Eliot's Views Of Sexuality As Revealed In The Behavior Of Prufrock And Sweeney

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He has always done what he was socially supposed to do, instead of
yielding to his own natural feelings. He wrestles with his desires to change
his world and with his fear of their rejection. He imagines how foolish he
would feel if he were to make his proposal only to discover that the woman had
never thought of him as a possible lover; he imagines her brisk, cruel response;
"That is not what I meant, at all."
He imagines that she will want his head on a platter and they did with
the prophet John the Baptist. He also fears the ridicule and snickers of other
men when she rejects him.
Prufrock imagines "And would it have been worth it, after all," and if
she did not reject him it would bring him back to life and he could say "I am
Lazarus, come from the dead."
Prufrock decides that he lacks the will to make his declaration. "I am
not Prince Hamlet," he says; he will not, like Shakespeare's character, attempt
to shake off his doubts and "force the moment to crisis." He feels ...

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