Jadon Routley

The Love Song of Alfred Prufrock: Taking the Love out of Song A tragedy in a poem is usually characterized as an event that has a tragic or unhappy ending. They generally are used to teach morals or lessons. T.S. Eliot’s, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”, is considered a tragedy because of the way Eliot uses four different writing styles: word choice, figurative language, images, and biblical allusions. Using these styles, Eliot acknowledges the tragic endeavor of single, reclusive, procrastinating men. One of the main ways that tragedy is shown in through word choice. “In a minute there is time For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.”(47-48). Prufrock was procrastinating to fix his loneliness. Instead of getting out of his shell, he just said “in a minute”. It’s like when a parent asks you to do something, and you don’t want to, so you say “In a Minute!” Prufrock didn’t want to become social or subordinate. He knows that it won’t take long to change, but he doesn’t want to. He seems to want to change, just not right now. He will do it “in a minute”, until he runs out of time to change. One of the big words here is revisions. Prufrock might be dawdling his life away, instead of revising it to become a better, more interactive human being. Eliot proposes that Prufrock is wasting his life one minute at a time. Eliot uses figurative language, also, to show the tragedy. He compares Prufrock to an insect pinned on Show More Related