Eliot paints the picture of an insecure man looking for his niche in society.
Prufrock has fallen in with the times, and places a lot of weight on social
status and class to determine his identity. He is ashamed of his personal
appearance and looks towards social advancement as a way to assure himself and
those around him of his worth and establish who he is. Throughout the poem the
reader comes to realize that Prufrock has actually all but given up on himself
and now sees his balding head and realizes that he has wasted his life striving
for an unattainable goal. The beginning of the poem is pre-empted by an excerpt
from Dante's Inferno which Eliot uses to begin his exploration of Prufrock's
self-consciousness. By inserting this quote, a parallel is created between
Prufrock and the speaker, Guido da Montefeltro, who is very aware of his
position in "hell" and his inability to escape his fate. Prufrock is
also very aware of his current status but doesn't realize until the end that he
is unable to rise above it. The issue of his fate leads Prufrock to an
"overwhelming question..."(10) which is never identified, asked, or
answered in the poem. This "question" is somehow associated with his
social status, but both its ambiguity and Prufrock's denial to even ask
"What is it?"(11) gives some insight into his state of internal
turmoil. Prufrock's dissatisfaction with his personal appearance is evidence of
an underlying lack of self-confidence. Not only is he unhappy with the way he
looks, having "To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet;" but
he is constantly afraid of what others will have to say about him: "(They
will say: 'How his hair is growing thin!')"(41) and "(... 'But how his
arms and legs are thin!')"(44). Prufrock's preoccupation with looks shows
how much he is caught up in the social scene and how much his identity is rooted
in what others think of him. Unfortunately, his lack of confidence isn't limited
to his looks. He's indecisive and unsuccessful in his attempts to communicate
with other people, repeating "visions and revisions"(33) and
"decisions and revisions..."(48). Eliot uses repetition here to
emphasize Prufrock's alterations in behavior to please those around him. He
wants to speak out and share his thoughts but doesn't have the courage saying,
"'Do I dare?' and, 'Do I dare?'"(38). Possibly, he's asking if he
should dare "and drop a question on your plate."(30) He wants to ask a
lady out but again he can't get up the nerve to take that step. He is a bit
melodramatic but he realizes the enormity of the odds stacked against him and he
drones, "Do I dare/ Disturb the universe?"(45-46). In this case Eliot
uses hyperbole to show the reader extent of Prufrock's insecurities. They are
his whole "universe." Once again, Eliot uses the device of ambiguity
to reflect the internal struggle in Prufrock and lead the reader to ask himself
or herself, "What is the 'overwhelming question' that Prufrock is
asking?" Unfortunately even Prufrock himself doesn't exactly have the
answer. His declaration that he isn't a prophet indicates Prufrock's view on his
position in society, which he is as confused about as everything else. He isn't
poor but he doesn't really fit into the upper class either. Eliot introduces the
idea of Prufrock being caught between the two classes in the very beginning of
the poem, when he juxtaposes the images of "restless nights in one-night
cheap hotels/ And sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells"(4-5) with the
women who "come and go Talking of Michelangelo."(13-14). These two
images represent two completely different ways of life. The first image is of a
dingy lifestyle - living among the "half-deserted streets"(4) while
the second is the lifestyle that Prufrock longs to be associated with. It is
much like the image of Michelangelo's painting on the ceiling of the Sistine
chapel where Adam is reaching out to touch God's finger but can't quite reach.
While Prufrock doesn't belong to either of these two classes completely, he does
have characteristics of both. He claims to be "Full of high sentence; but a
bit obtuse" while "At times, indeed, almost ridiculous"(117-118).
Being the outsider that he is, Prufrock will not be accepted by either class;
even though he can clearly make the distinction between the two and recognize
their members: "I know the voices dying with a dying fall/ Beneath the
music from a farther room."(52-53). This Shakespearean suggests that
Prufrock is just out of reach of the group of people that he wishes to be
associated with in life and love, but most likely his feelings of insignificance
prevent him from truly associating with anyone at all. He sees himself as a
unique "specimen" of nature, in a class all by himself - "And
when I am formulated, sprawling on a pin/ When I am pinned and wriggling on the
wall,"(57-58). This image suggests that not only is he an object for
speculation, but he is trapped in that role; a situation which he is obviously
unhappy with but has no idea how to change. He asks himself, "Then how
should I begin"(59). At this point in the poem, Prufrock is beginning to
feel especially detached from society and burdened by his awareness of it. He
thinks "I should have been a pair of ragged claws/ Scuttling across the
floors of silent seas." Eliot not only uses imagery here to create a
picture of a headless crab scuttling around at the bottom of the ocean, but he
uses the form of the poem itself to help emphasize his point here. The head is
detached from the crab, and the lines are detached from the poem in their own
stanza, much like Prufrock wishes his self-consciousness would just
"detach" itself. This concept is echoed in the very next stanza when
he says, "Though I have seen my head (grown slightly bald) brought in/ upon
a platter,"(83), an allusion to the beheading of John the Baptist. These
two headless images represent Prufrock's desire to be rid of his
self-consciousness (obviously in his head) and possibly some suicidal tendencies
which can be tied into just about all of the ambiguous questions Prufrock asks
of himself throughout the poem. Prufrock's series of questions can also be tied
into his unsuccessful attempts at relationships with women. His insecurities
keep him from doing the things he wants to do. He feels inadequate and unable to
express his true feelings to women, "Should I, after tea and cakes and
ices,/ Have the strength to force the moment to its crisis?"(79-80). He
knows what he wants to say, but doesn't have the confidence or mental capacity
to put his feelings into words. He compares himself to Hamlet, "No! I am
not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be;"(111), who, in contrast, was able
to express his feelings very successfully to his lover, an ability which
Prufrock is envious of, characterized by his emphatic "No!" He is also
second-guessing himself constantly throughout the poem: "Do I
dare?"(38), "So how should I presume?"(54) and "Then how
should I begin"(59) are all questions Prufrock repeats to himself during
his monologue. His feelings of inadequacy toward women are not only related to
his appearance and lack of mental strength, but his lower social status.
Throughout the poem, Prufrock struggles with the concept of time. He tries to
keep reassuring himself that "indeed there will be time"(23), which
suggests that Prufrock fears that he will in fact not have time for love before
the prime of his life is over. His obsession with the passage of time is
characterized by its repetition throughout the poem, especially near the
beginning. Eliot uses time as a tool to shape Prufrock's complicated, disturbed
psyche into the form of a mid-life crisis. Prufrock keeps assuring himself that,
"indeed, there will be time" to raise himself socially and thus
overcome his insecurities and establish his identity. However, his insecurities
are tied in with his aging and the passage of time, so he is truly a tragic,
doomed character. This is not to say, however, that Prufrock is unaware of the
connection between time, his aging, and his unsuccessful attempt at a social
life. On the contrary, he claims that he's "measured out his life with
coffee spoons,"(51) a true testament to the self-proclaimed insignificance
of his life. Prufrock claims that "I have known them all already, known
them all"(49) referring to the "evenings, mornings, and
afternoons"(50) of his life which he has seen pass by, insignificantly and
illustrates both his failure with and fear of women. Prufrock even dreams of
gaining knowledge from the afterlife on how to deal with women saying, "I
am Lazarus, come from the dead,/ Come back to tell you all, I shall tell you
all."(94-95) Unfortunately for Prufrock, he pessimistically assumes that
even if his dream came true, he still wouldn't know what to tell them all, or
how. Eliot doesn't give any sense of hope for Prufrock in the poem. He remains a
doomed character until the very end. Prufrock even admits that he has "seen
the moment of my greatness flicker,"(84) He is a victim of time and natural
selection. In the end Prufrock realizes that the life he dreams of is out of his
reach. He still imagines attaining his desired position but realizes that he
isn't recognized in that world. "I do not think that they will sing to
me." (125) He is in effect a man with no place in society and no identity.
His "overwhelming question" remains unanswered and he can only dream
about being part of that society he idolizes, "Till human voices wake us,
and we drown." (131)