Prufrock's Pride example essay topic

"And the Devil did grin, for his darling sin is pride that apes humility" (Coleridge). Pride effects everyone and everything. It effects the way that we live, the way that we read and the way that we go about things. It hinders people and events. T.S. Eliot seems to have some experience with this word in context. In his two poems, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" and "The Journey of the Magi", there seems to be strong senses of pride and regret of an unfulfilled life. They each make a tour through points in their lives, which seem to have been hard times.

Pride puts a bad outlook on life, just like it says in the quote by Coleridge. It is a big problem that drapes over the heads of human kind and seems to be a big thing in the eyes of the speakers in the poems. It is a hard thing to get past and it hurts you very easily. If you live your life in fear, it may end before you can do what you wanted to do with your life.

If Eliot's poems are doing anything, they are telling people to get past their insecurities and go for it. Eliot could be using himself as an example as someone whom hung up his insecurities and succeeded. Pride is shown a lot in these poems, and it shows why someone should get past it. In "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock", a dead man is going through his life that has been filled with regret.

The poem is an ode to Dante's book, The Divine Comedy, in particular the part entitled Inferno. This is shown in the epilogue of the poem. There is a quote that says, "If I thought my answer were to one who ever could return to the world, this flame should shake no more, but since none ever did return alive from this depth, if what I hear be true without fear of infamy I answer thee" (Manga niello 18). In Inferno, the speaker overcomes his initial reluctance to reveal his identity when he takes Dante for one of the damned like himself, confined to hell for eternity. The speaker believed that his story would never be told on earth. When he finally announces what it is that happened to him, the words express "a hidden pride for having once achieved earthly renown and an active desire to vindicate his reputation" (19).

Prufrock feels these same fears, but he still needs to tell his story, just like the speaker in Inferno. Though it seems as if Prufrock is talking to somebody, he may actually be talking to himself, because he can not talk to another human being anymore. He says, "Let us go then, you and I" (Eliot 602, 1) and seems to be reaching out, but he has no one to reach out to. Prufrock had lost his greatness and so, rather then trying harder he decides to play the fool. "No, I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be; / Am an attendant lord, one that will do...

/At times, indeed, almost ridiculous-/Almost at times a Fool" (604,111-112,118-119). He is too worried that he will not be able to help people, but he greatly yearns for this feeling of being loved and being needed. He has bad feelings of sexual and social inadequacy and this hindered his life. Prufrock's pride is causing him to stay in the background rather then attempt moving ahead. He insists that he will have more time, but now that he is dead, it reads in a very sarcastic tone. He thinks that there will be time to answer certain questions that have been unanswered in his life because he dares not to "disturb the universe" (47).

The pride that holds back Prufrock from living, is holding back his afterlife as well. He consciously had stepped back in life and in telling his story, he is trying to teach a lesson. He wishes that it might be able to be heard, but since he is dead, no one can hear it. Very shortly before writing "The Journey of the Magi", Eliot became a member of The Church of England (1272). The Magi were leaders of many different parts of the world that were very strong people. They all went to one place in search of one thing; an answer.

The poem discusses religion in general but mostly focuses on the journey of these three wise men. The wise men traveled a long way to see the birth of Christ, through very bad weather conditions and on their way they learned a lesson. They learned to pride in themselves, but they learned that too much is dangerous. They traveled a long distance to witness the birth of Jesus, and it was only in a stable. "And arrived at evening, not a moment too soon / Finding the place; it was (you may say) satisfactory" (1274, 30-31). This quote shows that it did not have to be in an extreme place, it only had to be.