When I heard the title The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T.S. Eliot, I was expecting a gushy love poem. That is not what I received.
The poem is about a man who wants to marry but he lacks the courage to talk to women. There is a party and he is trying to talk himself into going. One side of his argument is that the women wouldn’t like him anyway, so he shouldn’t waste his time. “And would it have been worth it, after all, after the cups, the marmalade, the tea…” (2078) I know I said different in a previous post, but this storyline is perfect in poem format. If it was in a simple short story, it would have been boring. A couple of theories of mine were verified when we listened to Eliot’s reading of the poem in class.
The first theory is that Eliot is writing about himself. Eliot did actually marry, in 1915, but it was a loveless marriage. He only married Vivienne Haigh-Wood to stay in England; she only married him to help him. (Plus there are rumors that she was having an affair.) When we heard his voice on the audio clip, it sounded so boring. If the man was anything like the voice, it is not hard to figure out why he could only marry for convenience.
The second theory is that the man killed himself. “I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach. I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.” (2078) He went to those mermaids because he thought that they would love him. This thought was debated, but that is my opinion.
No comments:
Post a Comment