Name______Period______

The Modernist Struggle: Allusions, Images, and Emotions in T.S. Eliot’s “Prufrock”

Characteristics of modernist writing— Reality as a constructed fiction and the importance of the unconscious (Freudian)

  • Character: self is diverse, contradictory, ambiguous, multiple
  • Plot: not linear, discontinuous, fragmented, chronological leaps in time, moments in time, with unresolved endings, realistic vs. romantic
  • Style: “stream of consciousness” nonlinear thought process, imagistic rather than logical
  • POV: from the consciousness of one character with limited POV or of several who have multiple perspectives

Emotions & themes: loneliness, alienation, indecision, inadequacy, pessimism

Directions: Highlight the allusions in the poem in one color in the text.Determine the emotion suggested by that allusion and label it. Then choose two emotions, puteach in the box on the left side of the chart, andlist the allusions that support that emotion.

Emotion / Supporting Allusion

Directions: Highlight the imagery in the poem in a different color in the text. Determine the emotion suggested by that image and label it. Then choose two emotions, puteach in the box on the left side of the chart, and list the images that support that emotion.

Emotion / Supporting Imagery

Writing Assignment: Write an email letter to Prufrock from you, the voice of his online mental health adviser, explaining your diagnosis based on his "love song"—his poem. Use letter form: a salutation, block paragraphs, a closing, and your signature identifying yourself (creatively) as his "doctor."

Start by introducing "yourself" and your diagnosis (name two emotions from which he is suffering) in the opening paragraph. Write another paragraph explaining your diagnosis (one emotion from the allusion chart) and support it with allusion examples. Write another paragraph explaining your diagnosis (one emotion from the images chart) and support with imagery examples. In a final paragraph, suggest how he might improve his state of mind. Do some informal research to use for this last section.

4 / 3 / 2 / 1
Has an introduction per instructions above, has identified two emotions and provided apttextual evidence for each, and makes an educated suggestion to improve his health.
No grammatical errors. / Has a weakness in one area: the intro, emotions, evidence, or the suggestion.
Has one or two grammatical errors. / Has weaknessesin two areas: intro, emotions, evidence, or the suggestion.
Has quite a few grammatical errors. / Has weaknesses in all categories and many serious grammatical errors.

Write a rough draft on loose leaf paper. After peer revising/editing with a partner in class, type the letter in an email as if you were going to send it, but instead, print it out to turn in. Your email will be scored based on the scale below.