Literature Forming Literature (Waste Land sections 3,4,5) Allusions

In the last three sections of The Waste Land, Elliot uses many allusions to put in more feeling into his poems, and, most of all, to cause an even more vivid feelings and meanings to express to the reader. In these sections, there are many allusions to , Buddha and most of all, to Greek mythology. I believe that T.S. Elliot chose to use allusions to Greek mythology characters, because every character in the Greek mythology has a deep meaning, every character symbolizes something, giving the poem a better meaning when these allusions are made.

In the third chapter for example, Tiresias was mentioned. He is the most famous Greek soothsayer. Tiresias was given the gift to see in the future; however, he was blinded by Athena when he saw her taking a bath. Now, Tiresias has a very singular aspect and is that he is an old man with wrinkled female breasts. “I Tiresias, though blind, throbbing between two lives,/ Old man with wrinkled female breasts…” (Elliot, line 219). As a consequence to the fact that Tiresias is half man half women contributes to he foreseeing the intercourse between a man and a woman, and “forsuffer” it, “(And I Tiresias have foresuffered all/ Enacted on this same divan or bed…” (Elliot, line 244); however, it is not clear to me why does he suffer when seeing the clerk and the woman having intercourse? Is it because he laments that humans can’t really achieve satisfaction through intercourse? I’m sure that the use of Tiresias has a deep meaning which is hidden deeply in Elliot’s writings.

Besides the clear allusion that Elliot does of Buddha by placing the title of one section of Buddha’s “Three Cardinal Discourses” (“The Fire Sermon”), Elliot does an allusion to “The Fire Sermon” at the very end of the third section of his book of poems:

To Carthage then I came

Burning burning burning burning
O Lord Thou Pluckest me out
O Lord Thoug pluckest

Burning (Elliot, line 311).

Burning, burning, burning, every Earthly thing is burning with lust, delusion and pain. Every earthly thing just misleads the mind to make the body, but no the soul, think that it is being satisfied. Every Earthly thing is burning, just like Carthage when the Roman Empire lit it in Flames to end the Punic Wars (this allusion can be also considered an allusion to war)

Then, in the fifth section of The Waste Land, explicit allusions to war are made such as “Falling towers/Jerusalem Athens Alexandria/Vienna London…” (Elliot, line 375). Here, the falling towers are the falling historical monuments that each city mentioned above got burned or destroyed by wars.

And last but not least, Elliot does an allusion to society in an amazing way, he does an allusion through the use of a children’s song.

I sat upon the shore
Fishing, with the arid plain behind me
Shall I at least set my land in order? (Elliot, line 425)

London Bridge is falling down falling down falling down (Elliot, line 427).

Here, before the children’s song is mentioned, a fisherman look behind him and saw the consequences of the human race “the arid plain”; however, the fisherman is fishing which means that since there is still water, there is still hope. This same meaning is what the children’s song mean, that modern society is decaying “London Bridge is falling down”; however, it has fallen yet.