The Crisis Of The Self: Eliot’s Personae Prufrock And Geronition

The Crisis Of The Self: Eliot’s Personae Prufrock And Geronition

The title of the poems “The Love Song of J.Alfred Prufrock” and “Geroniton” present the crisis of the self. In the poem “The Love Song of J.Alfred Prufrock”, the meaning of the name of the title divides the individual. The name Prufrock can be dividing in two parts. Pru which can be term as Professor, it indicates individual as an intellectual, serious and prudent. The second part of the name Prufrock is Frock which signifies individual as a non-serious and non-intellectual. The difference between the two parts of the name of the title shows the crisis of the self. In the poem “Geronition”, the title is translation of the Greek word for little old man. In the poem “Geronition”, Eliot does not provide a particular name of the individual. This provides the crisis of the self in the poem “Geronition”.  My essay deals with notion of the crisis of the self and analyzes it.

              The narrator of the poem “The Love Song of J.Alfred Prufrock” gives an identity to himself through the tittle. The name comes from Prufrock-Littau, a furniture company which advertised in St. Louis Missouri where T.S. Eliot was born. The use of “love song” in the title suggests the utterance of the narrator to himself. The use of “love song” in the title is significant in itself. Maud Elltrar suggests the poem “The Love Song of J.Alfred Prufrock” as a love letter without receiver address which returned to the center.

                  Frances Dickey in Prufrock and Other Observations: A Walking Tour, A companion to T.S. Eliot edited by David E. Chinitz, Willey Blackwell publication argues on the opening lines of the poem “The love song of J. Alfred Prufrock”.

                                      Let us go then, you and I,

                                      When the evening is spread out against the sky

            Like a patient etherized upon a table

Dickey raises questions on the opening lines of the poem “The love song of J. Alfred Prufrock”.  First, to whom does Prufrock speak? The opening lines of the poem indicate a riddle.

             The use of “you and I” is an ambiguity of the poem. “You” is a submerge part of himself. The submergence of the self suggests the crisis of the self. Monologue suggests the speaking of one person but the narrator of the poem “The Love Song Of J.Alfred Prufrock” talks to himself. The poem “The Love Song of J.Alfred Prufrock” is an interior monologue. In the beginning of the poem “The Love Song of J.Alfred Prufrock”, we can notice the crisis of the self. The narrator tries to create himself. This act of the narrator indicates the “crisis of the language”.  The poem “The Love Song of J.Alfred Prufrock” is an imaginary journey. “I” and “you” pronounces as counterpart pronouns. This counterpart hints the “crisis of relationship. 

             The epigraph of the poem “The Love Song of J.Alfred Prufrock” suggests the parallel between the hell and modern metropolis life. The street of the city is the landscape of narrator’s mind. “Restless nights in one night cheap hotels” also suggest the notion of the city. Streets are the images of the mind of narrator.

“To lead you to an overwhelming question…..” (Line 10)

The narrator wants to articulate a question but he does not articulate question. This act suggests the notion of a modern poem.

In the lines thirteen and fourteen of the poem “The Love Song of J.Alfred Prufrock”, the narrator turns to the bourgeoisie world, high class society where woman talks about the paintings. The difference between the classes is suggested by the cheaper hotels and Michelangelo. 

            The image of the fog is significant. It has multiple meanings. The fog suggests the shadow which does not indicate a clear vision. The use of “fog” and “smoke” hints the suffocation of the narrator. The sense of alienation comes from the “fog”.  This alienation indicates the crisis of the self. There is no any connection between him and fog.

           The use of “time” in lines between thirty three and thirty five of the poem “The Love Song of J.Alfred Prufrock” is significant. The use of “time” eight times builds the expected climate. At the least of the passage, “taking of a toast and tea” suggests the undercutting from the expected climate. This is something trivial and everyday occurrence. The projection of everyday occurrence also indicates the creating of the self and the crisis of the self.

          The technic of de-doublement is significant in the poem “The Love Song of J.Alfred Prufrock”. The narrator mocks himself. He sees himself from the outside. Then, the individual becomes an object. The split of self comes to the play. The splitting of self also provides the proof of the crisis of the self.

          In the poem “The Love Song of J.Alfred Prufrock”, the narrator creates himself and demolishes the self.  The narrator does not criticize only woman but he criticizes himself also in the notion of modern world.

          “I have known” signifies the notion of insider. There is also a fragmentation. The figure of speech is synecdoche. “The eyes” hints the gaze of other.  There is also lack of understanding. As I have earlier, the fog and other natural phenomena suggest the notion of alienation. The alienation eludes the understanding the sense of imagery. It is the gaze which fixes out in a particular form without any sense of understanding. The narrator of the poem “The Love Song of J.Alfred Prufrock” gets remorselessness through the gaze. The negotiating of the self is the process of creating the self. When the narrator says about the shadows then he talks about nothingness. He creates an identity of himself. The creating and de-creating of the self provides the proof for the crisis of the self

                The name of the volume in which the poem “The Love Song of J.Alfred Prufrock” comes “Prufrock and other observation” is significant. The observation signifies the detachment of self as a specter through Prufrock.

In the words of Elisabeth Schneider, the poem works as follows - 

The Love Song is more than a retreat from love, however; it is the portrait of a man in Hell, though until this truth is clearly realized, the hell appears to be merely the trivial one of the self-conscious individual in a sterile society. (Prufrock and After: The Theme of Change, published by  Modern Language Association, PMLA, Vol. 87, No. 5 (Oct., 1972), pp. 1103-1118

 Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/461187)

              The individually view sets the narrator apart from the world. This constitutes the alienation from the world of bourgeoisie and the world of working class. T.S. Eliot provides the social condition of the self in the poem “The Love Song of J.Alfred Prufrock”.

“O lonely man in shirt sleeves, leaning out of windows?” (Line 72)

                 In the poem “The Love Song of J.Alfred Prufrock”, Prufrock suggests the alienation of man in the crowd of the society. There is lack of communication. It suggests the image of a Raymond William’s un-knowable community. The narrator of the poem “The Love Song of J.Alfred Prufrock” mocks himself again. The mocking himself of the narrator imply the crisis of the self.

In the poem “Geronition”, T.S. Eliot uses the blurred identity. In the words of Edward Brunner, the description of the identity of narrator is generic name.

The poem’s ambiguity begins with Gerontion’s blurred identity. Just who he is,

Where he stands, what he represents, and why he is known only generically (the

Title translates from ancient Greek as “little old man”) are ongoing problems. (“‘Gerontion ‘: The Mind of Postwar Europe and the Mind(s) of Eliot

Edward Brunner, A companion to T.S. Eliot edited by David E. Chinitz, Willey Blackwell publication page no 146”)

  

In the poem “Geronition”, T.S. Eliot uses a generic name for actual person. The monologue of the poem “Geronition” does not show “I”. It hints the denial of identity. The denial of identity suggests the crisis of the self. The title of the poem “Geronition” suggests the loss of the self but narrator uses “I” to hints that he has not lost “self”.

According to Edward Brunner, the description of the house is-

The metaphor of a “house” occupied by temporary inhabitants, overseen by a figure of stereotypical malfeasance (the antipathetic figure of the Jew associated with the immigrant, the cosmopolitan), evokes not only architecture but genealogy, suggesting that the intellectual lineage

Of Europe is being undone.  .( “ ‘Gerontion ‘ : The Mind of Postwar Europe and the Mind(s) of Eliot Edward Brunner, A companion to T.S. Eliot edited by David E. Chinitz, Willey Blackwell publication page no 146”)         

 The house is also a symbol of “Geronition” himself. The house would collapse because it has cracks which he had built. The personification of the house as “self” of the narrator also suggests the crisis of the self.

               In the line forty of the poem “Geronition”, the use of “believe” suggests the idea that the narrator has lost his belief.

“Are fathered by our heroism virtues

Are forced upon us by our important crimes

There tears are shaken from the wrath bearing tree”   (line 45-47, “Geronition”)

       In these lines, the narrator of the poem “Geronition” blames history and he goes to the “tree of knowledge”. The narrator of the poem “Geronition” begins as blaming himself. The blaming of himself and history provides the vision for the crisis of the self.   

The meaning of “devouring” is destroying. The narrator of the poem “Geronition” has not stopped thinking. His thought process continues as a flow.

                      “Not reached conclusion” suggests that the narrator of the poem “Geronition”   is not dead yet. The narrator of the poem “Geronition” is alive. The confusion between alive and dead “self” of the narrator lights the crisis of the self. 

                        The poem “Geronition” projects narrator’s life as a book which can read by boy. The narrator of the poem “Geronition” exposes himself in a form of masks but he bears it as to face back to the truth. The illusion of the backward devil is Inferno. The narrator of the poem “Geronition” says that he is not prompted by backward devils.

                    The narrator of the poem “Geronition” says honestly that he has lost passion. It means love for woman. He has lost sight or smell because he has lost his senses. The loss of senses hints the crisis of the self.

The poems “The love songs of J.Alfred Prufrock” and “Geronition” deal with the crises of the self. The “self” of Eliot is significant in his poems. 

                                                                 Work cited

1.      Eliot, T.S. “The love song of J Alfred Prufrock”, “Prufrock and other observation”

2.      Eliot, T.S. “Geronition”

3.       The Cambridge companion to T.S. Eliot, edited by A. David Moody, Cambridge university press 1994

4.      A companion to T.S. Eliot, edited by David E. Chinitz, Blackwell publication 2009

5.    Prufrock and After: The Theme of Change, published by  Modern Language Association, PMLA, Vol. 87, No. 5 (Oct., 1972), pp. 1103-1118

           Stable URL:http://www.jstor.org/stable/461187)