Lovesong Of J Alfred Prufrock Analysis

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Exam IV Essay The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock, written in 1917, deals with social limitations relating to the motives of the speaker. Coincidentally, The Death of Ivan Ilyich also reveals a similar message throughout its story that there perhaps may be an invisible boundary between social classes. While comparing the two texts, overlapping similarities among social boundaries and limitations are prevalent, but there are also some differences that can be explored as well. The first moment in The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock that shows a sense of hierarchy in social class is when the narrator writes, “In the room the women come and go, talking of Michelangelo (Eliot, 541).” According to the footnote at the bottom of the text, the inclusion of Michelangelo is “merely a topic of fashionable conversation (Eliot, 541).” The women speaking talk in a way that is unfamiliar to the lower class, and Prufrock begins to question whether he should upset the way things are and approach these women. Prufrock’s resistance to upset the social boundaries and …show more content…
Well first off, Ivan Illyich is constrained his entire life by a set of social rules that dictate the way he lives his life. Ivan must do well in school, get a prestigious education, get married, have children, and work as hard as he can to better himself and his career. This life was arranged for Ivan and set by his social standards established by the people around him. At the end of the text, Ivan has a realization that his life was void of meaning and personal relationships. Ivan gets his first taste of an authentic life when his servant, Gerasim, cares for Ivan in a time of need. Gerasims’ unselfishness is noteworthy in that he refuses to go to bed and keep his master happy by saying, “Don’t you worry, Ivan Ilyich. I’ll get sleep enough later on (Tolstoy, 767).” Gerasim has stepped across social boundaries in an era that discourages such
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