After reading what was left of The Waste Land (“A Game of Chess”, “The Fire Sermon”, “Death by Water”, and “What the Thunder Said”) I realized that the whole compilation of poems is just a crude reflection of the hugely flawed society in which we currently live in, and will live in if we don’t take our faults into consideration (individually).
In the second section, “A Game of Chess”, Elliot depicts a stratified society in which a rich girl and her environment is described, and a poor, maybe prostitute, that is worried about not satisfying Albert (a soldier), since she will then loose him to other girls that can satisfy him.
The Chair she sat in, like a burnished throne,
Glowed on the marble, where the glass
Held up by standards wrought with fruited vines
From which a golden Cupidon peeped out
(Another hid his eyes behind his wing)
Doubled the flames of sevenbranched candelabra
Reflecting light upon the table as
The glitter of her jewels rose to meet it,
From satin cases poured in profusion;…
Unstoppered, lurked her strange synthetic perfumes,
Unguent, powdered, or liquid…/And drowned the sense in odors. (Elliot, line 89).
In the above excerpt taken out form the beginning of the second section of Elliot’s poems, the author clearly creates an image of the richness that the girl who is seating in the throne has. She is in a room filled with abundant jewelry and expensive decorations such as marble floors, and sevenbranched candelabras; however, although the girl has everything in her life to entertain herself, she goes crazy and paranoid while she waits for her love, I think, who is taking longer than expected.
‘My nerves are bad to-night. Yes, bad. (Elliot, line 111).
‘What is that noise?’
The wind under the door.
‘What is that noise now? What is the wind doing?’
Nothing again nothing. (Elliot, line 120).
Here, the constant questioning of the girl is a reflection of her paranoia and anxiety. In the other hand however, there is poverty. Lil a poor girl, who I think is a prostitute, is talking to a friend about her life and about Albert. In my opinion, Albert is just a frequent client who asks Lil for her services, which are intercourse.
Now Albert’s coming back, make yourself a bit smart.
He’ll want to know what you done with the money he gave you
To get some teeth. (Elliot, line 144)
And if you don’t give it to him, there’s others will, I said. (Elliot, line 149)
You ought to be ashamed, I said, to look so antique.
(And her only thirty-one). (Elliot, line 157).
In the above quotes of Lil’s conversation clearly a sense of poverty is shone. First, Albert gave Lil some money for teeth, and he wants to see her teeth when he gets back; however, it looks like Lil spent the money in other things in order to survive. Then, the fact that Albert will leave her if she doesn’t GIVE IT to her, is a clear way of expressing that he wants only sexual pleasure. And last, another imagery of poverty is when the author mentions that she looks so antique even though she is only thirty-one. The fact that she is thirty-one and already Lil is looking antique shows how hard life has been to her.
Basically, when Elliot makes this contrast between the two “worlds”, one of poverty and suffering, and the other of richness and anxiety, he is basically comparing the different reactions that the rich and the poor have depending on their situation. When the rich girl, although she has everything in life, is stood up, she goes completely crazy, and starts asking herself paranoiac questions such as the noise that the wind makes beneath the door. In contrast, when the poor girl has nothing in life, she goes to having sex for money, and, if she is stood up, she won’t be able to survive which will cause her not to go crazy, but to die. I believe this is what Elliot wanted to show in this section.
“HURRY UP PLEASE IT’S TIME” (Elliot lines: 141,152, 165,178 and 179). This phrase constantly interrupted the dialogue that Lil had with the narrator, and, most of the times, it was “totally uncalled for”. The phrase just appeared in the middle of the dialogue, and it was said by a third person. This phrase was very odd to me, but I then realized that it may simply be the way that Elliot used to show the reader where the characters were. Well, at the end of the section, Lil and her partner say “Goonight” to some men which are called Bill and Lou, making me think that maybe they are in the brothel where Lil works at, and the owner, who apparently is Bill or Lou are closing the establishment.
The third section has a very peculiar title, “The Fire Sermon” (http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/nanamoli/wheel017.html#s3 ). I say this title is peculiar, because I remember that once Buddha made a speech called the “The Tree Cardinal Discourses of the Buddha”, where, the third part of the speech was called “The Fire Sermon”. In this third part, if I’m not mistaken, Buddha refers to every Earthly thing as if it were burning with lust, pain, and delusion. He makes this comparison to show that if we want to be happy we have to get rid of these Earthly things that cause negative reactions and eventual sadness in a human being. Then, before even reading this section I realized that Elliot was going to criticize our society again.
The first stanza, starts by talking about a clean and perfect river, and nature (as it is) abounds widely until we come and everything goes caput. “But at my back in a cold blast I hear/ The rattle of the bones, and the chuckle spread from ear to ear” (Elliot line, 186). Then, the poem continues depicting images of a contaminated canal where a fisherman is sadly fishing, surrounded by the polluting machines of humans.
While I was fishing in the dull canal…
White bodies naked on the low damp ground…
The sound of horns and motors… (Elliot, line 197).
Basically, Elliot describes who we have turned the world with our actions. The canal is infested with naked bodies! War! That is what Elliot want’s to show us readers, he wants to tell us to stop ignoring what is happening and act accordingly to create solutions.
In this section, metaphorically, the consequences of not following “The Fire Sermon” are shown after Tiresias “forsuffers” the violet hour in which a female who has intercourse with a male clerk, just for the pleasure of it, and when the sex is over, she is glad that it has finished:
She turns and looks a moment in the glass,
Hardly aware of her departed lover;
Her brain allows one half-formed though to pass:
‘Well now that’s done: and I’m glad it’s over.’(Elliot line 252).
Clearly by doing this Elliot states that we shall never be satisfied if we don’t get rid of Earthly pleasures and things in general. And last, to finalize this section, Elliot mentions how Elizabeth, by following the sermon of Buddha, achieves to be happy, well, when Elizabeth is not tempted by Leicester’s words, but is satisfied with the humble people who expect nothing, she is happy, she is satisfied.
The broken fingernails of dirty hands.
My people humble people who expect
Nothing.’ (Elliot line 305).
The fourth section of The Waste Land is the shortest; however, its meaning is extensive and rather profound. In this section, the body of a Phoenician sailor, who apparently drowned, is at the bottom of the sea being food for the fishes. Phlebas, the Phoenician sailor, has already finished his cycle of life, but he was once like every other human being. “Consider Phlebas, who was once handsome and tall as you.” ( Elliot, line 321). And, because Phelbas was once like I, I believe that Elliot is sending the reader a wake up call which is: You don’t live in eternity, so do what you have to do now.
Last but not least, the fifth section of the poem book by T.S. Elliot, “What the Thunder Said”. In this section, I believe that Elliot just states that the world is decaying rapidly due to the actions of the human race, such as wars and pollution.
AFTER the torchlight red on sweaty faces
After the frosty silence in the gardens
After the agony in stony places
The shouting and the crying
Prison and place and reverberation
He who was living is now dead
We who were living are now dying
With a little patience. (Elliot, line 330).
Everything is falling apart; however, Elliot then mentions a hooded figure walking beside me/humanity as I tore around everything in my path. “Who is the third who walks beside you?” (Elliot, line 359). That third figure which the speaker couldn’t identify is Jesus in my eyes. Elliot is making us remember that when sins abound, also does Jesus to save us from them. This, I took it as a sign of hope given by Elliot, he says that there is hope of saving our world, but Jesus is only the hope, will the action is us, and that action cannot be stopped by Jesus. Basically, Elliot says, that although the hope of changing is still near, it is up to us to fulfill that desire which we so hope for.
I sat upon the shore
Fishing, with the arid plain behind me
Shall I at least set my lands in order? (Elliot line, 425).
The arid lands are what humans have caused, but we can still set them in order.
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