본 논문의 주 목적은 ｢J. 알프레드 프루프록의 사랑 노래｣에 나타 난 근대성과 시간의 의제가 지닌 중요성을 탐구하는 것이다. 산업화 와 도시화의 결과로 인간소외 현상이 심화되는 후기 근대의 도시로 부터 탈주하고자 하는 프루프록은 대립적인 인간관계가 해소된 마법 화된 시공간을 꿈꾼다. ‘상상적인 동일시’를 통해 구성된 이 세계는 기본적으로 여성적인 영역으로, 방안의 여인들로 대표되는 이 공간 에서는 교감과 친밀성을 바탕으로 하는 인간관계가 유지되고 있다. 또한 프루프록은 동일한 것의 반복을 특징으로 하는 근대의 일상적 시간을 특이성과 우발성이 충만한 차이의 시간으로 대체하고자 한 다. 하지만, 프루프록을 표준화하고 사물화하는 근대성의 시선의 회 귀와 더불어 그는 인간의 시간이 중단된 신화적 세계에 감금되며, 이것은 사회적 존재로서의 프루프록의 상징적 죽음을 의미한다.

According to Martin Heidegger’s argument that human emotions and feelings play an important role in defining modernism, the elements of melancholy must have been a crucial element in characterizing modernism. In this respect, T. S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” and The Waste Land that are regarded as reflecting modernistic phases have been analyzed to show how the elements of melancholy appear in them and to what degree they present modernity. The keen awareness of fragmentation and the impossibility of totality in modernism as part of modernity has been shown to have a lot to do with melancholy. The concept of melancholy is not a brand new term which was born in modernism, rather it was a “reinvented” and “reassessed” concept that already has quite a long history. On the threshold to the contemporary era, a number of critics and writers came to be deeply interested in and did a lot of research about melancholy. Remarkably, modern critics are doing insightful studies that can illuminate the deceitful desires that are produced by capitalist society that leave people in discontentment permanently, which acts like a sense of loss. Their analyses about the mechanism of melancholy are expected to help analyze the relation between melancholy and capitalist society. In that aspect, even though melancholy appeared in modernism era, still the concept of melancholy seems to be a great issue that can be very helpful to understand the cultural aspect of contemporary era.

Most of the critics dealing with the subject of how Eliot treats women agree that Eliot's early poetry focuses on the theme of the relationship between men and women. Some critics label him a "misogynist" by focusing on the negative and disparaging comments Eliot made on women. However, a careful examination of his works shows that Eliot's women as well as men are described as unhappy and unfulfilled personae. As Joseph Bentley said, life cannot be happy without a harmonious relation between the sexes. According to Bentley, without self-transcendence, without an awareness of unity, life is impoverished and dismal, which is the pivotal theme of Eliot's poetry, criticism, and philosophical writing. This study discloses how women are represented in "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" and how the relation of women and men is connected with Eliot's spiritual development.