The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

J. Alfred Prufrock is a character who is overwhelmed by anxiety, indecisiveness, and fear. He is afraid to confront a woman and declare his love, afraid of rejection. We can argue Eliot uses this "love" situation to illustrate mankind's fear of rejection in its search for a universal and spiritual love. Just like Prufrock, mankind has a fear of rejection, meaningless, and insignificance. It is better to not ask the "overwhelming question" (is there meaning/am i significant) than to ask the question and receive a curt rejection, or even worse, no reply at all, an empty echo in the emptiness of space. As a result of his fear, Prufrock does nothing at all but sit and watch time go by, "measuring (his) life with coffee spoons; he is paralyzed "like a patient etherized upon a table," "formulated, sprawling on a pin...wriggling on the wall." He lives a life of meaningless indecision and triviality rather than boldly search for love and meaning. The poem reflects Eliot's perception of modern civilization as a spiritual void, empty of faith and meaningful love, and paralyzed by anxiety and fear.

20th Century: Modernism

How are we to react to this changing world of the 20th century? With the many social, scientific, and philosophical upheavals, many people viewed the world as being divested of meaning, purpose, and significance. If everything we do is completely and utterly insignificant, how can we attach meaning and purpose to our actions? T.S. Eliot perceived the modern world to be a shattered, fragmented version of the medieval world, where order and balance were achieved through religion, social structure, and faith in god and human significance. He believed the medieval world to be the high point of civilization, and our contemporary world has seen a breakdown of these ideal structures, resulting in a wasteland filled with anxiety and boredom. With an expanding universe and a fading, almost obsolete notion of god, humans felt a growing unease and sense of forlornness, or hopelessness in the face of our insignificance as transient beings in an infinite universe. The old microcosm of safety that was the medieval world is shattered and we are left to pick up the pieces and re-create our modern world; but on what are we to base this modern world? T.S. Eliot says we are "Hollow Men" who live in a "wasteland." Are we living in a delusion? Many writers and thinkers felt a growing sense of disillusionment, as if they were seeing the world for the first time. What they saw was a wasteland of illusion, forlornness, and obsolescent beliefs.