The sadness of the poem derives from the fact that Prufrock is aware of his own inadequacy. He is lacking in strength to break free from the restraints and superficiality of the social norms that are prevalent in middle class society. In the monologue, Prufrock reveals his innermost thoughts to the reader as he discloses his secret desires and wishes, but ultimately he accepts his own indecision and cowardice.
The innovation in Eliot’s poetry is evident in way he created imagery that de-familiarized the reader with conventional ideas. He often juxtaposed odd images that set up new relationships between words, forcing the reader into seeing the phenomena in a different light.
In the lines ‘When the evening is spread out against the sky/like a patient etherized upon a table’ he draws a comparison between the usual beauty and romance associated with the evening sky with the inaction of an etherized patient awaiting surgery. This metaphor of paralysis gives an insight into the persona’s state of mind, showing his own inaction, while also revealing that the persona cannot relate to the beauty in the world.
Throughout the poem there are images of restriction and entrapment. This is apparent in metaphors like the fog-cat and insect metaphors. All these indirectly underscore the persona’s inability to escape social tedium. The insect metaphor (‘And when I am formulated, sprawling on a pin,/When I am pinned and wriggling on the wall’) reveals the persona’s anguish. He feels controlled by external factors and as if his actions are constantly being watched. For that he must present a proper facade to those around him. This need to act in accordance with social expectations: ‘prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet’, is what is posing as a dilemma for the persona. All these factors force him to behave in socially prescribed, superficial ways. This alienates him from his ‘other’ self that aspires to live fully.
A suspicious symbol works its way into the poem fifteen lines in, when Eliot introduces the concept of "the yellow fog." It is evening, foggy, and Prufrock’s attention focuses on the fog mixed with chimney smoke, and then he takes off in a metaphorical process that equates the movement of the fog with the movement of some seemingly cat-like creature around the structure of the city at evening. Prufrock’s lyrical musing here reflects the dream-like emotional state evoked by the fog. The reader may remember the Cheshire Cat from Lewis Carroll's “The Adventures of Alice in Wonderland”.
Initially, the reader can assume that the fog is symbolic of a cat, as its thoroughly described actions seem to mirror cat-like qualities. "The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes" appears clearly to every reader as a cat, but the cat itself is absent, represented explicitly only in parts -- back, muzzle, tongue -- and by its actions -- licking, slipping, leaping, curling. The metaphor has in a sense been hollowed out to be replaced by a series of metonyms, and thus it stands as a rhetorical introduction to what follows. However, the fog and Prufrock himself can be interpreted many different ways.
The fog’s cat-like motions seemed to symbolize the elusive nature of love. Through J. Alfred Prufrock, Eliot narrates the story of a humble man's misfortunes on the subject, and centers the entirety of the poem on his utter lack of luck. Prufrock is a timid, shy, and frightened man who does not dare speak to the woman of his dreams, though he often contemplates doing so. His physical relationship with her is no more than a simple fantasy, and seems to escape him whenever he draws near. Much like a cat, love pounces away when approached, slipping into tight spaces for a resting period. Prufrock sees this fog and its elusive tendencies as a sort of intangibility; he does not know that it physically exists, but he chooses to believe it does. While contemplating confessing his love for his beloved but distant woman, the fog suddenly becomes transparent and non-material, causing him to grasp at air. With each subtle blow of reality comes a declining sense of confidence, as he slowly talks his way out of anything risky.
Prufrock is self conscious and this accentuates his dilemma. The fog-cat metaphor presents the city as stifling and claustrophobic (‘The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the windowpanes’) yet it also reveals the two sides to security and safety. Smoky haze spreads across the city. The haze is like a quiet, timid cat padding to and fro, rubbing its head on objects, licking its tongue, and curling up to sleep after allowing soot to fall upon it. The persona resembles the cat as he looks into windows or into "the room," trying to decide whether to enter and become part of the activity. The security of the familiar routines of everyday life are comforting and easy to accept (‘Curled once about the house, and fell asleep’), however it is also stifling for the soul. Prufrock admits he would like to ‘murder and create’ and to ‘disturb the universe’, but the safety of the comfortable routines is too hard to break free from.
The fog-cat metaphor also relates to Prufrock’s own timidness and sexual repression. The sexual connotations are implicit in ‘Licked its tongue into the corners of the evening’ gives way to ‘Curled once about the house, and fell asleep.’ Prufrock also prefers to retreat from action and desire, sleeping quietly rather than inviting sexual attention. It is in many ways a longing for the uncomplicated and instinctive life, rather than the turmoil of human society.
This "etherised" outside world is the key to understanding all of Prufrock's views. He is afraid of the increasingly industrialized and impersonal city surrounding him, and he is unsure of what to do and afraid to commit to any particular choice of action
The near repetitive use of “there will be time” signals that Prufrock’s attention has returned from the imagined room to his actual surroundings. Prufrock’s reverie on the smoke or fog reminds him that dreamed or imagined activity has no correlation to actions or events in real time, so he determines that just as there is time for the fog and smoke, there is time to get himself adjusted to what he is about to do. However, at the fourth repetition of “There will be time” he is once more focusing on where he is going and what he is about to do there, and he is overwhelmed once again.
