Eliot is the name of a major poet in the English-speaking world of the twentieth century. He was a British American poet who was very influential. His masterpiece "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" (1915) gained reputation for the exploration of new poetic rhythms, forms, and themes and captured enormous attention. His experimentation within language and forms brought a rapid change in literary tastes. His writings helped usher in a new era in poetry. Eliot is remarked as "not only a great sorcerer of words, but the very key keeper of the language" by Igor Stravinsky. .
The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock .
This poem is an inspection of the tortured inner self of a typical modern man who is overeducated, obsessed, anxious, fearful of the people in the society and emotionally stilted. The poem's speaker Prufrock, seems to be addressing his possible lover. But Prufrock is confused about how to approach that woman. He lacks self-confidence and feels insecured. He is worried about the inadequacies he has, and thus afraid of standing up and express his feelings. The poem starts with fairly concrete physical setting of a cityscape and then moves to interiors like women's arms in the lamplight, coffee spoons and fireplaces. At the end of the poem, a vague ocean image conveys Prufrock's emotional distance from the society. "Prufrock" is influential not only for its intellectual reference but also for the richness and intensity of personality accomplished.
In this paper, this poem will be examined from two literary theories. Literary theories are some ideas which try to define what literature is and how it needs to be studied. These focus on the nature of literature and present some methods to analyze those. These theories are like different lenses that views literature privileging particular aspects of a work over other characteristics. There are different schools of theory based on certain thoughts and assumptions they consider important.