Short Note on the Title of the Poem “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”
The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock is a notable literary work by T. S. Eliot. A complete discussion of this literary work is given, which will help you enhance your literary skills and prepare for the exam. Read the Main texts, Key info, Summary, Themes, Characters, Literary devices, Quotations, Notes, to various questions of The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.
Answer
Short Note on the Title
Ostensibly, the title seems to be a typical love story, but actually, it is a sarcastic story of Prufrock’s mental doubts regarding love. The title ironically shows the speaker’s cowardly nature in making a love proposal to his ladylove. The speaker, Prufrock, is a middle-aged bald man who pretends to be a fashionable modern man. He loves women but dares not to propose to them for his indecisiveness. He is the true portrait of a modern man from urban society. The title analyses the disconnect between Prufrock’s desire for love and his inability to express it conventionally and romantically. It indicates his search for love’s ironic and unfulfilled nature, as the poem is far from a traditional love song. Besides, this is not just any love song but the interior monologue of the speaker, J. Alfred Prufrock. Overall, the title highlights the poem’s central themes of alienation, self-examination, and the tension between internal desires and exterior societal anticipations.