The Love Song of Alfred J Prufrock Blog

Throughout the piece, the subject experiences a variety of conflicts but the conflict most prominent is the one within himself. The speaker struggles as he straddles the line between two very different worlds, the classy world that he feels he should be in and the shady one he finds himself in. This conflict is the basis for all of the others in which he finds himself. The subject finds himself on a quest for love that he wishes to find in the upper class circle that he is societally involved with, however he finds himself falling back into his old patterns of the easy, drab life. On one hand, the subject tells himself "I grow old...I grow old" which speaks to the fact that he knows he is getting older and needs to become serious and settle down. On the other hand, he convinces himself that there is "time yet for a hundred decisions and for a hundred visions and revisions before the taking of toast and tea". He is justifying his indecision about life by saying that he has time before he must finally grow up. This main conflict is the flame behind all of the others. The subject would not be experiencing conflicts with the women alluded to in the poem if he was not struggling within himself to fit in. The subject would not be struggling with his society if he was not facing turmoil within himself as to where in it he belongs. The subject would not be battling time if he could stop struggling with indecision. The struggle that the subject faces with himself is one that consumes him, it fills his mind with racing thought and conflicting ideals. This sort of struggle is immensely relatable because the audience can think of times in their life when uncertainty surrounded them as they approached a crossroads.