The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

Poetry | T. S. Eliot

How is “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” an interior monologue?

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How is The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock an interior monologue NU An interior monologue is a narrative technique that reveals a character s unspoken thoughts and feelings The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock is not a direct story but an interior monologue T S Eliot presents Prufrock s private thoughts fears and hesitations His mind speaks openly through fragmented ideas Let us see this Private Thoughts Prufrock shares his secret feelings with the reader throughout the poem He says Do I dare disturb the universe Such questions show his inner conflict The voice comes from his mind not from external action Stream of Consciousness The poem flows freely like a mental stream Ideas appear suddenly and shift quickly The following line shows deep memory I have measured out my life with coffee spoons This free style reflects his mental wandering Self-Doubt and Fear Prufrock s mind is

full of fear He worries about baldness thin arms and rejection He repeatedly questions How should I presume This line shows his broken self-confidence These hesitations mark the poem as an instance of inner speech Fragmented Images The poem uses images of fog sea and mermaids These pictures come from Prufrock s imagination They connect loosely like thoughts in a nervous mind The structure matches his restless and anxious inner voice In short the poem is an interior monologue because it records Prufrock s private voice His self-doubt fragmented images and mental flow reveal the modern mind Eliot makes readers hear the inner conflict of a lonely man

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