the poem this interpretation has sufficient validity.) His neurosis makes him the master of his own hell. As unorthodox as these views on Prufrock may be, there are credible sources that substantiate the above theories. Prufrock's concentration on physical concerns is highlighted in several quotes: "Wanting nothing less than the ability to fully articulate and control an image of himself, Prufrock is afraid of both himself and others. (McNamara, 203), "Prufrock is bothered by the women's opinion of his appearancehe is merely hoping that by conforming to the standards expected by society he may be able to keep the backbiting women at bay." (Bagshee, 192) Literary support for Prufrock's mental state of both anxiety and emotional denial is overwhelming. There is "the real sense of isolation, of loneliness, that exists under the surface." (Bagchee, 187) The quotes "It is as if his mind were gradually convulsed with spasms of suffering and then were intermittently rallied with a mythology of self-esteem, only to succumb each time to more rational despair." (Smith, 220) and "this sinister, slithering, and self-willed street is an active agent of the anxiety that haunts the protagonist." (Bagshee, 191) paint the dark picture of a disconsolate man. "The self and the self-image can never coincide and the result is an interminable anxiety which can only increase." (Ayers, 212) Robert McNamara describes Prufrock's pathology perfectly when he asserts: "Prufrock" treats the disease in the only way Eliot acknowledged it could be treated: 'the only cure for Romanticism is to analyze it.' Rhetoric is pathological, in Eliot's view, when it becomes vehicle for evading feeling [and] for creating self-satisfying illusions. This is exactly what Prufrock does. His over-analysis of every minute detail is a vain attempt to sh...
