The poem “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” is very insightful. The poem is about the speaker, Prufrock, going on a walk and as he does, he describes various experiences and his mind. It does not take long for it to become clear that he has very low self-esteem and could possibly be depressed. Through analysis we can find that this could be the effect of his sense of self being negatively formed by those around him through Charles Cooley’s looking-glass self theory.
The poem begins with Prufrock inviting the reader for a walk through the city streets. He a simile to compare the evening sky to a patient under anesthesia imagery to describe the “half-deserted streets”(I. 4). He also uses a combination of a metaphor and imagery to describe the fog, “The yellow fog that rubs its back on the window panes”(I. 15). In this metaphor, Prufrock is comparing the fog to an animal. “Lingering upon the pools that stand in drains, Let fall upon its back the soot that falls from …show more content…
73-74). In these lines, Prufrock compares himself to a sea creature that dwells at the ocean floor, probably a crab. This also displays his low self-esteem by him thinking of himself as a bottom-feeder roaming the seas in solitude.
This is also present in the lines “I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each. I do not think that they will sing to me”(II. 125-126). In these lines the looking-glass theory also reappears. In this situation the social looking-glass is represented by the mermaids and he thinks that when they see him they will not like him, so they will not sing to him. The imagery continues in the lines “I have seen them riding seaward on the waves Combing the white hair of the waves blown back When the wind blows the water white and black”(III.