Superficial Standards in T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” Brenna Von den Benken College

In concert with the Modernism movement of literature in the early decades of the 20th century, T. S. Eliot was a British writer whose works functioned as social commentary. In reaction to the superfluous and lush styles of preceding Victorian and Romantic literature, Eliot challenged traditional writing techniques and subjects with a more experimental approach. Eliot was greatly influenced by American writer, Ezra Pound, whose focus on imagistic writing inspired much of Eliot’s visually-charged works.

Eliot’s modernist poem, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” illustrates the trivial pursuits of a superficial society. Prufrock, the speaker, invites the reader on a journey through a modern city in which he contemplates social anxieties. Additionally, Prufrock reveals his personal anxieties that have emerged from frivolous societal standards. Throughout the poem, such petty concerns are depicted by images and scenes of shallow human interactions throughout the city. Specifically, Prufrock reveals his own vain insecurities as he examines images of masculinity and beauty within various social settings. In these various scenes, Prufrock considers the female idea of masculinity as normative standards of desirability. This notion...