Prufrock's Insecurities

J. Alfred Prufrock and His Insecurities Born in America, T.S. Eliot’s relocation to Britain was the first sign of his identity crisis. Eliot was obsessed with anything British, and he also had an internal religious conflict. “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” is Eliot’s way to express his self through a different character. Eliot uses stream of consciousness to put the reader in Prufrock’s position. The fragmented thoughts are used …

…the world around him. He is very uncomfortable and self-conscious when he is around the people of his own class, but he is also very unsure of himself when it comes to leaving it for another society. He is only comfortable with his own insecurities. The poem never says whether Prufrock ever did anything about these feelings. At the end, the reader is led to believe that he didn’t, that maybe he “drowned” instead.