The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by TS Eliot demonstrates several modernist ideas. In particular, by frequently employing imagery, repetition, alliteration, assonance, questions, and rhetorical references, creatively shaping lines and sentences, and weaving ambiguity and uncertainty into his words, Eliot includes modernist characteristics in his work. Thematically, there is also a focus on the individual and his clash with society and social pressures, the city and modern life, and a rejection of Romanticism and Victorianism that takes the poem towards the discordant. Nearly a century later, these innovative themes still find relevance. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Through his modernist imagery, discontinuous free verse, classical and literary allusions and repetitions, Eliot exposes the conflict between the individual and society and the emphasis on the individual. For example, the poem's opening line, "Come then, thou and I" (Eliot's line 1) contains "a self-conscious contention and questioning." The phrase is particularly important in showing that Prufrock, the person and the "I", surrenders to the guidance of the objective "you", presumably his lover, his passivity, considering the Eurocentric, male-dominated context at the beginning of the 20th century, is the first indication of Prufrock's reticence. This inkling is confirmed a few lines later when the images of the "ethereal patient...reflect his paralysis while the images of the city depict a certain lost solitude." Prufrock finds it difficult to connect with the “women who come and go” when talking about high culture. This idea is further explored in the following verse: And indeed there will be time to ask, "Do I dare?" and: "Do I have the courage?" Time to go back and go down the stairs, With a bald patch in the middle of my hair - (They'll say, "How thinning his hair is!") My morning coat, the collar that fits securely to my chin, My tie rich and modest, but affirmed by a simple pin- (They will say: 'But how thin are his arms and legs!') Dare I disturb the universe? In a minute there is time For decisions and revisions that in a minute will reverse. (Eliot lines 37-48) Eliot's imagery and repetition are effortlessly refined and successful. Prufrock is afraid of meeting the unidentified people he needs to see. He lacks self-confidence and is meticulously attentive to all his physical imperfections. His imagination runs wild with hesitation and agitation as he visualizes the criticisms that “they” will maliciously point out to him. Even the products of his relative wealth, such as his morning coat and tie, fail to please him as he suffocates in analytical self-examination and insecurity by constantly asking himself parenthetical rhetorical questions. He even compares the simple meeting he is about to have to the disruption of the universe. For example, Prufrock has:...I've known them all before, I've known them all-I've known the evenings, the mornings, the afternoons, I've measured my life with coffee spoons (Eliot lines 49-51) Even so, he cannot embrace society or intimacy, nor make decisions without delay. These lines, laced with repetition and deliberately irregular rhyme, suggest that Prufrock is a man bored and exhausted by his vast experience in life. Prufrock's memorable metaphorical observation, "I have measured my life with coffee spoons," is unambiguous as to whether he is "a lonely and desolate person or an overly social person." Eliot's next significant metaphor reads: I should have been a pair of worn-out claws running across the bottom of seassilent. detached from their owner, running across the vast and silent ocean floor, abandoned and incomplete. However, Prufrock's comment that he is "pinned and wiggling on the wall" suggests otherwise, figuratively invoking the idea that he is a tiny, inconspicuous object nailed to a society from which he is struggling to free himself. Later, Prufrock alludes to himself and Shakespeare's Hamlet and Polunios and concludes that he is neither a prince nor "a lord servant" but "sometimes, the Fool". In line 120, Eliot uses the ellipsis behind the two consecutive "I grow old" to create discontinuity in the lines and tired misery for Prufrock. The repetitive "I"s in this stanza emphasize the individual Prufrock and his solitary existence full of continua questions about himself and indecision. Using various literary techniques, therefore, Eliot manages to portray J. Alfred Prufrock as a lonely middle-aged man disharmonious with his surroundings, society and himself. Eliot also exploits descriptive language, extended metaphors, rhyme, and repetition to set "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" in a metropolitan context. The poem opens with a quote from Dante's Inferno, spoken by the character Count Guido da Montefeltro, who is incarcerated in the flames of Hell. The poem itself begins in the poor area of ​​a city, perhaps London or Paris, where Prufrock's earthly hell exists. In fragmented, disjointedly rhymed sentences, Eliot describes “muttering retreats,” “cheap hotels,” “sawdust restaurants,” and “half-deserted streets.” city ​​life. The images created are of an abandoned, insensitive and austere city. This squalid and disenchanting atmosphere is lifeless, rootless and sterile. In the second stanza, the yellow smoke and fog drifting toward sewers, soot-filled chimneys, and window panes as well as the correlation of the fog with the elusive and pathetic movements of a feline reminds readers of the dirty and miserable manufacturing part of the city . This depiction of factory smoke, industrial waste, stench, and poverty is how Eliot and Prufrock see the city. Eliot gives city life another perspective by directing Prufrock to approach "the parties and the salons... through streets that provide metaphors for the squalor, danger, mystery, and beauty of the nameless city." Also, the irregularity in the rhythm, the fragmentation. in the verse, the coldness in society and the fragility in Prufrock's personality give the poem the modernist tendency towards chaos. Eliot's unique manipulation of language and poetic techniques marches in unison with Prufrock's social eccentricity (or perhaps lack thereof). The rhythm of the poem does not follow specific guidelines. Eliot primarily paints irregularly rhymed free verse on the page, but occasionally dabs in unrhymed free verse that gives the poem a prose-like quality. The lines are also irregular, often composing an incomplete sentence that ends in the next line. The sentences are thus scattered throughout the stanza, giving the poem and the character a disordered and disorienting effect. The two inserts of the chorus, for example, read: In the room the women come and go Speaking of Michelangelo. (Eliot, lines 13-14 and 35-36) They appear disconnected from the main verses, especially without further readings, and are reflections of modernist ideas . Content-wise, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," like much of Eliot's poetry, is set in the cold and dark of the evening, a messy scene. Eliot's simile comparing the evening sky to “a patient etherized on a table” generates the image of a surgery or a morgue that drains all signs of,.