Low Self-Esteem and Existential Despair in T.S. Eliot’s The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock 1919

Authors : Lamia BOUKERROU

Pages : 147-160

Doi:10.31126/akrajournal.1218237

View : 84 | Download : 67

Publication Date : 2023-05-30

Article Type : Research Paper

Abstract :It is highly believed that modernism brought about various positive aspects to people’s life. However, it should be noted that it has, as well, a number of shortcomings as it caused tremendous change to the deep structure of the society and individuals’ perception of the world. The present work aims to spot light on the issue of social anxiety; its causes and effects on the modern individual through the analysis of T.S Eliot’s poem The love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock. The poem exhibits sense of loneliness, worthlessness and meaningless of modern life that results in low-self-esteem and existential despair to individuals. The work adopts Maslow’s hierarchy of needs as a humanistic theory in addition to the existentialist theory to analyse Prufrock’s social despair, low self-esteem, and ineffectiveness. The poem shows that people’s unsatisfactory need to security, love, acceptance and sense of belonging may have destructive effects on people’s self-esteem, sense of existence and worthiness of life.
Keywords : sosyal kaygı, modern yaşam, anlamsız, düşük benlik saygısı, varoluşsal umutsuzluk