Prufrock Flashback

Since we recently (re)read this poem I looked it up on my other PC and found this gem (or piece of trash) from Mrs. Byrne's class.

Eric Jackson

J. Alfred Prufrock Stanza Number Three

Eliot uses language like “time for you and time for me” to giving the reader a sense that they will have time to achieve their goal. Then “and time yet for a hundred indecisions and for a hundred visions and revisions” to show the type of thought Prufrock takes when going through everyday life on his quest for love.

This stanza tells us not the general information but a deeper description of the man. Not directly described like in some of the other paragraphs but indirectly by telling the audience about his thought process and actions. It conveys a message of insecurity and to pity this old man for wasting his life unable to find someone to love him back.

Before the quote starts the lines talk about the different times for different things like the time to “murder and create”. This paragraph as a whole starting with “and indeed there will be time” and ending with from the selected quote “before taking the toast and tea”. Is the first very serious and detailed information we get about the interior of Prufrock not just basic phenotypically characteristics.

Prufrock at this point in the poem seems to be constantly changing his mind about the little steps he needs to take to get to his main goal. These steps are tripping him up and sometimes making him stumble so he tries to navigate them the best he can. This is like an old film showing us a series of snapshots into his life not a clear fluid motion picture. There are some photos that seem to be missing and which need to be filled in with mental suppositions.

Following this quote is the one about the women moving around the room speaking of Michelangelo. Then another large stanza showing us Prufrock’s thoughts and him asking himself “do I dare?” constantly in his head. Also it continues to give a strange feeling of how everybody judged him and how he seemed to want to disappear entirely. Yet he must stay to get the love he wants to get before he dies.

The last sentences of the fourth stanza some up the nearby paragraphs on how he feels about himself, a sense of unconquerable self-fear preventing him from getting to meet and talk to a nice girl. And the other side is worrying about the past instead of the future that distracts him from truly considering the possibilities of what he can do before death comes for him.

Lastly the line “before taking the toast and tea” most likely refers to going out to meet new people over tea back then instead of coffee. Tea time was probably in the afternoon around four which if you were retired would be a good time to meet.