Frustration and Disillusionment in T.S. Eliots The Love...

Frustration and Disillusionment in T.S. Eliots The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock T.S. Eliot, a notable twentieth century poet, wrote often about the modern man and his incapacity to make decisive movements. In his work entitled, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock; he continues this theme allowing the reader to view the world as he sees it, a world of isolation and fear strangling the will of the modern man. The poem opens with a quoted passage from Dantes Inferno, an allusion to Dantes character who speaks from Hell only because he believes that the listener can not return to earth and thereby is impotent to act on the knowledge of his conversation. In his work, Eliot uses this quotation to foreshadow the idea that his†¦show more content†¦He is clearly incapacitated to act, trapped by his own fear that he will be unable to garner any interaction from the women with whom he wants to converse. Prufrock plans his approach and reminds himself often that; there will be time.; I have measured out my life with coffee spoons; (line 51), shows how Prufrock thinks of his own life, unexciting and unheroic. In his mind he has nothing to offer these women. He returns to wrestling with his thoughts that allow him to desire the love the women have to offer but talk himself out of the task by gentile reminders of the risk. He tells the reader that he knows these women and even begins to rehearse an opening remark, Shall I say, I have gone at dusk through narrow streets / And watched the smoke that rises from the pipes; (lines 70-71). This thought is quickly lost however as Prufrock imagines how easy it would be to be a creature that had no need for love, I should have been a pair of ragged claws / Scuttling across the floors of silent seas; (lines 73-74). Having decided not to try, Prufrock questions whether his efforts would have been worthwhile. He believes that he can not relate to the women that which he feels, It is impossible to say just what I mean!; (line 104). He rationalizes his fear by imagining that his speaking to the women would not have achieved any real response. He further imagines the women saying, That is not what I meant at all, /Show MoreRelatedDisillusionment and Rebellion in Modernism1502 Words   |  7 Pagesâ€Å"The importance of Modernism was in its ability to unite the masses by illuminating common feelings of disillusionment and rebellion through artistic forms.† Argue with reference to two poems of T.S Eliot and one additional text of you choosing. Rebellion and Disillusionment were fundamental feelings expressed by Western society in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. 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