Jaclyn Kuizon

Freud Meets Prufrock
By: Jaclyn Kuizon
College Now Course - HUM 1

Act I

There is a large hall with beautiful drapery around the long windows, and the people are coming and going. The room is filled with murmurings of the rich and popular, noble, if only they were. A room of clones, if you will, except for two men, very different from each other as well as the crowd

-Mr. Giles: Well, Mr. Freud, I am so glad you were able to make it to one of these parties. You are always so busy with, what do you call them? Experiments . analysisesss?
-Sigmund Freud: Psychoanalysis my friend, and I am happy to come, my dreams tell me I need to get out more.
-Mr. Giles: Of coarse you do! But did you not bring a lady friend this evening?
-Mr. Freud: Oh, I arrived with Miss Gardener, there she is. (Points to a lovely young lady across the hall) She is my mother, I mean my lover.
-Mr. Giles: Yes well she is lovely!
(Miss Gardener steps to the side to pick up a glass of champagne revealing a rather short, beady-eyed, anxious man leaning against the wall, dressed in an expensive suit with his collar mounted firmly to his chin held together by a little red pin.)
-Mr. Freud: (In an intrigued voice) And who may I ask is this rather uptight fellow?
-Mr. Giles: Why that is Mr. J. Alfred Prufrock, the owner of the library. He is a very precise man, which is why he does such a good job sorting out the books into their proper sections. (Laughs inwardly) One would even say he sorts his daily routine in such a way.
-Mr. Freud: I can see this. What an extraordinary and peculiar man. I would love to delve into this man's psyche.
-Mr. Giles: Perhaps it can be arranged Come, I shall introduce the two of you.

Act II

-J. Alfred Prufrock: There is that Mr. Giles talking to that new fellow I do not know, a rich doctor I gather. Why are they looking at us so? Why do I ask things of myself I do not know? Oh no! Here they come! Do I dare acknowledge their presence?
-Mr. Giles: Hello Alfred! I thought I saw you there. May I introduce one of our finest young doctors, Mr. Sigmund Freud?
-Mr. Freud: Well hello Mr. Prufrock, it is a pleasure to meet you. I understand that you are our librarian. One can just imagine what a job like that must do to the unconscious mind.
-Mr. Prufrock: Pardon me?
-Mr. Giles: You must excuse Mr. Freud; he is examining a new sort of science, the science of physic analysisess.
-Mr. Freud: Psychoanalysis. But Mr. Prufrock, have you been enjoying the party?
-Mr. Prufrock: Yes, I was just noticing how beautiful the ladies were tonight, especially that one. (Points out Miss Gardener)
-Mr. Freud: Why that is Miss Emily Gardener, my lover. So what do you think of her?
-Mr. Prufrock: Her arms are downed with light brown hair. (Quickly shuts up when realizes what he has just said)
-Mr. Freud: What an interesting answer! Mr. Prufrock, you speak directly from your id, with no shame whatsoever!
-Mr. Prufrock: My what?
-Mr. Freud: Your instincts, good ser, instincts. In fact your ego and superego seem to be delayed in a way how extraordinary! (Mr. Prufrock has a puzzled and frightened look on his face.)
-Mr. Giles: He means that your conscious is slow, that you think before you say, dear friend.
-Mr. Prufrock: I I
-Mr. Freud: Oh, you are perfect Mr. Prufrock, just the type of gentleman I was looking for to assist in my more recent studies. Will you be so kind as to assist me this Sunday in my research?
-Mr. Prufrock: Well, I
-Mr. Giles: Excellent, it is done then! Now, Sigmund, you must introduce me to that Miss Gardener.

Act III

There is a comfortable looking room laid out before Mr. Prufrock on this cloudy Sunday afternoon. A large oak desk is centered in the middle of the room, and a long couch with three pillows is off to the left of the room. Two comfortable looking armchairs are set before the desk. Long drapes cover the windows. Mr. Freud shuts the door behind him and approaches Mr. Prufrock.
-Mr. Prufrock: What exactly is it you want to do with me, Mr. Freud?
-Mr. Freud: Oh I just wanted to ask you some questions. Please make yourself comfortable.
(Mr. Prufrock makes his way to one of the chairs)
-Mr. Freud: Oh, no, please, try the couch. I want you to be at perfect ease.
(Mr. Prufrock hesitantly walks over to the couch and has a seat at the far right of it.)
-Mr. Freud: Now, Mr. Prufrock, what I usually try to do is analyze and interpret the minds of my patients to find their sublimation, the positive modification and redirection of primal urges. But I have never had a patient as open or as easy to read as you my friend. Now, tell me, what was your latest dream don't be shy, come now, tell me.
-Mr. Prufrock: I dreamt I was a pair of ragged claws scuttling across the floors of silent seas.
-Mr. Freud: Very interesting! How peculiar, but it is in fact quite simple what this means, you know.
-Mr. Prufrock: It is? What does it mean?
-Mr. Freud: Well, you are only the claws, without the body, you are missing something. This means that you feel you have no penis, and you need to scuttle by in the shadows because you are ashamed of you penis-less form.
(Mr. Prufrock's eyes get very large and he keeps smoothing back his hair with his right hand.)
-Mr. Prufrock: You you can tell such things just by listening to my dreams?
-Mr. Freud: Oh yes, Mr. Prufrock, it is my job. Now, tell me, do you have any habits you would like to share with me?
-Mr. Prufrock: Well we do like to have a puff or two on the pipe.
-Mr. Freud: Well that is simple; that means that you crave your mother's breast, just as you did when you were a child. You miss it, and by wanting it, you take up smoking I'm sorry did you say "we?"
-Mr. Prufrock: (Almost falling off the couch from this last answer) I'm sorry were you implying that I...I
-Mr. Freud: Yes, yes, you were in love with your mother, but I could have sworn you said "we." Who is this other person to whom you are referring?
-Mr. Prufrock: I'm sorry I do not know what you are trying to say did you say I was in love with my mother?!?
-Mr. Freud: All right, Mr. Prufrock, let us move onto another topic, shall we? Now, what do you enjoy usually doing on Sundays?
-Mr. Prufrock: Well I sometimes fancy a walk on the beach.
-Mr. Freud: And what is it you like to do when you walk along this beach?
-Mr. Prufrock: I sometimes bring a peach.
-Mr. Freud: Yes, but do you eat it?
-Mr. Prufrock: I I sometimes do and I sometimes don't.
-Mr. Freud: Well, the peach again represents your mother's breast, and your hesitance to eating it represents your shame toward those feelings toward your mother, which all leads to why you feel you have no penis. A shameful man is a man with no penis.
(Mr. Prufrock lies down)
-Mr. Freud: The fact that you eat the peach sometimes does signify that your penis is alive somewhere. Perhaps you and your penis are separate beings. Is that the other you speak of when you say "we?"
-Mr. Prufrock: What? No.
-Mr. Freud: Oh, then perhaps it is your mother. But let us see; tell me what else you do on the beach.
(Mr. Prufrock has become very stunned by the conversation and has fallen into the flowing rhythm of the room and sound of Mr. Freud's voice.)
-Mr. Prufrock: I hear the mermaids singing each to each.
-Mr. Freud: (Almost ecstatic with this answer.) Really!?! Then you have seen the mermaids? These mermaids, that sing to one another but not to you because you are penis-less? Tell me, what do you do with these mermaids?
-Mr. Prufrock: We linger in the chambers of the sea till human voices wake us and we drown.
(Mr. Freud sits a while in though)
-Mr. Freud: Well, Mr. Prufrock, I think I understand your problem. The Chambers in the sea is your life and the fact that they are chambers shows that you are a very precise and organized man. This is because you felt shame when you were in love with your mother and chose to make up the fact that you had no penis by being a perfectionist at everything else in life. The mermaids are your mother singing to each other and not to you because you have no penis. This makes you upset and you repress this all in your unconscious, causing you to try and find flaws in the opposite sex, like when you pointed out Miss Gardener's hair on her lovely arms. The fact that you are even able to see the mermaids also shows that your penis is still alive, just out of body, in a sense. So the "we" you refer to is you and your penis. You feel shame at the fact that you were in love with your mother, that is why you strive to be a perfectionist; but when the human voices wake you and you drown, your secret is discovered by society and their objections to this perversion cause you to wish you and your evil penis were dead...drowned. There is not much more I can say about what you have given me to think on. I see it clearly now. Don't you?
(Mr. Prufrock appears dumbfounded; he pulls out the pin, which holds his collar neatly in place)
-Mr. Freud: Have you nothing to say at all on this small analysis Mr. Prufrock?
-Mr. Prufrock: "That is not what I meant at all, that is not it, at all "