Compare and contrast between Gerontion and Prufrock.

 

We find many compare contrast between Gerontion and Prufrock poems. They are discussed below:

The love song of J. Alfred Prufrock” is a poem written by T.S Eliot. The epigraph of this poem is a six-line quotation from canto 27 of the inferno by the Renaissance Italian poet Dante. Thus suggesting that the ensuring poem will depict a kind of dark, hellish experience.

And Gerontion is a poem by T.S Eliot. The poem takes as an epigraph lines from Act-iii of Shakespeare’s play “ Measure for Measure” from a speech that is an extended meditation on old age and death. In the poem “ The love song of J. Alfred Prufrock” where Prufrock says that “ Time for you and time for me, And time yet for a hundred indecisions, and for a hundred visions and revisions”. Prufrock think that both he and his lady love will get time for a hundred indecisions, hundred visions and for a hundred revisions. Prufrock is a man of indecisive nature. Here the grandiloquent style is used for a trifling matter, like the making of a marriage proposal.  It has an ironic effect.

On the other hand “Geronation” by T.S Eliot. The Speaker begins by locating himself and giving the reader a few details about who he is. He’s old and living through a “dry mouth” He is in a liminal space in which he is waiting for death, because he has no time to choosing decision or revision. Here we find compare between both of poem idea of time. Prufrock is unable to take any decision. He thinks that he will get enough time for it. But the speaker of Gerontion poem he won’t get enough time.

Prufrock is more focusing on the future but Gerontion is more focusing on the past. Prufrock says that -

“ Do I dare disturb the universe”

Here, the speaker thinks that if he propose the striking beautiful lady. She will definitely reject him. Prufrock thinking is that he can exist without the love, but if he makes a proposal toward girl then the whole world will stand against him. Thus should he dare to disturb the universe? He is raising this question. He is a man who is confused and lacked of courage. And the speakers of “ Gerontion” Poem He says that

“ Neither fear nor courage saves us”

Here, the speaker says that if we fight then they are going to die. Here also we find a lack of courage. So this is a contrast of both of the poem Gerontion and Prufrock by T.S Eliot, ” Gerontion” The poem is lamenting and depressing. It is hopeless the old man laments his age, his inaction and the direction the humans are going. He has no hope for them nor for himself. And Prufrock is also hopeless. He says that

“ I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.

I do not think they will sing to me”

 

He wants to wear trousers of the latest fashion in order to hide his old age so that he can be acceptable to his lady-love. But in the very moment he decides to take a walk on the sea-shore in order to escape the hard realities of life, and the unpleasant duty of making a decision. While walking on a beach, in his fancy, he remembers the story of mermaids. "Mermaids" are mythical sea-creatures, half women and half fish. Prufrock has heard the mermaids singing, each to each, but he thinks that they will not sing to him. In ancient mythology, Ulysses and his sailors are said to have heard the mermaids singing. But Prufrock cannot rise to the level of Ulysses who was a great hero. Prufrock is not brave and adventurous lie Ulysses. He is timid and cowardly and therefore unfit to listen to the music of mermaids.

 

Mermaids" here are used as a symbol of romantic visions. Prufrock's life is so dull and boring that he cannot hope to see romantic visions. So both of them are hopeless.

 

This is the main compare and contrast between "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufork" and "Gerontion" poems.