Melancholetta

Re: Observations on Prufrock

Yello!

I guess the idea of alienation amidst a crowd, helplessness because ofthe world and its phony attitude, the ensuing search for th truth by the protaganist and the subsequent depression due tohis own judgemental nature has been the general theme behind many of characters that we have come across...apart from prufrock, I can think of Camus' Mersault, Holden Caulfield and all...but with the latter two, there was always an element of nonchalancy involved...Dunno why, but somehow this brilliant song by Syd Barrett called Opel, seems to be a fitting expression for all the searching and not finding...Somewhat akin to the feeling of being slam bang in the middle of this crowded junction...you see people walking past you....different sounds, different faces....everything is chaotic...somehow you figure it's wrong...so you are yelling out as if your lungs could burst anytime...But then somehow no one seems to hear....

Even though there didn't seem to be much common ground between prufrock and mersault at first...I mean, in Prufrock, the poem opens with a excerpt from Dante's Inferno...in hell and all...may be an objective co-relative of TSE on the burning soul of prufrock and all...while Mersault he begins to realise the world around him only after his mother died....Prufrock probably realises eventually the futility of having an emotional stand on the whole issue....while Mersault seems to have born with an emotional void and all...

But then the small thread of comparison that i found is that they both realise they cannot engage in an escapist attitude, even though it seems to be the easiest thing to do...they also dread the fact that they are always been continously evaluated..
people are gauging every move they make....(remember?...And when I am formulated, sprawling on a pin....)It irks them but they know they can't escape this scrutiny as much as they want to.....

This article I found has this interesting insight... In Prufrock and Meursault we find two classic cases of the outsider. In both cases there is a tortuous quest for truth, and detachment has been necessary to provide a viewpoint for what is truly real. But after its discovery, the truth is either dismissed or subverted. Prufrock is dissuaded from telling us everything;

If one, settling her pillow by her head,
Should say: 'That is not what I meant at all.
That is not it, at all.'

As for Meursault, he is hanged for his revelation.

And of course, both are the characters don't want to lie... Camus says, "Lying isn't only saying what isn't true. It is also in fact saying more than is true . . . We all do it to make life simpler. But, contrary to appearances, Meursault does not want to make life simpler. He says what he is, he refuses to hide his feelings and society immediately feels threatened."

Guess in a way, both Prufrock and Mersault are similar...

I am sure there are more parallels to these "outsiders".... can any one think of any more?

Cheers
Krithika

posted by Dileepan @ 8:28 PM