T.S Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"

This poem is one of the longer and more complex works we have studied.  The poem is narrated by J. Alfred Prufrock and uses dramatic monologue to express what he feels and believes as he takes a walk down the city streets. The destination isn't known or stated, as the following lines expresses: "Oh, do not ask, 'What is it?'/ Let us go and make our visit." (lines 11-12). The excerpt that is found beneath the title of the poem is from Dante’s Inferno, which is a story about the journey of a man as he traveled through the different levels of hell. It is rather ironic that the title of the poem states that perhaps this could be a poem on romance when the excerpt is taken from such a contrasting piece of literature. Also, the reader is lead to believe that Prufrock is comparing love to hell. Alfred J. Prufrock is an extremely critical individual, especially towards himself. The line “With a bald spot in the middle of my hair/ (They will say: ‘How his hair is growing thin!’/ (lines 40-41) provide evidence of his criticism, more so about himself and his opinion of his thinning hair.  It is as if he does not feel adequate enough, especially in the following lines: “In the room the women come and go/ talking of Michelangelo.” (lines 13-14). These lines show that he perhaps wishes he could talk to such women, but he feels intimidated by their topic and he doesn’t feel that he is worthy of their attention.