The love song of J Alfred Prufrock

Time plays a huge role in this poem. Prufrock seems to be running out of time throughout the entire poem. Time continues to tick away until it seems that he doesn't have much time left to turn his indecisiveness into confidence. 

Elliot alludes to hamlet and the "eternal Footman". This is significant because Elliot uses Hamlet as a contrast. He's saying that Prufrock isn't royalty unlike Hamlet. Although hamlet has to make a choice it's a very different one than the one that Prufrock seems to be making. 

The very last stansa when elliot talks about waves. He uses waves to describe the features of the old man. To me it seemed to be the end of not only the poem but much of the Prufrocks hope.