In T. S. Eliot’s poem “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”, society’s high standards of how one should be is the burden that is being expressed. Nathan A. Cervo’s article, “Eliot’s The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” delves into the idea of how the poem presents conforming to society’s upper class standards is the route to having love/acceptance, but notes how the speaker is not wanting to do so. Cervo talks of his interpretation of the character Prufrock and how he wants to maintain his dignity in this materialistic world: ” The connection that Eliot makes with Prufrock is that, although Prufrock is in an earthly situation analogous to hell, he is still concerned about his honor” (207). The main idea that Cervo is getting across is that Prufrock wants to be his own person in society, but worries that he will be ostracized. In the poem, this is evident as the speaker says, ” Full of high sentence, but a bit obtuse;/ At times, indeed, almost ridiculous-/ Almost, at times, the Fool” (117-119). This passage reveals that Prufrock felt as if his non-conformity to society is the result of him being judged and looked at as “the Fool” (119). Spiritual ideals are explored in “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” that heightens the essence of Prufrock not wanting to conform to society.
In continuation of Cevro’s article, he notes that biblical references leads to the interpretation that Prufrock was a devout Christian and admitting that to such a materialistic society would result to even more backlash (207). In the poem, this is shown when Prufrock compares himself to John the Baptist: “… I have wept and fasted, wept and prayed,/ Though I have seen my head (grown slightly bald) brought in upon a/ platter,/ I am no prophet” (81-84). Evidentially, Prufrock’s piety is his greatest strength to keep himself emotionally strong from society and is also his greatest weakness because society would ridicule him. Even though Prufrock is stuck trying to gain society’s acceptance, the realization of their faults and future demise are interpreted by Cevro.
Cevro talks of how Prufrock contemplates living a life of a conformist and knowing that he is not materialistic like the others. He describes this world as something as fake as a mannequin: “Prufrock drowns recurrently in humiliation, in the mortification of knowing that he is only a dressed-up mannequin” (208). By saying this, Cevro believes that the world that Prufrock is in equates to people who are soul-less and only put on materialistic fronts to impress others. The passage from the poem that Cevro analyzes this content is as follows: “We have lingered in the chambers of the sea/… Till human voices wake us and we drown” (129-131). Basically, Cevro explores the notion that humans will not notice their mistakes of ostracizing those who won’t conform to their standards until it is too late.
Sources:
Dahlke, Laura Johnson. “Plath’s LADY LAZARUS.” Explicator 60.4 (2002): 50. Academic Search Complete. Web. 23 Jan. 2014.
Eliot, T. S. “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.” The Norton Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Poetry. Ed. Jahan Ramazani, Richard Ellmann, and Robert O’Clair. New York: W.W. Norton, 2003. Print.
Very interesting article. Cervo seems more forgiving of Prufrock, and less forgiving of the materialistic society that he both pines for and mockingly resists. The reading of Prufrock as more of a conservative religious figure who feels how much he does not fit in makes Prufrock seem less a “representative man of early modernism,” and more of a counter-weight to that man. Prufrock is a hallmark of early modernism, but according to Cervo he longs to go back in time. He marks the modern by his resistance to it.