Questions about Eliot's Poem Answered (Coursework Sample)

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Questions about Eliot’s Poem Answered
List some character/personality traits of Mr. Prufrock as demonstrated in the poem.
1.Insecure 2.Vain 3.Lustful 4.Imaginative 5. Introverted 6.Self-doubting 7.Observant 8.Inactive
The Tuscan epigraph from Dante’s Inferno that opens the poem (translation on page 607) is not something to be pass over. It provides an important insight into the attitude/psychology with which Mr. Prufrock is speaking. How, then, are we to receive what Mr. Prufrock is saying?
The epigraph says that if you were to go back to earth (from the hell here) I will not utter a word to you. However, nobody has ever done that before so I can tell you of the things I have done. The epigraph says scores about the poem that is about to come. Firstly it is something that has never been said, never been heard, never been known. Eliot emphasizes that the work is new. There is more. The details that are to come are shameful and the person would never ever share it with anyone. This means the poem is some very deep and shameful about the condition of the aspiring poet, Prufrock. We shall discover in the poem is that Prufrock is wracked by his struggles to say what he means to say. And the blame of this does not entirely fall on him. It is also a crisis of the times that he has been forced to live in.
Mr. Prufrock is speaking to someone in particular—at least until the poem’s final stanza? To whom? Given the poem’s modernist credentials, what is the metaphorical significance of this interaction? Consider Prufrock’s apparent age—as well as the tell-tale phrases "certain half-deserted streets," "one-night cheap hotels," and "sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells" in the first stanza (page 604).
All poetry is the poet speaking to the reader. The mode of communication is the most direct in poetry. That said, Eliot’s incorporation of the pronouns "you" and "I" right at the beginning of the poem creates an intimacy between the poet and the reader. The poem is not didactic, not descriptive and not even narratorial. It is an intimate monologue. And where is the monologue taking place? In streets that are half-deserted, in cheap hotels where singular nights are spent (probably fornicating), amidst tedious arguments – places that evoke a strong sense of intimacy. This intimacy is crucial because Prufrock is way too sensitive and introverted to express things that he wants to express.
How is Mr. Prufrock’s apparent sexism related to his old-fashioned romanticism?
Prufrock’s sexism is very apparent indeed. His old-fashioned romanticism is clearer. He compares himself with Prince Hamlet, he says that the Eternal footman is taking his coat and that he is some strange kind of an all-knowing person. Romantic heroism is all over his mind. This expresses the hangover that literature of the long gone past still remains in the public consciousness. Sexism is expressed through the imagery of a cat on the roofs and through the sight of hands in light. The response of Prufrock to both Sexism and romanticism is negative.
There is clearly a change in scope and voice in the poem’s final stanza. To wh...