Transcript The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock – T.S. Eliot

The Love Song of
J. Alfred Prufrock
– T.S. Eliot
Background
• Poem was written post World War 1, after which a sense of
futility and loss has infected society.
• The rise of Industrialization and the modern city is well under
way.
• Unlike Romantic poetry that is ordered, Modern poetry
examines a chaotic world.
• Some other contrasts include:
o Optimism vs Pessimism
o Clear Sense of Identity vs Confused Identity
o Moral/Values vs Collapse of Morality
o Faith vs Loss of Faith
T.S. Eliot
Thomas Stearns Eliot was born in
Missouri on September 26, 1888.
Died in London in 1965.
After a year in Paris, he returned
to Harvard to pursue a doctorate
in philosophy, but returned to
Europe and settled in England in
1914.
"The Love Song of J. Alfred
Prufrock" was published in 1915.
By 1930, and for the next thirty
years, he was the most dominant
figure in poetry and literary
criticism in the English-speaking
world.
Inventions and Technological
Breakthroughs
• What were some of the primary effects
of each invention/technological
breakthrough?
• How do you think individuals responded
to the inventions/technological
advancements? What became easier?
What became harder in one’s daily life?
• What are some of the effects of the
invention of motion pictures (both in
terms of the technology itself and the
ability to capture moving images of
various content/subject matters)?
Rise of the
Modern City
• Imagine first riding on an elevated railroad through a city or in a city
subway? What would this ride feel like if you never had experienced it
before?
• Compare the pedestrians, horse/carriages you see to the new forms of
transportation.
• What would life be like before the advancements in transportation in
the late 1800s/early 1900s? What effects did such technological
breakthroughs have on individuals in their local and larger worlds?
Post World War 1
• What would life had been like for a soldier returning to his
former life after time in the trenches?
• What would the devastated landscape feel like, especially if
you were in Europe?
From the
Evening Sun,
1913.
Dramatic Monologue
A dramatic monologue is a poem in which there is one
imaginary speaker addressing an imaginary audience.
The critic M.H. Abrams said that a dramatic monologue
must contain three criteria. First, it encompasses the
assertions of a “specific individual (other than the poet) at
a specific moment in time.” Second, the monologue is
“specifically directed at a listener or listeners whose
presence is not directly referenced but is merely
suggested in the speaker’s words.” Third, the “primary
focus of the monologue is the development and
revelation of the speaker’s character.”
Epigraph
In literature, an epigraph is a phrase,
quotation, or poem that is set at the
beginning of a work. It serves as a
preface, as a summary, as a counterexample, or to link the work, either to
invite comparison or set the tone.