The renderings of loneliness as a modernist characteristic in T.S. Eliot's The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

By Phillip Grider

Seminar paper from the year 2017 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 1,0, University of Duisburg-Essen, language: English, abstract: The epoch that has come to be known as modernism, and is often referred to as the "epoch of crisis", sees the individual losing itself, becoming more and more disconnected, ill, disoriented and helpless. This is, of course, reflected, in turn, in the literature and in the characters created during this time, as well as in the form of the literature itself, exemplified by multiple perspectives, intertextual allusions, seemingly missing chronology and complex, at times puzzling, structures. In creating a speaker as nsecure, helpless and lonely as the title character of his long poem "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" (1917), T.S. Eliot conceived, in Prufrock, one that exemplifies and symbolizes, also by way of the structure of the poem itself, the situation of the individual in early 20 th century urban society. In the following analysis, I will examine the renderings of loneliness in T.S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" by, first, focusing on Prufrock's disconnectedness with his surroundings and, secondly, examining the title character's passive and helpless nature, both also with regard to the structure of the poem. Lastly, considering the literary period and background of modernism with a specific focus on the role of and its impact on the individual in this time, I will prove, in connecting the findings throughout the course of this paper, that Prufrock is to be understood as a representative of the human condition in the age of modernism.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 3668785147
• ISBN13: 9783668785144
• Release Date: October 2018
• Publisher: Grin Verlag
• Length: 24 Pages
• Weight: 0.09 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.1" x 5.5" x 8.5"