The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock as a Dramatic Monologue

A dramatic monologue is a poem spoken by a single person (mono) to a silent audience; that audience could be one person or a group of people referred to in the poem or any other implied audience. A dramatic monologue is a study of character, of mental states and moral crises made from the inside. 
In a dramatic monologue a single person, not the poet, utters the entire poem in a specific situation at a critical moment.

The speaker of the poem is not Eliot, but Prufrock. He is a balding, insecure middle-aged man. He expresses his thoughts about an uneventful, dull, mediocre life he leads as a result of his feelings of inadequacy and his fear of making decisions.

Unable to seize opportunities or take risks (especially with women), he lives in a world that is the same today as it was yesterday and will be the same tomorrow as it is today. J. Alfred Prufrock does try to make progress, but his timidity and fear of failure inhibit him from taking action.

The silent listener of the poem is an unidentified companion of Prufrock. Prufrock escorts his silent listener through streets in a shabby part of a city, past cheap hotels and restaurants, to a social gathering where women he would like to meet are conversing. However, be is hesitant to take part in the activity for fear of making a fool of himself.

A good dramatic monologue gradually reveals more and ahout the person speaking, without them intending to reveal so much. At the beginning Alfred Prufrock is just a slightly creepy man who wants to take a walk. As the poem goes on, we learn about his personal appearance, his love of fashion and food, and his desire to be a pair of crab claws. The impression we get about him is exactly the opposite of the one he wants to give.

He wants us to think that he's a decision- maker, a “decider.” He intends to dress well and seize opportunities when they come. But he is very nervous and timid. He never decides anything, and when he misses his big opportunity, he tries to pretend that he will find enough time to make a decision.

 
Alfred Prufrock invites the lady he loves to walk with him into the streets on an evening that resembles a patient, anesthetized with ether, lying on the table of a hospital operating room. He has the latent desire to make love to a lady, but he does not have the boldness enough to propose to a lady. Alfred Prufrock sees himself as being pretty lonely and shy, unable to act on his desires.

 
Alfred Prufrock agonizes over his social actions, worrying over how others will see him. Prufrock thinks about women's arms and perfume, but does not know how to act. He walks through the streets and watches lonely men leaning out their windows. The day passes at a social engagement but he cannot muster the strength to act, and he admits that he is afraid.

Thus, by the monologue Eliot portrays the character of Prufrock. His portrayal of the character deserves appreciation. Through various images, Eliot exposes the inner self of Prufrock, his timidity. nervousness and lack of action. In its focus on character and its dramatic sensibility, the poem anticipates Eliot's later, dramatic works.

A dramatic monologue is identifiable by the fact that it resembles a conversation in which we can only hear one person talking; the speaker seems clearly to be responding to someone, but that person or group doesn't actually speak in the poem.