1. T. S. Eliot (1888—1965)

2. The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

3. A Brief Introduction 1 His position in literature 2 His life
3 His viewpoints:
(Anglican,royalist,classicist)

4. His Aesthetic Views 1.a poem should be an organic thing in itself ;
2. Modern life is chaotic, futile, fragmentary,so poetry should reflect this fragmentary nature
of life;
3. objective correlative;
4. The poet should draw upon tradition.

5. His Techniques 1 Use of disconnected images/symbols
2 Use of literary allusions/references
3 Use of highly expressive meter and
rhythm of free verses
4 Use of metaphysical whimsical images/whims
5 Use of flexible tone

6. Images, Allusions, References
Images compared:
1. (squirrel ) sitting like a small gray coffee pot(Humbert Wolfe)
2. The cripples pass like question marks(Stephen Spender)。

7. 1. If music be the food of love, play on
Give me excess of it; that surfeiting,
The appetite may sicken, and so die,
That strain again, it had a dying fall,
O, it came o’er my ear like the sweet sound
That breathes upon a bank of violets,
Stealing and giving odour. Enough no more,
‘Tis not so sweet now as it was before.
Shakespeare: Twelfth Night, I,i.1-8)

8. 2. To every thing there is a season, and a time to
every purpose under the heaven:
A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant,
and a time to pluck up that which is planted.
A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war,
and a time of peace.
( Old Testament: Ecclesiastes)

9. 3. Polonius…What do you read my lord?
Hamlet: Words, words, words.
P: What is the matter content my lord?
H: Between who?
P: I mean the matter that you read, my lord.
H: Slanders, sir; for the satirical rogue says here, that old men have grey beards, that their faces are wrinkled, their eyes purging thick amber and plum tree gum, and that they have a plentiful lack of wit, together with most weak hams. All which sir, though I most powerfully and potently believe, yet I hold it not honesty to have it thus set down, or yourself sir shall grow old as I am if like a crab you could go backward.
P:( Aside) Though this be madness, yet there is method in’t.
( Shakespeare: Hamlet)

10. To His Coy Mistress Had we but world enough, and time,
This coyness, lady, were no crime.
We would sit down, and think which way
To walk, and pass our long love day.……
(16 lines are omitted)
( To be continued)

11. But at my back I always hear
Time’s winged chariot hurrying near;
And yonder all before us lie
Deserts of vast eternity.
Thy beauty shall no more be found,
Nor, in thy marble vault, shall sound
My echoing song; then worms shall try
That long-preserved virginity,And into ashes all my lust;
(To be continued)

12. Let us roll all our strength and all
Our sweetness up into one ball,
And tear our pleasures with rough strife
Through the iron gates of life:……
( 2 lines omitted)
(Andrew Marvell, 1621—1678)

13. Themes of To His Coy Mistress:
brevity of life, youth, inevitability of death
  carpe diem tradition, love
seduction

14. Classical allusion: John the Baptist
lived in an earlier age than Christ, once baptized baby Christ, criticized the Jewish king Herod(73—4 B) who took his brother’s wife Herodias for his own wife, put into prison. Once at a party Herod was much pleased by the dancing of Salome, Herodias’ daughter and satisfied Salome’s request that John the Baptist’s head be brought to her on a plate.( Salome’s sexual desires toward John had been rejected)( John was a victim of lustful desire, pleasures)

15. General idea of the poem:
Incongruities/ironies:
the title;
the practice of the first initial in his name(the vulgar name of Prufrock);
his desire and his inability to act

16. Analysis of Prufrock 1. His character 2. His world 3. His situation
4. Symbolic meaning of this character

17. 1. His character:
self-conscious, self-distrusting, timid, lacking in vitality and courage/coward
impotent physically and spiritually, tortured between desire and impotence

18. 2. His world:
elegant, empty, trivial, trifling, without force and vitality, sluggish, lifeless, listless, futile, meaningless

19. 3. His situation:
desire for love, yet afraid of being rejected and misunderstood, desires for true life, love, turn a new leaf , yet has not courage to act/take action

20. 4. Symbolic meaning of this character
Archetypal modern man, western intellectuals

21. Summary:
The speaker is a kind of modern Hamlet, a man who after a life passed in devotion to the trivial has awakened to a sense of his own futility and to that of the world around him. He feels that some decisive act of commitment is needed to break the meaningless flow of events which his life offers. The question is if he really dares to reverse the entire course of his existence by a decision the nature of which eludes him. Dominated by his fear of life, misunderstood when he tries to express his sense of a possible revelation, Prufrock concludes “No! I am not Prince Hamlet…” and refuses to accept the role which life for a moment seemed to have thrust upon him and returns to the stagnation.

22. Questions:
1. How does your opinion of him differ from his own opinion of himself?
2. Explain how Prufrock differs from Hamlet? How in some ways similar?
3. Why doesn’t he sing to any individual woman?
4.  How many questions does he ask? Why does he ask so many questions? What’s his overwhelming questions?
5.  Find out all the images used in the poem. What general mood do all these images/symbols contribute to?
6. What might be the symbolic meaning of Mr Prufrock’s situation and character?

23. Thank You.
(Assembled from internet sources)