J. Alfred was a
nihilist. You just want to pick him up by the
lapels and say
WHY are you
WAITING J. Alfred Prufrock? WHY? Are you
waiting for all this to happen to
someone else?...why are you
wistful? Why are you
shy?
Shyness is nice, but
Shyness can stop you
From doing all the things in life that you'd like to.
Morrissey/Marr
Louder Than Bombs/Ask
J. Alfred was not unlike our friend Bartleby the Scrivener. They were both radically passive, for different historical reasons. Prufrock didn't dare, and Bartleby preferred not to. Neither thought their opinions mattered. Both were wrong.
T.S. Eliot and Herman Melville created these characters as interpretations of the contemporary male psyche (and cautionary tales for same, I should hope).