The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T. S. Eliot - Literary Analysis Essay

Introduction

Unrequited love is love that is not openly known or felt as such by the beloved. This kind of love is not reciprocated because the beloved may/is not aware of the romantic feelings of the admirer or may willingly fail to reciprocate the love. In Joyce's short story "Araby" and Eliot's "The love song of J. Alfred Prufrock, the characters (males) in both texts are experiencing unrequited love. They are both fall in love with certain females; but fail to express their true feelings hence there love is not reciprocated. The characters face different issues, involved in different but difficult situations, are of different age group but both end up not revealing their romantic emotions to their beloved. This essay will identify the major differences between the two texts based on the meaning of unrequited love. However, its argument focus on supporting the meaning of love brought to light by Eliot's poem. This is because the character in the text is an old experienced man who is very much in love but his insecurities and negative thoughts hinder him from talking to or expressing his romantic feelings to his beloved. According to the poem, unrequited love involves understanding and sticking with the feeling of love no matter the challenges but still never expressing them to ones beloved and never reciprocated.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Order now

Plots of the Texts

In Eliot's poem, the character's name is Prufrock who is an old, lonely and pessimistic man who is in love with a certain high class and respected woman but is so engulfed with his own miserable and unnoticeable existence. Prufrock is in love with a lady who attributes herself as self-worth, confident, intelligent and outgoing person. However, Prufrock is neither of these things. He often sees himself as having no worth, unnoticeable and old which serves as reasons not to tell the lady his feelings. He is afraid of even going to a tea party with her and the doubts that fill his mind are about how she will not notice him, he will be rejected and mocked by her and her friends. His actions of yearning and longing for the woman are simply overcome by his doubtful thoughts and cowardice. This means that the woman whom Prufrock deeply loves is even neither aware of his feelings nor his presence because he lacks the guts to face her and his feelings hence being overwhelmed by his pathetic life and failures in life.

On the other hand, Joyce's story "Araby", the character is a young boy who is infatuated with his friend's sister and is convinced that he loves her. He thinks of her when at home, in school and asleep; basically she is always in his mind. When the girl speaks to him for the first time, he seems to take the conversation out of context and make it a quest to make her happy and his lover. However, when he goes on the quest he fails but realizes how vain the whole process has been and becomes angry with himself; which means his infatuation stops. From these texts, Eliot's poem gives a clearer meaning of unrequited love because the plot does not only involve the feelings Prufrock is experiencing, but also the problems hindering him from approaching and professing his love for the woman.

Description of the Characters

The character on Eliot's poem is a grown-up man who is aware and afraid of the consequences of loving and expressing love to a person and being rejected. He has experienced so much in his lifetime and has learned a lot of lessons on the way. He is an old single man with intense yearning and desire for a certain woman but is sucked in his own personal insecurities that hinder him from facing and professing his love for her. Prufrock asks himself, "Do I Dare? Do I Dare?" which means that he has gone through a similar situation before and is scared of experiencing the same consequences again.

In Joyce's text, the young boy is most likely to be in his adolescent stage and therefore experiencing a lot of emotional imbalance. The boy has not experienced love before and therefore is not even sure whether its love or infatuation. However, the emotions he is feeling are all about his friend's sister and is willing to do anything to show her his love. However, when he goes to the bazaar to buy her a present since she could not attend the Araby, he sees older people flirting and after comparing his conversation with Mangan's sister and their conversation, he realized that he is not really in love but infatuated. This makes him give up early as a result of his anger and frustration. By comparing the two characters, Eliot's character gives a deeper meaning of unrequited love because of the reasons he gives for not talking or professing his love to the woman as well as his own experience in life. Prufrock considers himself as old, unnoticeable, unworthy, having an unimpressive body (thin arms, legs and hair), shy etc. which are all flaws that act as a shield to protect his introvert personality and insecurities.

Description of the Surrounding Situations

Both texts describe characters as being different situations but similar endings. Nevertheless, the situations and the experiences basically provide a better meaning and definition of unrequited love. The conditions surrounding Eliot's poem give a better description of unrequited love because they involve adults who have a lot of knowledge and experience of love. Prufrock is in love with an intelligent, confident and socially experienced woman; which means that she must have experienced love at one point in her life. This is a priced woman who is too fashionable and young for Prufrock. However, despite the many differences between them, Prufrock fall in love with but is afraid of facing her or even expressing his love to her. He is overwhelmed by the challenges of his own personality and the negative thoughts about rejection and doubt that are overcrowding his mind. He does not even dare to talk to her hence being left lonely as he feared.

In Joyce's story, the boy young and in school who thinks he has fallen in love with a girl in school as well. The story portrays them as teenagers and the boy is being overwhelmed by his adolescent emotions which cause confusion and a lot of fantasies. The situation here involves children with no real experience for love and no idea how to handle, express or explain various emotions that their bodies are discovering and experiencing. The young boy, therefore, thinks he is in love with his friend's sister who does not even have a clue of what he is feeling. The story's various characters help the boy to grow up and towards the end, the boy realizes that he was just infatuated and not really in love which leads him to be frustrated and angry with himself; he also seems to lose the feeling of love. This brings out the fact that the boy is more mature when he discovers the difference between love and infatuation. The best meaning of unrequited love is evident in Eliot's poem because the situation discussed involves mature adults with a better meaning an understanding of love itself. The differences between Prufrock and his beloved are deeper and serious than those of the characters in Joyce's story. Eliot's poem gives a deeper illustration and meaning of Prufrock feelings of love and the issues hindering him from professing his love for his beloved because he still remains in love.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Eliot's poem provides a clear meaning of unrequited love because its plot, characters, and conditions of the whole poem support the idea of unrequited love. Eliot describes Prufrock as a very insecure old man who is deeply in love with a young woman who possesses completely different attributes to his own. Prufrock says that he has lived long and experienced a lot in his life and therefore cannot dare face or profess his love for the woman. She is intelligent (talking of Michelangelo), very social (participates in parties with her friends), self-aware and self-worth. In his thoughts, Prufrock has desired and yearned for this woman for so long but knows that she will only tempt and tease him without paying any attention to him at all. With these major differences, Prufrock fails to talk or profess his love to the woman which leaves him meaningless and unimportant just like always. Therefore, his own thoughts take a toll on him leading to his exact fear, being alone and lonely but still in love. He does not give up the feeling of love; holds on it even when he knows that he will die soon due to his old age. Thus, a clear and logical meaning of unrequited love is more clearly evidenced by Eliot's "The love song of J. Alfred Prufrock" than in Joyce's "Araby".