The speaker of Eliot’s poem is a man whom we know only as J. Alfred Prufrock. Prufrock exemplifies the tortured psyche of the prototypical modern person: well educated and eloquent, and yet neurotic and emotionally stilted. As we learn from his monologue, his thoughts are meandering, digressive, and fragmented. These disordered thoughts contribute to an overall lack of decisiveness and confidence, particularly in his relationships with women. Prufrock repeatedly imagines—or perhaps recalls—scenarios of sexual attraction where women remain remote, either evading his attempts at physical or emotional intimacy or else rejecting him completely. Hence the irony of the poem’s title: instead of a true “love song,” it’s a lament for love’s elusiveness. The fact that Prufrock is critiquing his own inadequacy further invites us to read him as a modern reflection of Guido da Montefeltro, who voices the passage from Dante’s Inferno that appears before the poem. Guido is being punished in hell for giving false counsel. Believing that Dante is also dead and hence can’t return to earth, he confesses his shame to the poet. In much the same way, Prufrock, who’s in his own kind of hell, confesses his shame to us readers.

As the quotation from Dante suggests, Prufrock boasts a wide range of references that demonstrate his admiration for the European literary tradition. For instance, he quotes lines from the book of John in the Bible (see lines 94–95). He also alludes to the opening line of Andrew Marvell’s poem “To His Coy Mistress” when he claims, “And indeed there will be time” (line 23). Furthermore, he references Works and Days by the ancient Greek poet Hesiod when he says, “And time for all the works and days of hands” (line 29). But of particular importance to the analysis of Prufrock’s character are his references to William Shakespeare. Key here is the moment, late in the poem, when Prufrock invokes Hamlet (lines 111–19):

     No! I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be;
     Am an attendant lord, one that will do
     To swell a progress, start a scene or two,
     Advise the prince; no doubt, an easy tool,
     Deferential, glad to be of use,
     Politic, cautious, and meticulous;
     Full of high sentence, but a bit obtuse;
     At times, indeed, almost ridiculous—
     Almost, at times, the Fool.

Prufrock closely resembles Prince Hamlet in terms of his obsessive thinking and chronic indecision. Yet here the speaker resists the comparison. Whereas Hamlet, for all his shortcomings, is in fact the star of Hamlet, Prufrock is decidedly minor, fit to play an ineffectual attendant or, at best, the Fool. With these and other literary allusions, Prufrock reveals himself to be an admirer of a refined literary tradition whose meaningfulness is under threat in a modern era.

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