2. Selection Focus Transparency 2-1

3. Literary Elements Transparency 2-1

4. Before 2-1 Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. To read and analyze a poem about a man unable to commit to love or to life To recognize and understand the allusions in a poem To write two or three paragraphs on the theme of communication in a poem

5. Before 2-2 T. S. Eliot was born in 1888 and died in 1965. Click the Speaker button to hear more about T. S. Eliot.

6. Before 2-3 BACKGROUND Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. The Time and Place When Eliot wrote The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, cities were growing at a rapid rate. In many countries, people in cities outnumbered those inhabiting rural areas. Factories were overrunning residential areas, people were crowding into huge apartment buildings, and skyscrapers were being built in great numbers. While factory owners were amassing great wealth, workers often toiled under miserable conditions. In his poems, T. S. Eliot expressed the feelings of loneliness, alienation, and frustration that came with these changes. To help communicate these feelings, he sometimes made references to the work of fourteenth- century Italian poet Dante Alighieri. In The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, Eliot begins with a quote from Dantes The Divine Comedy.

7. Before 2-4 Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Stream of Consciousness Stream of consciousness is a term first used by the American psychologist William James to describe the spontaneous flow of a persons thoughts, feelings, and emotions. BACKGROUND (cont.) Under the influence of Jamess ideas, writers in the early 1900s began trying to represent the random movements of a characters mind. To achieve their goal, they eliminated conjunctions and other connecting devices from their writing. They also linked thoughts and images that seemed dissimilar, but that could be associated in the mind.

8. Before 2-5 FOCUS ACTIVITY Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. List Ideas Create a list of words describing the nature of love songs. The title of a poem often provides clues to its main idea. What do you think a love song should be like? Setting a Purpose Read to find out one writers version of a love song.

9. Reading 2-A Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the answer. Navigation Toolbar A B C D E F G H I J K LA B C D E F G H I J K L A Active Reading Question Why might Eliot have chosen to present this epigraph in Italian rather than in an English translation? Possible answer: He may have wanted to keep his poem at a high intellectual level and assumed many of his readers would know Italian. What effect does this epigraph have on the way readers should approach this poem? It alerts them to the poems sophistication and suggests that they should expect subtle literary devices and scholarly allusions.

10. Authors Craft Reading 2-B B Juxtaposition Read the first two lines of the poem. What feelings do they evoke? How does the third line change the image? The first two lines suggest a lovely, romantic evening. The juxtaposition of the third line, with its image of a sick, etherized patient, dramatically alters the image–the feelings the evening evokes are no longer lovely and romantic, but dark and ominous. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the answer.

11. Literary Elements Reading 2-C C Metaphor Think about the metaphor developed in the fourth stanza. What animal is the smoke compared to? Most probably it is a cat. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the answer. Compare this metaphor to that of an evening etherised in line 3. How are they alike? Both imply slow motion or paralysis.

12. Authors Craft Reading 2-D D Juxtaposition Describe the effect of juxtaposing the actions of taking of a toast and tea and having time for visions and revisions. The juxtaposition is ironic since eating is a mundane activity, while having visions is a far more elevated one. Thus, the intellectual work of visions is trivialized by being placed on the same level as taking of a toast and tea. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the answer.

13. Literary Elements Reading 2-E E Character Based on what you have read up through line 48, describe the speakers character. He is fastidiously dressed and has thinning hair and thin arms and legs. Indecisive and disillusioned, he lacks the energy to pursue his dreams and goals. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the answer.

14. Critical Thinking Reading 2-F F Inferring Line 51 is one of this poems most quoted lines. What does this line say about the kind of life the speaker has lived? His life has been trivial. He has lived in parlors drinking coffee while observing the lives of others. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the answer.

15. Authors Craft Reading 2-G G Ambiguity Poets often use ambiguity as a strategy for conveying more than one idea. In lines 56 and 57, Eliots use of the word formulated is deliberately ambiguous. How might Eliot mean both reduced to a formula and put in a precise form?

16. Critical Thinking Reading 2-H H Drawing Conclusions Think about the meaning of lines 73 and 74. What do these lines say about Prufrocks opinion of himself? Prufrock sees himself as no better than something with claws that lives in the ocean. He has a low opinion of himself. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the answer.

17. Literary Elements Reading 2-I I Rhyme What effect does Eliot achieve by rhyming ices with crisis in lines 79 and 80? Structurally, he links the two lines; more significantly, the rhyme mocks the situation by contrasting the occasion of a tea party with that of the momentous question he hopes to ask. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the answer.

18. Literary Elements Reading 2-J J Allusion The allusion to Lazarus in lines 94 and 95 is linked to the idea of resurrection in the epigraph from Dante. How does this allusion expand on the meaning of the poem? Prufrock has repressed the passionate side of his character so decisively that it cannot be resurrected. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the answer.

19. Literary Elements Reading 2-K K Allusion In an early scene of Shakespeares play Hamlet, Prince Hamlet vows to avenge his fathers death. Throughout the play he finds reasons not to do so until the final scene. Prufrock, too, finds action impossible–though his reasons are less persuasive than Hamlets. The description of the attendant lord in lines 112–119 is a reference to Polonius, the Lord Chamberlain in Hamlet.

20. Active Reading Reading 2-L L Respond How would you describe the tone of lines 120–124? The tone is self-mocking. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the answer.

21. Responding 2 Contents Personal Response Analyzing Literature Literary Elements Literature and Writing Click a hyperlink to go to the corresponding content area.

22. Personal Response 2 PERSONAL RESPONSE What are your impressions of J. Alfred Prufrock?

23. Analyzing 2-1 Prufrock will travel with you through half-deserted streets and past cheap hotels / And sawdust restaurants to a tea party. RECALL Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the next question. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the answer. INTERPRET According to lines 1–10, with whom will Prufrock make his visit and through what places will they travel? To what will they be led? Prufrock sees himself as a helpless patient, traveling hopelessly through life. The places are sickly, lonely, and sordid. In your opinion, what do Prufrocks descriptions of the sky and of the places he will travel through suggest about his state of mind? What do these places have in common?

24. Analyzing 2-2 Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the answer. He will have time for everything: to prepare a face, to murder and create, for all the works and days of hands, a hundred indecisions … visions and revisions, To wonder Do I dare? and to turn back. RECALL Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the next question. Reread lines 26–48. What kinds of activities does Prufrock say he will have time for?

25. Analyzing 2-2 Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the answer. Prufrock recognizes ample time for what he wants to do, if he could decide and follow through. In asking whether he dares to disturb the universe, Prufrock wonders whether he dares to take action, or change his life. INTERPRET In your opinion, why does Prufrock emphasize having time for the activities mentioned in lines 26–48? Prufrock asks, Do I dare / Disturb the universe? What might he mean by that question?

26. Prufrocks doubts that he can begin or presume suggest that he lacks confidence that his declaration of love will be accepted. His life is so carefully measured out with coffee spoons that he fears ending up like the lonely men in shirt-sleeves. He thinks he might as well be something with claws living on the ocean floor. Analyzing 2-3 Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the answer. RECALL Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the next question. Reread lines 49–74. How does Prufrock describe himself and his life?

27. Analyzing 2-3 Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the answer. Despite correctness of dress, Prufrock sees himself as pathetic, self-conscious, and insecure; he feels he is one of the living dead because of inaction and indecision. INTERPRET What does Prufrocks description of his life and what he has known suggest about his self-image and the way he has conducted his life?

28. What, in your opinion, is Prufrocks overwhelming question? Why does he expect the woman to react in a certain way, and what does this suggest about his relationship with women? Analyzing 2-4 Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the answer. Prufrock debates whether to pose a great question. RECALL Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the next question. INTERPRET Reread lines 79–110. What does Prufrock debate with himself? The question could be a proposal or a question about lifes meaning. Fear and inarticulateness make him expect that the woman might deliberately misunderstand him.

29. What do lines 111–131 suggest about how Prufrock sees himself and his future? In your opinion, what does the poems final line mean? Analyzing 2-5 Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the answer. He is not a leading character like Hamlet but an attendant lord like the pompous Polonius. RECALL Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the next question. INTERPRET Reread lines 111–121. How does Prufrock characterize himself? He sees himself growing older and more pathetic. Though the mermaids voices attract his romantic side, his other self–imprisoned in a world of inaction and self-doubt–fears responding to them.

30. Analyzing 2-6 EVALUATE AND CONNECT Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the answer. In lines 15–22, Eliot compares the movements of the fog to those of a cat. In your opinion, how does this extended metaphor contribute to the meaning of the poem? Like Prufrock, a cat is silent, watchful, and often alone. The metaphor mirrors Prufrocks isolation and intensifies his despair.

31. Analyzing 2-7 EVALUATE AND CONNECT Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the answer. Prufrock says there will be time To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet. For what occasions do you prepare a face and why? You prepare a face to meet strangers, friends, or the public, which often differs from your face when alone.

32. Analyzing 2-8 EVALUATE AND CONNECT Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the answer. Do you think the title of the poem fits its content? Explain. Possible answer: Although Eliots love song is not conventional, the title fits because the poem is about a love song never sung.

33. Analyzing 2-9 EVALUATE AND CONNECT Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the answer. In what ways does the poem express Eliots belief that society had become spiritually and morally empty? Note the sordid street scenes, the emptiness of the women talking of Michelangelo, Prufrocks correct appearance but empty soul, the meaningless tea parties, and peoples reluctance to address great questions.

34. Analyzing 2-10 EVALUATE AND CONNECT Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the answer. Does Prufrock seem like a real person with real problems? Explain. Possible answers: No, Prufrock is an exaggeration of lifes dark side. Yes, his world-weariness and despair are familiar, a symbol of the decay of states, people, and religious faith.

35. Literary Elements 2-1 An allusion is a short reference to a person, a place, an event, or another work of literature. LITERARY ELEMENTS Writers use allusions to express an idea or to clarify its meaning. For example, in The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, Eliot includes an allusion to Michelangelo in order to indicate that the people discussing this great artist are well educated and from the middle or upper classes. The reader might even picture well- dressed women wandering about a room with a museum-like atmosphere. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information.

36. Literary Elements 2-2 LITERARY ELEMENTS Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the answer. To which biblical characters does Eliot refer in lines 82–83 and 94–95? Check the footnotes, if necessary. He refers to John the Baptist and Lazarus.

37. Literary Elements 2-3 LITERARY ELEMENTS Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the answer. In your opinion, why does he allude to these biblical characters? Prufrock contrasts their significance with his own insignificance.

38. Literary Elements 2-4 LITERARY ELEMENTS Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the answer. Choose one of the allusions in lines 82–83, 94–95, or 111–119, and explain how it contributes to the poems meaning. John the Baptist was a prophet; Lazarus, a man raised from the dead. Prufrock is unable to communicate, much less prophesy; far from being resurrected, he is one of the living dead. Prufrock suggests that he most closely resembles Polonius, a foolish attendant to the main characters of lifes drama.

39. Literature and Writing 2-1 Men and Women A major theme in Eliots poetry is the inability of a man and woman to communicate with each other. With a partner, look through The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock to find all the passages that explore this theme. Read over each passage carefully and discuss its meaning. Then, together, write two or three paragraphs explaining the theme of communication. Support your conclusions using details from the poem.

40. Grammar and Language Transparency 2-1

41. Grammar and Language Transparency 2-2 imperative imperative indicative indicative

42. Literary Elements Transparency 2-2 Eliot refers to death. Death is often personified in literature. Here the Eternal Footman holds the speakers coat because death waits for him, ready for the departure. The allusion attempts to create broad appeal by referring to the mortality that all humans must face, and it lends an epic, classical tone through the personification of death.