Priscilla Grunauer Period 3 3-27-07 3. The evening in The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock is compared with “a patient etherized upon a table,” the “evening is spread out against the sky. ” T. S. Eliot has compared his lonely night to a patient who is under an anesthetic, completely numb to all that surrounds him. “The evening is spread out against the sky,” gives a very distinct image lending itself to another image; a patient spread upon an operating table completely subdued. . The obvious companion the speaker would like to be accompanied by this evening is a woman with little inhibitions, perhaps a person to kill? – A whore. The justifications defending this statement would first be the fact that the speaker would like his evening to be under some sort of influence, a substance that would produce a numbing effect – alcohol. The speaker goes on to say “restless nights in one-night cheap hotels,” hinting to a very obvious innuendo.
Perhaps reading too much into the sentence, however in line 8 the speaker speaks of restaurants that serve oysters; oysters have been rumored to sexually charge their consumers. The speaker compares the streets to a tedious argument with “insidious intent,” thus influencing the theory that the speaker would like to spend a night with a whore for of course there would be a bit of arguing as to where the couple is headed, and how dangerous the outcome may be. In the room the women come and go, Talking of Michelangelo,” this sentence could hint to a room solely used for sexual pleasure, for women come and go, and they speak of Michelangelo, believing the sound intelligent, trying to raise their status of society, they are “enlightened” but still nonetheless are whores. 22. In this setting, the most prevalent details the audience is given is the “yellow fog, yellow smoke” and how it is being personified as a lurking individual, peering into the windows, emitting the sense of some cryptic persona surrounding the night.
The season can be guessed by the reader that is October by the vivid detail, and it is stated in line 21 that it is in fact a “soft October night. ” 27. This line is so apparent in its meaning: “To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet,” the speaker is putting on a mask, preparing and fabricating a new face to hide his true nature, veiling his true self against other faces he will meet. However, the other “faces” could just as well be masks painted on by their disguisers; there is no truth in people and in their souls in this evening, it is a masquerade. 34.
The two most prevalent words repeated within this particular stanza would clearly be “Time,” “There will be,” and “Hundred. ” Time is a continuous theme within the stanza; the speaker is obviously conscious of an action he must carry out, but in an orderly fashion; there will be a “time” for everything, as if the speaker is waiting for the perfect moment to see his action through. The speaker perhaps believes in moments in time, as if there is a perfect “time” for everything. Time is not necessarily defined within this stanza in hours, minutes, seconds, but instead in moments.
