Often, when the author of a work is describing the setting it is to create a tone and a mood within the work. This is still true for the poem “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” which is was written in 1915 by T. S. Eliot. Eliot uses the settings in which Prufrock finds himself to set the mood that the readers will begin to feel. The settings in “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” convey senses such as loneliness and isolation. These ultimately change how the audience will read and process the poem. The narrator of the poem is J. Alfred Prufrock himself. In the beginning of the poem it reads “Let us go then, you and I…Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets…” (Eliot 1110). These lines sound as though Prufrock is in love and that he shares a certain kind of intimacy with a woman; however, their intimacy is frowned upon. It reads “When…show more content… But though I have wept and fasted…Though I have seen my head (grown slightly bald) bought in upon a platter,” (Eliot 1112). It seems that Eliot has written this passage to display the change in relationship and how their relationship changed and aged Prufrock. When Alfred J. Prufrock says “Should I, after tea and cakes and ices…” (Eliot 1112) the reader might see a little parlor in which Prufrock is enjoying some cake and tea. The reader might also see that Prufrock has aged, grown bald, and even grown a bit mad. Overall, no matter the situation or the storyline, the setting of a piece of literature is crucial to how readers and audiences interpret the work. T. S. Eliot used the different settings in “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” to convey different ideas and moods to the audience and it is up the individual to put his or her own interpretation behind the words. It makes reading the literature all the more fun and being the audience much more
