Senza tema d’infamia ti rispondo. Without fear of infamy, I answer you. This is the last line of the Italian epigraph taken from Dante’s Inferno in T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”. This passage is evoked by a soul in hell who speaks to Dante, the protagonist of Inferno. The soul does not believe that Dante or anyone who comes to hell can leave, so he decides to tell him his whole life story. No one will ever know, he thinks. However, once Dante finds his way out of hell, he tells others about that soul’s life and in turn, embarrasses him. The idea that Dante has been in a remote underworld for some time and comes back wanting to tell others about this place ties into J. Alfred Prufrock’s secrets that are usually kept hidden. The secrets of that soul were not released or brought into the light until he spoke. Just like Prufrock, who keeps every emotion and every thought to himself. Which begs the question, is better to speak or to die? Can we remain unrequited and silent forever? Should we?
While writing a paper on Hamlet, T.S Eliot observed something that Shakespeare could not expose clearly or contemplate into art like he did with Othello. There are instances that Shakespeare could not bring out the desired emotions and feelings as required. To circumvent this observation, he invented the phrase ‘objective correlative’ which he believed was the only way to express emotions in any art form. By meaning, ‘objective correlative’ is the combined use of objects, descriptions, and images to evoke the correct emotions intended by the character in the art. It is, however, difficult to achieve those emotions by acquiring single entity like an object or a word or a situation or an image. These phenomena must be combined together in order to evoke the intended emotions (Aziz, 2). This paper aims to highlight the significance of objective correlatives in expressing and evoking the emotions in Eliot’s poem “The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock”. To understand this, it will be important to first understand the poem as a modernist.
In contrast to the preceding romantic period, the modern literature reflected the lost generation that has been affected by war and industrialization. Due to this, modernists often use angst tones in showing their cynical views of the world. Unlike the classical period when the works of literature was a representation of the societal issues, modernists dwell in the internal mind of a character. The "Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" is a perfect representation of the modern literature as it explores Eliot’s personal feelings through Alfred Prufrock. The poem like many modernist poems suggests that self-awareness gives existential paralysis at the expense of self-knowledge. To enjoy the illogical and disorganized streams of thoughts in the modern poetry, one must listen to its rhythms, sound, tones, percussion, and pace and to analyze in line with these elements.
This love song by Eliot is represented in dramatic monologue form. The character starts the poem by inviting an unknown individual to accompany him for a walk. They roll by sawdust restaurants through the filthy roads as they go for some coffee. The character keenly listens to women who talk of Michelangelo. He then becomes self-conscious of himself as an old man with shabby clothes lacking the courage to face women. His inferiority practically eats him up whilst denying him the joy of “eating a peach”. The poem ends with mermaids singing to each other and Eliot’s wonderment of whether or not he will be treated the same way.
The poem begins with an epigraph, which is a quote from the Dante’s Inferno in the Italian language. In many of his poetic works, using epigraph in the love song of Prufrock is one that has really stood out (Mayer 186). The use of Italian language gives an allusion of authority on the poet and the impression of intelligent and well-educated individuals of the upper middle-class society. The speaker, Guido, reluctantly reveals to Dante why he is in hell. This may be a presentation of Eliot’s thoughts. By taking the readers to the world of the dead, he believes that his thoughts will remain secret forever and no one would be able to relate the poem. The Dantean ideology suggests that Prufrock is not very social and thus the readers are invited to the zone of consciousness and unrealism. This ideology will be brought into context after analyzing the objective correlativity of the poem.
The poem then uses Bible references such as the ‘placing of a head on a platter’, an allusion to John the Baptist. The analogy of ‘everything has got its time’ as quoted in the book of Ecclesiastes is touched in the poem as being a time to murder and create. The poet allows the reader to screen through Prufrock’s inner self and denotes a man with passive acceptance yet with deep knowledge. The poem apart from using the Biblical allusions gives reference to Shakespeare’s poem, Hamlet. Through this reference, we can denote that Prufrock was meek and very unwilling to take a decision in a leading role, even for himself. Alfred Prufrock is the villain of his own story, never getting the confidence to approach women he cherishes. He instead dwells on the personal inadequacies and the loss of his youth. He lacks faith in himself and society.
In the first stanza, the poem addresses a person. It is in the evening and Eliot describes the sky as an etherized patient. This definition of the sky is used to refer to the speaker’s inner consciousness. Here, Eliot suggests that Prufrock has given up with life transforming him into an inactive persona. The images such as the sawdust restaurants and half-deserted streets have been intentionally used in the first stanza to show the picture of an inactive, empty, bleak and dead city.
The fog in stanza two is keenly taking a look at the fashionable women that have filled the room and their talks of Michelangelo over the window. Fog is personified here. It is used as an animal, preferably a cat. The fog, in fear of the women, decides to sleep around the house where it is being suffocated by the smoke. In here, the writer shows us a persona who has physical desires to be in contact with women but decides to avoid them. A state of self-pitying is evoked in Prufrock by the images used in this stanza. By using the fog, which is a dignified cat, and yellow smoke from the chimneys, he is probably referring to the issue of industrialization. We see a respected person in the current industrialized society, Prufrock, appearing weak, afraid and with no confidence to get into the house full of women.
Prufrock’s fear of women is further expressed with his inability to make a bold, immediate decisions, ‘… time yet for a hundred indecisions’. He still wants to revise and visualize if he is ready to approach any which refers back to a kind of Hamletian indecision. Prufrock as a thinker, without a serious attachment to women, has so many indecisive thoughts that have a direct contribution to his paralysis. He can only hope for a time to finally face his fears and murder them and create a relationship with someone. It is human existence to murder and to create parts of ourselves by redefining our traits and personal identity.
The social paralysis is heightened in stanza four by the use of objects such as the descending stairs and fear of making the decision when he is old and with a bald spot on his head. The descending stairs here depict his end of life when he will have died and been buried. This is a journey towards self-realization. Prufrock admits that the decision is required and very soon, ‘… decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.’ Before death and old age catches up with him. The use of unrhythmic rhyme in this stanza suggests the absurdity of Prufrock’s concerns. The persona is highly concerned with his old age, thin body, and thin hair. Annoyance in him is shown by the way he repeats on seeing the women talking of Michelangelo, a seemingly perfect human individual.
Prufrock’s sense towards women is stimulated by the perfume that comes from the women’s dresses. But due to the difficulty in expressing his emotions, he becomes miserable. The mentioning of the women’s hair, arms, and perfumes from their dresses is the root of intimidation for Prufrock. They are the tricks and flirtations for the contemporary women and he is fed up with the triviality of life. He wishes that he were a sea animal to pounce hard on its prey and swiftly rum across the water. We can see that Prufrock is tired and wants to escape his present surroundings (Merrier). Through Prufrock, Eliot explores the triviality of the modern society. He describes as having measured his life with coffee spoons. The contemporary society is known for rewarding life with tea and coffee parties drowned with flippancy and frivolity. Knowing this makes him sick and inactive.
Prufrock does not compare himself to Prince Hamlet. Hamlet was Shakespeare’s character and is used to symbolize the courage in front of women. However, just like Hamlet, he wrestles with idea and decision of to be or not to be. He is at the helm of indecision and is unable to act. Unlike Hamlet, he compares himself to the politician Polonius (Pagnattaro). His fear of old age is still making him silly and he can only sit dreaming of a romantic life.
When Prufrock compares himself to Lazarus of the Bible, who comes from the dead to give the mighty story of grace, he compares himself to Dante. He wants to say something unrequited and as the poem shoves to the end, he brings himself and the reader back to reality, scooped from Dante’s hell where we have been throughout Prufrock’s narration. We are brought back to our conscious senses by the singing of the mermaids, a sad ending.
Eliot uses different symbols, images, and other imagery devices that constitute objective correlatives in the poem ‘The Lovesong of J.Alfred Prufrock’. The reader’s emotions and understanding of Prufrock’s surroundings, inner life and defects are evoked by the use of these objects. The objects include the dramatic monologue where Prufrock is made to talk openly about himself that in the end reveals his in-depth feelings and his feelings towards his surroundings. Prufrock’s view of life and personality is shown through a series of images of debasement, alienation, and death wish. Repetitions, disorderly rhymes, use of present tense and allusions shows the persona’s indecision, hesitation, and inactiveness in an active world. All these techniques are what constitute Eliot’s objective correlative web.
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