The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by TS Eliot demonstrates several modernist ideas. In particular, by frequently employing imagery, repetition, alliteration, assonance, questions, and rhetorical references, creatively shaping lines and sentences, and weaving ambiguity and uncertainty into his words, Eliot includes modernist characteristics in his work. Thematically, there is also an emphasis on the individual and their clash with society and social pressures, the city and modern life, as well as a rejection of Romanticism and Victorianism which drives the poem towards discordance . Nearly a century later, these innovative themes are still relevant today. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get an original essay Through his modernist imagery, his discontinuous free verse, his classical and literary allusions and repetitions, Eliot exposes the conflict between the individual and society and the emphasis on the individual. For example, the first line of the poem, “Let us go then, you and I” (Eliot, line 1) encompasses “self-conscious controversy and questioning.” » The intentional ambiguity of "you and I" is repeated regularly throughout the poem. poem. The phrase is particularly important in showing that Prufrock, the character and the "I", surrenders to the direction of the objective "you", presumably his lover, his passivity, given the Eurocentric and male-dominated context. beginning of the 20th century, is the first indication of Prufrock's reluctance. This idea is confirmed a few lines later when the images of the “etherized patient… reflect his paralysis while the images of the city depict a certain lost solitude”. Prufrock has difficulty connecting with the “coming and going women” who talk about high culture. This idea is explored in more detail in the following stanza: And indeed, it will be time to ask ourselves: “Do I dare? and, 'Do I dare?' It's time to turn around and go down the stairs, With a bald spot in the middle of my hair - (They'll say, 'How his hair is thinning!') My jacket, my collar standing tightly to my chin, My tie rich and modest, but affirmed by a simple pin - (They will say: 'But how thin her arms and her legs are!') Do I dare Disturb the universe? In a minute there is time For decisions and the revisions that one minute will reverse. (Eliot lines 37-48) Eliot's imagery and repetition are polished and effortlessly successful. Prufrock is afraid of meeting the unidentified people he needs to see. He lacks self-confidence and is minutely sensitive to all his physical imperfections. His imagination overflows with hesitation and agitation as he visualizes the criticisms that “they” will maliciously point out to him. Even the products of his relative wealth, such as his morning coat and tie, do not appeal to him as he stifles himself in analytical self-examination and self-doubt by constantly asking himself parenthetical rhetorical questions. He even compares the simple encounter he is about to have to disrupting the universe. For example, Prufrock has:…has known them all already, has known them all-Knew the evenings, the mornings, the afternoons,I have measured my life with teaspoons (Eliot lines 49-51) Even so, he cannot embrace society or intimacy, nor make decisions without delay. These lines, laced with repetition and deliberately irregular rhymes, suggest that Prufrock is a man who is bored and exhausted by his vast life experience. Prufrock's memorable metaphorical observation, "I measured my life with teaspoons," is unambiguous as to whetherwhether it’s “a lonely, desolate person or someone who’s too social.” Eliot's next significant metaphor reads: I should have been a pair of jagged claws scurrying along the bottom of the silent seas. (Eliot lines 73-74) Thus, Eliot emphatically emphasizes the latter by comparing Prufrock to a rough pair of crab-like claws, detached from their owner, scurrying across the vast, silent, abandoned and incomplete ocean floor. However, Prufrock's comment that he is "pinned and writhing against the wall" suggests otherwise by figuratively invoking the idea that he is a tiny, inconspicuous object pinned in a society from which he struggles to free himself. Later, Prufrock alludes to himself and Shakespeare's Hamlet and Polunios and concludes that he is neither a prince nor "a lord servant" but "sometimes, the fool." In line 120, Eliot uses ellipses behind the two consecutive “I am growing old.” to create a discontinuity in the lines and a weary misery for Prufrock. The repetitive “I”s in this stanza emphasize Prufrock the individual and his solitary existence filled with constant questioning and indecision. By using various literary techniques, Eliot therefore manages to depict. J. Alfred Prufrock as a lonely, middle-aged man in harmony with his surroundings, his society, and himself. Eliot also exploits descriptive language, extended metaphors, rhyme, and repetition to place "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" in a metropolitan context. The poem opens with a quote from Dante's Inferno, spoken by the character Count Guido da Montefeltro, incarcerated in the fires of hell. The poem itself begins in the poor section of a city, perhaps London or Paris, where Prufrock's earthly hell exists. . In fragmented sentences and patternless rhymes, Eliot describes “murmuring retreats,” “cheap hotels,” “sawdust restaurants,” and “half-deserted streets.” urban life. The images created are those of an abandoned, insensitive and austere city. This shabby, disenchanted atmosphere is lifeless, rootless and barren. In the second stanza, yellow smoke and fog drift toward sewers, chimneys, and soot-filled window panes. as well as the correlation of the fog with the sly and pathetic movements of a feline remind readers of the dirty and miserable industrial part of the city. This depiction of factory smoke, industrial waste, stench, and poverty is how Eliot and Prufrock view the city. Eliot gives city life another perspective by ordering Prufrock to approach "the parties and the salons...through the streets which furnish metaphors for the misery, the dangers, the mystery and the beauty of the nameless city" . Furthermore, the irregularity of the rhythm, the fragmentation in the lines, the coldness of society and the fragility of Prufrock's personality give the poem the modernist tendency towards chaos. Eliot's unique manipulation of language and poetic techniques is matched by Prufrock's social eccentricity (or perhaps lack thereof). The rhythm of the poem does not follow any specific direction. Eliot mostly paints irregularly rhymed free verse on the page, but he occasionally erases unrhymed free verse that gives the poem a prose-like quality. The lines are also irregular, often composing an incomplete sentence that ends in the next line. The sentences are thus scattered over an entire stanza, giving the poem and the character a disordered and disorienting effect. The two inserts of the chorus, for example, say: In the play, women come and go. Speaking of Michelangelo. (Eliot, lines,.