The Motif of Journey as Objective Correlative in T. S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”

Document Type : Original Article

Author

گروه زبان و ادبیات انگلیسی، دانشکده زبانهای خارجی، دانشگاه ولی عصر (عج) رفسنجان، رفسنجان، ایران Department of English Language and Literature, Faculty

10.22091/slic.2026.15033.1025

Abstract

The motif of journey is of prime significance to any aesthetic appreciation of T. S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.” Beginning with an invitation to a journey, the poem displays the frustration of its eponymous speaker Prufrock in his love quest. From this vantage point, there has been much critical focus on the meaning and nature of Prufrock’s journey. In contrast to the large body of the research on the poem, this study seeks to analyze the work through the critical lens of Eliot’s own theory of objective correlative. It is argued that the motif of journey functions as the central objective correlative in this modernist poem and that all other objective correlatives such as the atmosphere of sickness, and images suggesting Prufrock’s paralysis of will, feelings of anxiety and ennui, as well as his communicative isolation in the modern world are organically linked to this motif. Ultimately, the poem displays the inner workings of the mind of an alienated individual agonizingly incapable of asserting his existence in the modern world.

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Studies in literature and Culture: from Theory to Practice

Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 27 May 2026

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