A lot of the poem is devoted to the idea that ‘there will be time’ for Prufrock to express his thoughts and feelings to a woman. It seems as if his whole life is spent putting off his relationships with the world around him (especially women) because of the lonely and pathetic person we see. Throughout the poem Prufrock is too scared to make a move because he keeps saying “there will be time” to do it later (Eliot 1281). He spends his whole life trying to become more intimate with women, but he never does because he is constantly turning his back to the opportunities. Having more time to talk to women is always on Prufrock’s mind. This idea of there being more time is repeated several times throughout the poem to show us his procrastination of talking to women. Prufrock says “In a minute, there is time” (Eliot 1281). He continues to procrastinate with regards to reediting and revising his thoughts to kill time and give himself a good reason to delay what he wants to do. Profrock says “And time yet for a hundred indecisions, / And for a hundred visions and revisions” (Eliot 1281). When Prufrock does get the opportunity to become more intimate and affectionate with women, he hesitates and feels it’s “Time to turn back and descend the [stairs]” (Eliot 1281).
The big question Prufrock asks himself is whether to ‘break the ice’ and talk. The entire poem expresses his fear of women and the fact that he cannot successfully relate to them. He asks “Do I dare? … Do I dare?” to speak on how he feels with women (Eliot 1281). When Prufrock talks about whether he should “Disturb the universe,” he is referring to disturbing the equilibrium he has with himself and women and go beyond mere conversation; it is the fact that he is scared to go outside his isolated box and be intimate (Eliot 1282).
In trying to ‘break the ice’ with women and talk to them, he finds it hard to say what he feels. Prufrock exclaims that it “is impossible to say just what [he] means” (Eliot 1281). He doesn’t say what he feels because he comes to the quick conclusion what he wants to say will “not [be what he] meant, at all” (Eliot 1283). In the rest of the poem, Prufrock imagines his attempts to converse with the woman he seeks, and his failure to make her understand him. We don’t know what life for Prufrock would have been like with women because he never talked to a woman. Prufrock questions this unknown part of his life, by asking if it “would it have been worth it, after all, / [If] it [would] have been worth while” which gives him even more reason not to ‘break the ice’ (Eliot 1282).
From the opening lines, we can see the ugly living conditions in which Prufrock lives. His living conditions may be a factor on why he is the depressed and isolated person he seems to be. Prufrock speaks of “restless nights in one-night cheap hotels / And sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells” (Eliot 1281).
Finally, in fully understanding who Prufrock is, we come to see consequences of him not being able to talk to women. His destiny is that he will become an old and lonely man just because he cannot communicate his emotions with a woman. We get a sense of his future by seeing the old men in the windows; Prufrock says that he ”watched the smoke that rises from the pipes / Of lonely men in shirt-sleeves, leaning out of windows?” (Eliot 1282). Prufrock feels that his life is so meaningless and short that it can be “measured out … with coffee spoons” (Eliot 1282). But in the end, he says, ”I grow old … I grow old … / I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled” (Eliot 1283).
‘Who or what is Prufrock in love with?’ This question can be answered using references from the beginning and middle of the poem. Prufrock says “Let us go then, you and I, / When the evening is spread out against the sky,” which almost sounds like a love poem to the opposite sex (hence the title) (Eliot 1281). Another clue that could reassure us that Prufrock is dedicating the poem to a woman is because of the “Arms that are braceleted and white and bare / (But in the lamplight, downed with light brown hair!) / Is it perfume from a dress…Arms that lie along a table, or wrap about a shawl” (Eliot 1282). Therefore, Prufrock is in love with a woman.
Unfortunately, Prufrock’s quest for love is unsuccessful. This is true because throughout the entire poem, he keeps going back to questions like “How should I begin,” “[Do I Dare] Disturb the universe,” and “Would it have been worth while” (Eliot 1282). One response to these questions he ends the poem with is “I do not think that [the mermaids] will sing to me.” Therefore, in the end he never gets the opportunity to even begin to love because he doesn’t ever step out of his isolated mind.
We will never know what Prufrock’s life would have been like if he had just gotten past being afraid of saying the wrong thing. A question that could be asked here is with regards to what way Prufrock might have been able to communicate his feelings to women. One way Prufrock might have communicated his feelings is through “a magic lantern [that throws] nerves in patterns on a screen” (Eliot 1283). As a result of not being able to be intimate, he feels he “should have been a pair of ragged claws / Scuttling across the floor of silent seas,” which has to do with him having the brainless life of a little creature that scuttles along the sea and has no troubling finding a mate because it requires little or no effort (Eliot 1282). Prufrock may never have been “Michelangelo,” a “prophet,” or “Hamlet” - but to me, Prufrock is considered “the Fool” for never living life to the fullest with what he did have (Eliot 1281-1283).
Works Cited
Cahill, Audrey F. “T.S. Eliot and the Human Condition.” University of Natal Press 1967.
Eliot, T.S.. “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.” Thinking and Writing About Literature. Ed. Michael Meyer. Boston: Bedford/ St.Martin’s, 2001. 1280-1283
Scofield, Martin. “T.S. Eliot: The Poems.” Flambridge University Press, Cambridge 1988.
