New and Historical Criticism of “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” Anonymous 12th Grade

Because a shift to modernity can result in enormous, but detrimental, social change, T. S. Eliot’s dramatic monologue, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”, criticizes the changing nature of society, characterized by the abandonment of traditional morality, through descriptions of this differing society and an inability to communicate properly with people and act on desires. This piece of work can be analyzed through two important lenses: new and historical criticism. While historical criticism investigates the origins of texts in order to understand the influences and thoughts of an author, new criticism emphasizes the close reading of text, particularly of poetry, to discover how a work of literature can function as a self-contained object. However, historical criticism is more valuable to gain information about a piece, as it reveals the text’s meaning in its original context through the historical and social contexts in which they developed.

The main character of the poem, Alfred Prufrock, is a man often paralyzed his overwhelming anxiety about the possibility of getting things wrong or making the wrong decision. As a result, his judgement rarely leads to any form of decision making or action. However, in an ironic matter,...