The Love Song of J

 

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock as DRAMATIC MONOLOGUE

Eliot’s Love Song of Prufrock is one o ne of the finest examples of dramatic monologue in the history of English poetry. To know it clearly, we should firstly understand the term ‘dramatic monologue’. A MONOLOGUE IS A LONG SPEECH BY A SINGLE PERSON AND ‘DRAMATIC’ MEANS CONVERSATIO CONVERSATIONAL NAL LANGUAGE OF A CHARACTER IN A PLAY THAT UTTERS A MONOLOGUE EXPRESSING HIS OR HER PRIVATE THOUGHTS. A dramatic monologue is not an element in a play but a type of lyric poem. It was perfected by Robert Browning. The features of dramatic monologue includes a single speaker, who is patently not the poet, uttering the entire poem in a specific situation at a crucial moment, the speaker addresses and interacts with one or more people and of what the lyric speaker says is the speaker’s unintentional revelation of his or her temperament and character. The poem, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, is actually the lament of a being divided between passion and timidity. It is an interior monologue where Prufrock, the protagonist speaks to himself in a kind of daydream. It opens with a command to the self (you) to accompany the physical him (I) to a distant room. Literally, the ‘I’ and ‘you’ of the poem are not two persons but rather two aspects of the same person – the public personality and the ego. In addition to contributing to the effect of monologue, the use of the pronouns creates the impression of a man talking to himself in the mirror. When we hear the very first line, “Let us go then, you and I”; it seems to us that we are to watch a dialogue based poem. Conforming to the features of dramatic monologue, Prufrock, the speaker speaks to himself in a critical moment that is to propose love to a lady revealing his own self. The ‘you’ of the poem is instructed not to ask “What is it?” but to “go and make visit”. The visit suggests the decorous quality of Prufrock’s personality.

 

 The most significant characteristic of a dramatic monologue is the unconscious revelation of the speaker. The speaker, Prufrock, wishes to be in love with a lady and at the same time his present physical condition does not support him to declare love to the lady. In this situation, he tells himself many things. And unintentionally, unintentionall y, he reveals his temperament and character. He says: “

”

The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window panes.  

Here we see that Prufrock imagines himself as a cat. The image of fog as cat reminds us another reflection of his mental state: desire, which ends in inertia. If the cat suggests sex, it also suggests the greater desire of o f inactivity. The poem is a speech of Prufrock who can’t decide what to do especially on his way towards love. Though it is not clear with who the speaker is in love, hence it is not so important to mention any particular lady. It might be anyone of his known. It appears before us th that at the speaker is a middle middle aged bachelor. He wants to make love with a lady; though he is, simultaneously conscious of his being a little bit impotent. This is the matter that makes him indecisive. He says to himself: “

There will be time, there will be time

To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet ”

There will be time to murder and create.  

The phrase ‘to murder and create’ expresses the mental impression of the speaker. He thinks that time will come to him to murder his indecision and to create the new one i.e. the love proposal to his lady love. Prufrock’s destination is also vague. We find him making up his mind to go to a room where “Women come and go/ Talking to Michelangelo.”  In the next stanza, the speaker again steps backward thinking of his physical disabilities to be loved. He realizes that he is now a man ‘with a bald spot in the middle of my hair’. He describes his morning coat, his collar, his neck tie ‘rich and modest’, but simultaneously recognizes that the women may

comment on the thinness of his arms and legs. He, even, imagines that his step toward proposing a lady will be a disturbing element to the society which is reflected in the line:

 

“

Do I dare ”

Disturb the universe?  

The speaker is in such a state that he is “pinned and wriggling on the wall ”. He also measures out his life “with coffee spoons”. He says that he is “no prophet ’

”

and here s no great matter . Prufrock does not see any great or sacred work for him to do in this world. He is in a fix what to do. He says: “

”

It is impossible to say just what I mean.  

The poem, then, again turns to a note of decision. He is not prince Hamlet, though indecision might suggest it; rather cautious attendant. But, later, the long, heavy sounds of weariness are heard in the line “I grow old…I grow old….”  In the last section of the poem, the speaker mentions of ‘sea, ‘mermaids singing’ ‘waves’ etc. this watery, floating imagery involves the relaxation of all effort and offers a submerged fulfilmen fulfilment. t. It is ended when “human voices wake us, and we drown”- with the intrusion of reality which drowns the inner life Prufrock. Hence concluding we may say that “ The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” is a significant dramatic monologue. According to the style of a dramatic monologue the speaker of the poem speaks to himself and interacts in a critical situation that reveals his character as well. Thus we may call the poem a successful dramatic monologue.

Sonali MA-1 (SECTION-B) 74