Prufrock even metaphorically dies at the end of the poem, corresponding to the idea of not returning alive from The Inferno; Prufrock’s elaborate, day-dreamed world dies when someone interrupts him at the end of the poem and he drowns.

Is Prufrock dead?

The stanza ends, however, with “That is not what I meant at all; That is not it, at all”- Prufrock out-maneuvers himself once again. Unlike Lazarus, he won’t return with stories to tell. Leaving his mental universe does not mean coming back to life, it means dying; at the end of Prufrock he drowns.

Does Prufrock drown?

In “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” T. S. Eliot reveals the silent insecurity of a man, for whom the passing of time indicates the loss of virility and confidence.