How Does Prufrock Represent The Modern Man?

In the sullen figure of Prufrock many critics find the characteristics of a modern man.

The way Prufrock suffers from agonies, faces insurmountable ordeals even while thinking of proposing to a lady, the way Prufrock vacillates like a pendulum between decision and indecision, action and inaction, his lack of courage to be are in many ways the representative qualities of a modern individual. Prufrock has a sense of insecurity and he feels a lack of communication with others, even with his beloved.

The innumerable faces that he meets everyday are ‘but a gallery of pictures’. By delineating Prufrock caught in the world of indifference, T. S. Eliot refers to the sordid conditions of a modern city dweller. These cheap and sinister sections of the town as mentioned in the poem bespeak the banal disposition of the 20th century society in which Prufrock lives. The poem is actually a symbolic one, which expresses the barrenness, the mental tension, the frustration and the irresolution of a modern man. Through Prufrock, a city dweller in the early twenties, T.S.

Eliot unfolds the banal superficial and sordid disposition of the society. (He of the greatest paradoxes of the 20th century’s society as seen by Prufrock in that society although people build up cities to live together, at the same time, they feel a lack of communication with each other). In a banal society of 20th century no one gets the opportunity to express himself even in front of his beloved one. The First World War, which sapped away the ideas and the beliefs of man, was just over.

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As a terrible consequence of the War an emotional crisis sets in.

Eliot depicts the complexity of a modern man and the frustration of modern civilization through images and symbols, which are mainly functional, precise and compact. In the epigraph of the poem a few lines from Dante’s Inferno has been used which signifies that the world of Prufrock is a kind of hell. The words of a false counselor, Guido-da-Montefeltro are expressed. Guido shut up in his flame describes his agonies to Dante. Guido and Prufrock, although their situations are different, have similarities in the mental agonies they feel.

Prufrock fears even if he were Lazarus and wanted to tell the lady about his buried life, she perhaps would throw a shawl and say – “That is not what I meant at all That is not it, at all. ” For all his decisions and indecisions he is like Prince Hamlet but he again asserts that despite his numerous indecisions he is rather an anti-hero playing a sub-ordinate role of someone like Polonius. Then he sees the terrible vision of his head being brought ‘upon a platter’ John the Baptist. John the Baptist lived for a purpose and died for a cause whereas Prufrock wishes to die because he finds no purpose in living.

As Prufrock remarks – “Though I have seen my head (grown slightly bald) brought in upon a platter I am no prophet and here’s no great matter. We get the sorry figure of Prufrock who is being haunted by the twilight zones of his mind. With utter desperation, he recalls the women who are obsessed with talking of Michelangelo. He clearly understands that they pose to be connoisseurs of art. Hearing the conversation he becomes conscious of the futility of his own existence in front of the great stature of Michelangelo.

Under the working of the universe he feels his futile disposition. His self-consciousness makes him prone to social discomfort. He is so conscious about his own position, his own personality that e thinks of an extra-ordinary image of a magic lantern – “But as if a magic lantern threw the nerves in patterns on a screen. ” We hear weariness in the heavy sounds, which Prufrock utters – “I grow old, I grow old. ” Being unable to face the present situation he conjectures the beautiful mermaids ‘riding seaward on the waves’.

In the world of reality his passions remain unfulfilled; therefore, he visualizes the mermaids in whose immaculate beauty he desires to get what he has been deprived of. Prufrock despite the hundreds of excuses, which he invents to elude the ‘overwhelming question’ realizes at the4 end that one day he has to face the grim reality. As a means of evading that inevitable situation of facing the reality, he becomes enamored with the vision of mermaids and at the end of the poem the image of the mermaid aptly emphasizes the sordid condition of the modern individual.

The lover Prufrock feels helpless who does not have courage to meet his lady, let alone propose her. Prufrock does not want to put on a mask especially when he is in front of the lady. But the shame codes of society demand of him that he should maintain a veneer of false modesty. In his attempts to conform to the superficial codes of modern society Prufrock’s condition of sheer helplessness could be seen. He even thinks that he may break the status quo of the whole solar system by proposing to the lady.

The following image of climbing stairs stresses the difficulties of the unromantic middle age of Prufrock – “And indeed there will be time To wonder “Do I dare? ” and “Do I dare? ” Time to turn back and descend the stair. ” Prufrock recalls the meaninglessness and the triviality of his past life and realizes as well the futility of all social engagements in a dull routine. As he says “I have measured out my life with a coffee spoon. ” Therefore, it is inevitable that Prufrock would feel a lack of communication between the lady and him. So, he does not find any meaning in giving vent to his personal feelings in front of the lady.

Thus in the figure of Prufrock T. S. Eliot depicts the agonies and somewhat subhuman condition of a modern man. The superficial codes of modern society, which are sapping away the elements of goodness in man, are mocked at in this poem. That Prufrock despite all his endeavors fails to cope with the banal norms and rituals of modern society is an example how modern civilization is sometimes vain in its roots. The sufferings of Prufrock are according to many critics the representative sufferings of a modern man, his dilemmas are that of a modern individual.