The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

One interpretation of the poem’s “you” considers this figure as another aspect of Prufrock’s own person—a different side of himself that he constantly engages in dialogue. The back-and-forth conversational rumination suggests anxiety and fragmentation of the self, and the obsessive worrying over his “hundred indecisions” (Line 32) highlight the psychological trauma he suffers.

Prufrock’s self-doubt and anxiety fracture his character; rather than decisively acting on anything, he spirals into a dialogue of unanswered questions with himself, becoming trapped in inaction, and despairing that he will never achieve meaning. His fractured character echoes Eliot’s perspective on the state of modern humans and the impact of the social and cultural world of the early 20th century. Prufrock operates in an increasingly isolated world where humans lack connection. He is hung up on trivialities and his inability to move past this paralyzes him and prevents him from achieving a unified sense of self. He longs to be the kind of person who can "force the moment to its crisis” (Line 80), but at every turn, he is consumed by fear and indecision. Eliot speaks to the profound effect this has on the consciousness of modern man: Prufrock is a failure, and as such, the poem results in his death.