Comparing Winterbourne and Prufrock :: Daisy Miller, Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

When creating his famous poem, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, T.S. Eliot was inspired by a character depicted in the novella known as Daisy Miller, written by Henry James. This character, Winterbourne, was intertwined and considered when creating the timid character of Prufrock. It is evident that both men share similar personalities and characteristics that link them together, both being prime examples of emptiness and despair told through theses writings.The central concern in Daisy Miller is of the analogies and differences between people. In this story, a young American man, Winterbourne, is wooly and intrigued by the behavior of a young American woman, Daisy Miller. Winterbourne had wondered about all of the cold shoulders that had been turned towards her, and sometimes it annoyed him to suspect that she did not feel at all. He said to himself that she was too light and childish, too uncultivated and unreasoning. Then at other moments he believed that she carried about i n her an elegant and perfectly observant reason from the impression she produced. He asked himself whether Daisys defiance came from the consciousness of innocence or from her being, essentially, a young person of the common class. After getting to know Daisy, he was confused about getting to know his and her emotions. It is far evident that Winterbourne does not come to conclusions about people easily. He was very much influenced by the biases of his upbringing in culture, and he questioned them occasionally.The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock is about a timid and downcast man in search of meaning, of love, and in search of something to break from the dullness and shallowness which he feels his life to be. Eliot lets us into Prufrocks world for an evening, and traces his progression of emotion from timidity, and, ultimately, to despair of life. He searches for meaning and acceptance by the love of a woman, but fall miserably because of his lack of self-assurance. Prufrock is a ma n for whom, it seems, everything goes wrong, and for whom there are no happy allowances. The emptiness and shallowness of Prufrocks universe and of Prufrock himself are evident from the very spring of the poem. He cannot find it in himself to tell the woman what he really feels, and when he tries to tell her, it comes out in a mess. At the end of the poem, he realizes that he has no big role in life.