There will be time: Eliot's temporal theory from "Prufrock" to the Four Quartets

Abstract

The poetry of T.S. Eliot contains a temporal theory that evolves and transforms from Prufrock and Other Observations (1917) to the Four Quartets (1943). His theory shows that “all time is unredeemable” (BN I, 5), however, the cause of its inability to be redeemed changes from the Eliot's early poetry to his later works. Time in his earlier works is merely transitory and therefore cannot be redeemed because in its passing it causes change, and, in the case of many of Eliot's characters, decay and destruction. In his later works time cannot be redeemed because it is eternal, which by its very nature represents an ineffable perfection, known in the Four Quartets as “the still point of the turning world” (BN II, 62), a timeless center of creation where “the dance is” (BN II, 63). These two ways in which time is unredeemable describes Eliot's two contrasting theories of time. Essentially, Eliot's early poetry experiences the temporal whereas his late poetry transcends it.

“The Love Story of J. Alfred Prufrock” traces the thoughts of a man who, like Eliot, is in “the middle of the way” (EC V, 172) and expresses a sense of anxiety when recalling the past as he explains what he should have been. He is too timid to ask an “overwhelming question” (10), a romantic proposition to a lady. Like many of Eliot's early poems, this poem deals with the apprehension that is often characteristic of love. Prufrock's problem is that he has lead a life of indecision and wonders if he is running out of time. Instead of finding the still point where the past and the future are reconciled, Prufrock fears the past and the future by maintaining the present moment.