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Difficulty: Very hardAllusion and Intertextuality

Read the following excerpt from T. S. Eliot’s poem "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" (1915):

Would it have been worth while,
To have bitten off the matter with a smile,
To have squeezed the universe into a ball
To roll it towards some overwhelming question,
To say: "I am Lazarus, come from the dead,
Come back to tell you all, I shall tell you all"—
If one, settling a pillow by her head,
Should say: "That is not what I meant at all;
That is not it, at all."

In the context of the speaker's psychological state, which of the following best describes the thematic function of the allusion to Lazarus?

  1. A
    It serves to express Eliot's personal theological anxiety regarding the loss of Christian faith in the early twentieth century, presenting Lazarus as a symbol of the poet's own spiritual rebirth.
  2. B
    It functions as a literal prediction of the speaker's social rehabilitation, suggesting that he will eventually overcome his isolation and return to society as a transformed figure.
  3. It contrasts the profound gravity of a miraculous return from the dead with the triviality of the speaker's social sphere, highlighting his paralyzing fear of emotional and communicative failure.Answer
  4. D
    It reconstructs the biblical narrative of Lazarus rising from the grave to demonstrate how divine intervention can restore meaning to a secular world.
  5. E
    It acts as a biblical allusion that creates a striking metaphor of resurrection, demonstrating the poem's reliance on historical and religious intertextuality to reinforce its formal structure.

Answer

The allusion to Lazarus contrasts the profound gravity of a miraculous return from the dead with the triviality of the speaker's social sphere, highlighting his paralyzing fear of emotional and communicative failure.
The correct option is correct because the allusion to Lazarus—who was raised from the dead by Jesus in the Gospel of John—is used by the speaker to imagine making a grand, revelatory declaration of existential truth to his companion. However, this monumental revelation is immediately undercut by the imagined response of the companion ("That is not what I meant at all"), showing the vast gulf between Prufrock's internal drama and the mundane reality of his social world. The allusion thus emphasizes his deep isolation and fear that any attempt at genuine communication will be met with indifference or misunderstanding.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the allusion and its source context.
The speaker alludes to Lazarus, a biblical figure raised from the dead by Jesus in the Gospel of John, representing the ultimate return from death to reveal the mysteries of the afterlife.
Understanding the original context of the allusion is necessary to evaluate how it is adapted in the poem.
2
Examine how the allusion is framed within the speaker's monologue.
The speaker imagines saying, 'I am Lazarus, come from the dead,' to a female companion to address an 'overwhelming question' or deep truth, but this is immediately followed by her rejecting or misunderstanding the gesture ('That is not what I meant at all').
This shows that the allusion is part of an imagined dialogue that ends in communicative failure.
3
Analyze the thematic contrast created by the allusion.
The immense, supernatural significance of Lazarus's resurrection is placed in direct opposition to the trivial, domestic setting of settling a pillow, emphasizing the speaker's alienation and his belief that his internal depth is incompatible with his superficial social world.
This step determines the overall function of the allusion on the poem's theme of modern isolation and anxiety.

Key Concept

Analyzing the thematic function and dramatic irony of a biblical allusion in a modern dramatic monologue.
Estimated Time:2m 0s
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Topics

Allusion and Intertextuality

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