The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

what image does the name j. alfred prufrock conjure up for you? how does prufrock, as his character and personality are expressed throughout the poem, illustrate this image?

the love song of j. alfred prufrock

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There is an emasculated sound to his name.  Eliot's final mock-allusion to yet another Renaissance artist (after Dante and Michelangelo). Petrarch unrequitedly mooned after his love, Laura, but Prufrock, whose name sounds much like Petrarch's, does not even have an unattainable ideal love. He has unattainable, frustrated, paralyzed desire for all women who reject him; they are all inaccessible, and any reminder of the social world ("human voices") drowns him. This sense of unrequited love and emasculation can be felt throughout the poem. 

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http://www.gradesaver.com/the-love-song-of-j-alfred-prufrock/study-guide/summary-lines-87-131