Analysis of T.S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"

Though the title of Eliot's poem, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" leads the reader to believe it will be a sweet poem, the juxtaposition of the epigraph right after the title deeply contrasts the initial thought. It is from Dante's Inferno and explores the suffering and uncertainty in Prufrock. Translated, the epigraph is Guido de Montefeltro confessing his sins to Dante assuming that he, like all others, will not be able to escape …

…the floors of silent seas." He would rather be a crab, living at the bottom of the sea where no communication is needed. He could avoid people, but he would still be abnormal. A crab, unlike most creatures that walk, walks sideways instead of forwards or backwards. Also it spends its time at the bottom of the sea, crawling about just as he feels he is at the bottom of the human society and ranks.