Prufrock

Comparative Essay: The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock by T.S. Eliot and Afternoons and Coffee Spoons by The Crash Test Dummies

04.08.12

Most people would expect that all poetry should be close to the same thing if it were to have the same theme, but in fact, although there are many similarities, there can also be many differences in these poems. Upon comparison of The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock and Afternoons and Coffee Spoons, we see just this. These two poems seem similar because of their same theme of alienation but they differ when it comes to content and tone.

The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock and Afternoons and Coffee Spoons share the same theme of alienation. This is seen in the Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock in lines 73 – 74. Prufrock compares himself to a crab saying “I should have been a pair of ragged claws, scuttling across the floors of silent seas.” This metaphor shows alienation because crabs have crusty shells that live below sea level, representing Prufrock’s separation from society.   Afternoons and Coffee Spoons portrays this also, the narrator says in lines 7 – 10 “Times when the day is like a play by Sartre, when it seems a days bookburning’s in perfect order – I gave the doctor my descriptions, I tried to stick to my prescriptions.” The narrator has separated himself from society due to an illness. Also, in line 7, we see he is comparing his day to a “play by Sartre” Sartre’s most infamous play was “No Exit”, which is about the hell of humanity. Maybe the narrator doesn’t mind being separated from this type of hell.   Both characters in these poems display the theme alienation.

However, both poems lack similarity in tone. Although both poems theme is alienation, The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock’s tone is rather melancholy. This is demonstrated in the word choice when Eliot describes the setting in lines 4 – 9, he says “Let us go, though certain half-deserted streets, the muttering retreats, of restless nights in one-night...