Hamlet vs. Prufrock

    The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, by T.S. Elliot, is a magnificent poem about the thoughts of the afore mentioned character, who goes back and forth in his mind about his love towards a woman. He has many us and downs (mainly downs) throughout the poem and ponders upon his self appearance and his future acts to impress her, diminishing his self-esteem and self confidence. Hamlet, the main character in William Shakespeare's play Hamlet, is referred to in this poem. Towards the end of it, Prufrock compares himself to Hamlet, or even better, he discredits himself with Hamlet's image. He states that he is "... not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be;" (111) From my point of view, Prufrock actually is a lot like Hamlet according to his thoughts in the poem. 

    T.S. Elliot does a great job in revealing Prufrock's thoughts in his "love song", and thanks to this we can see Prufrock's resemblance to Hamlet. When Prufrock is deep in his spiraling mind, he says: "And indeed there will be time To wonder, “Do I dare?” and, “Do I dare?” Time to turn back and descend the stair" (37-39) This thought is very much something that Hamlet would think, as he actually does in Shakespeare's play. He doubts between obeying the king's orders and continue on his journey to England or go back and avenge his late father by killing Claudius. In fact, most of the play after the player's act in the castle goes by with Prince Hamlet still not deciding if he should obey Hamlet's ghost. Finally, he decided to go back, as Prufrock pondered upon in this quote, which shows that they are indeed very equal to each other. The difference here is that the reader knows that Hamlet went back, but he or she never knows if J. Alfred Prufrock had the guts to take such an action. 

    Prufrock is also similar to Hamlet in another aspect. As T.S. Elliot writes in his poem, Prufrock felt: "At times, indeed, almost ridiculous—Almost, at times, the Fool." (118-119) This is a clear resemblance between Elliot's character and Shakespeare's hero. Although Hamlet doesn't demean himself as much as Prufrock, like thinking he: "should have been a pair of ragged claws Scuttling across the floors of silent seas." (73-74), they both share this quality of thinking they are of no value and "almost ridiculous". This is seen in Hamlet when he is acting like a mad man and also when he encounters Fortinbras and his army heading to battle. Here, he doubts about his own bravery and of his life's value; he certainly feels ridiculous in this moment. Prufrock also has this tendency to think less of himself and, as mentioned before, his case is more extreme than Hamlet's. Throughout the poem, he doubts of his self value and his acts in a border-line schizophrenic way, and he often feels like a joke, a fool. 

    Hamlet and Prufrock are very much alike in the way they hesitate about their moves and how they both feel like fools in their reflections. Although they share these qualities, the reader may see that Hamlet has a moderate deviance in the way of thinking we have analyzed and that Prufrock symbolizes a hyperbole in the expression of these same feelings. They both possess these characteristics, but one is different from the other in the degree of severity.