solved 1.How would you describe Prufrock? How does he attempt to

1.How would you describe Prufrock? How does he attempt to portray himself? What might he reveal about himself inadvertently?2. How does Prufrock seem to spend his time? Why does he keep insisting “there will be time”?3. The poem opens, “Let us go then, you and I.” Who do you think Prufrock addressing here? Who is “you”?4.What sorts of spaces does the poem take as its settings? How are they described?5. Eliot originally considered the title “Prufrock Among the Women” for this poem. What is Prufrock’s relationship to women? How does he describe them? How does he feel about them? 6. In the opening stanza, Prufrock declares that he will “lead you to an overwhelming question” but never articulates the actual question (line 10). Instead, he endlessly debates the wisdom of asking the question, repeating “Do I dare?” (lines 38, 45, 122) and “how should I presume?” (line 54, 61, 68) throughout the poem. What do you think this overwhelming question might be?7. Why do you think Eliot titled this poem “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”? In what sense is it a love song? Why is the title the only line in the poem in which the speaker’s name is mentioned?8. What is the effect of the opening stanza’s famous comparison of the city evening to “a patient etherised upon a table” (line 3)? Why might Prufrock use this simile9. Reread the poem and pay careful attention to its use of repetition. What words, phrases, and even whole stanzas are repeated? How does the poem create an effect of circling around an idea through repetition? 10. How does the poem’s deployment of repetition contribute to its theme of indecision and hesitancy? 11. How does time work in this poem? What events take place in the past? What events take place in the present? Which represent Prufrock’s plans for the future? How can you tell? 12. What kinds of physical descriptions of himself does Prufrock provide? In particular, how is he dressed? How does he seem to feel about his clothing and clothing choices?13. How does Prufrock describe other people, particularly women? What body parts are mentioned? Why do you think he focuses so much on parts rather than describing whole bodies or looks? 14. What is the significance of Prufrock’s claim that he should have been “a pair of ragged claws / Scuttling” (lines 73–74)? Why might a crab be a particularly symbolic creature as a stand-in for Prufrock? 15. When does Prufrock mention food and drink in the poem? What does tea, and the ritual of tea taking, in particular seem to signify here?16. Why does Prufrock mention mermaids at the end of the poem? How does he describe the sea? How does the sea compare to the cityscape and urban rooms he describes earlier in the poem? 17. Write a brief summary of “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock. Did you have difficulty locating concrete actions to summarize in the poem? How does the fact that the time sequence of the poem is so uncertain affect your ability to summarize it? Did you have difficulty deciding which events to emphasize and which to leave out?18. Short Response: Literary critics frequently suggest that Prufrock, as a character, serves as an embodiment of the disillusionment, impotence, and futility of the modern human condition. Reread the poem with this claim in mind and then do a short freewrite on the topic. What aspects of the poem lend themselves to this reading? Do you think Prufrock is supposed to be a representative for modern man?