Michelangelo, not the ones he sees in a restaurant with bracelets and

shawls, and not even the mermaids he imagines they ignore him.

CONCLUSION

“The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” is a pome where the influences from French

symbolism, Victorian poetry and classical authors are rebuilt in a complete new shape. The

modernist poetry in English language has a crucial start point after the poem by Eliot

because the use of intertextuality, and new poetic strategies give live to a new way of

expressing feelings, sensations, memories, in this case of a modern man who feels really

lonely in the modern city where he cannot find love and he feels invisible in this world.

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