In The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, the speaker repeatedly hears women talking as they move about (“perambulating women”). Eliot phrases this in one of the poem’s most memorable refrains:
“In the room the women come and go
Talking of Michelangelo.”
Michelangelo is one of the most universally recognized symbols of high art, genius, and Renaissance humanist excellence. Eliot chooses him very deliberately because his status as a Renaissance master heightens the contrast between the women’s confident, cultured discussions and Prufrock’s own sense of inadequacy.
Michelangelo’s name symbolizes:
- physical vigor (David, the muscular figures of the Sistine Chapel)
- artistic mastery
- heroic masculinity
Prufrock is terrified of being judged within such a value system.
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