The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

This poem goes back and forth, constantly pointing out that J. Alfred Prufrock simply can't make up his mind. He is very indecisive about things and I can completely relate because lately with college applications and everything, I feel like my peers and I have been pretty indecisive as well. Time plays a roll in this play because he knows he has to do something, yet he keeps putting it off. He knows time is running out and it seems like he's scared or self conscious of doing what he's talking about. He seems to be focusing a lot on the "now" of life instead of the future or past. There's an allusion to Hamlet in this poem. T.S. Eliot added this to prove how Prufrock is so indecisive. Almost everyone knows the story of Hamlet and how he was so indecisive, going back and forth whether to kill Claudius or not. J. Alfred Prufrock has the same mindset as Hamlet and by alluding Hamlet to this poem, it gives you a single mindset of the way Prufrock is thinking. For example, Prufrock didn't know whether to eat a peach or to part his hair. Eliot uses a variety of figurative language in this poem. One that stands out to me is the imagery. Eliot uses the key word "yellow" at the beginning of several stanzas. He talks about yellow fog and yellow smoke more than once throughout the poem. For one, yellow isn't a color of happiness. For two, fog and smoke isn't any sort of happy either. This usage of imagery sets up an understanding for the reader that J. Alfred Prufrock isn't very happy. He's actually quite self conscious and is hard on himself when he really shouldn't be.