In “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” T.S. Eliot uses allusions as well as imagery to develop his theme that life is too short to allow fear’s hesitation to stop us from living true to dreams of happiness because we will all be judged in the end. This multi-layered poem is the internal monologue of the character J. Alfred Prufrock. Prufrock is a man who has let his daydreams cripple him with …showed first 75 words of 837 total…

…showed last 75 words of 837 total…the theme. As in line 104, “It is impossible to say just what I mean!”, words cannot express all the feelings and idea’s that Eliot’s poem evokes. Like the “magic lantern” each allusion and image shines a new layer of light on the emerging theme that life is too short to allow fear’s hesitation to stop us from living true to dreams of happiness because we will all be judged in the end.