Enam's Note

“ The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” is an extra-ordinary dramatic monologue by T S Eliot, a pioneer of a new literary trend of early twentieth century. In the poem “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” through the character of “J. Alfred Prufrock”, a modern man, the poet portrays a modern man’s mental crisis of so called urban civilization. Actually, the age the poet was the age of growing so called civilization, but the human being’s mental condition was full of frustration. The First World War took place owing to unwise decision of some ambitious world leaders while the world was developing in different aspects. The war caused the death of millions of people and massive destruction of property. Moreover, it threw the modern people in desperation which reflected in their thought and feeling. So, a conscious man of that time T S Eliot shows us a modern man’s mental crisis and ugliness of an urban modern civilization through his poem “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”.

 What is dramatic monologue? Evaluate Robert Browning's  “My Last Duchess” as a Dramatic Monologue “My Last Duchess” is a fantastic dramatic monologue comp osed by a great Victorian poet Robert Robert Browning . A dramatic monologue, traditionally, includes lyrical strain, abrupt beginning, single speaker, silent listener, psychological analysis and clues to suggest what the silent listener says or does . Now we will see how the poem contains all these elements of a dramatic monologue. The poem begins with the dramatic suddenness : “That’s my last Duchess painted on the wall, Looking as if she were alive.” The readers can understand that the event has begun earlier.  But the poem begins from the middle to make the start dramatic.  As the poem progress, it becomes clear that only a single person speaks . The speaker is the Duke of Ferrara talking about his dead duchess’ portrait painted by Fra Pandlof. At several points of the poem, it becomes evident that there