Earth & Air - Power & Appearance -- The Waste Land I-II

After reading the first tow parts of "the Waste Land" once more, I believe my belief regarding Eliot's meaning in the poem seems to be confirmed. I believe that Eliot depicts modern human world as a decadent society and shows the elements that "compose" a world is his way of passing his message to the reader. He does uses the classical elements of fire, earth, water and air to show modern society, but this is not to be taken literally. Eliot uses these elements to represent what he believes are the main aspects of this decadent society.


In my previous entry of "The Burial of the Dead", I gave a general idea of this theory, but I feel it lacked a little depth. During the whole section, the narrator describes geographical landmarks such as mountains, deserts, lakes and cities. Next to this, Eliot also describes climate and seasons. What is Eliots pupose in carrying this general theme? I believe it attempts to show powerlessness and power itself. Mountains and deserts are vast things, much bigger than a human or beyond a human to change dramatically. They are power.

Summer surprised us, coming over the Starnbergersee
With a shower
of rain; we stopped in the colonnade,
And went on in sunlight, into the Hofgarten, (sec 1 line 9)

A human cannot possibly effectively control climate, they are powerless against it. We are forced to accept it or be surprised by it, like the narrator was by Summer. Of course summer can be predicted to an extent, but its effects and its intensity cannot be accurately predicted, much less controlled.


In the second stanza of the section, Eliot depicts a desert, barren land. He also uses words such as "broken", "rubbish", "dead", and "fear". For this I picture it as an apocalyptic area. This strong imagery shows man's greatest power in the world: destruction. Human capability for destruction is tremendous and it can have world-wide effects, such as pollution and war. By showing how "Earth" or "Nature" in the section makes humans powerless and how it is capable of great destruction, I believe Eliot uses this as a metaphor for human society. As a whole it is acapble of tremendous power and destruction, and when an individual, maybe someone of different beliefs, is attacked by it the person is completely impotent to combat society.

"You gave me hyacinths first a year ago;
They called me the
hyacinth girl."
--Yet when we came back, late, from the Hyacinth garden,
Your arms full, and your hair wet, I could not
Speak, and my eyes failed,
I was neither Living nor
dead, and I knew nothing,
Looking into the heart of light, the
silence.
Oed' und leer das Meer. (sec 1 line 35)

This is an interesting stanza of the poem. It does not mention vast landmasses or feelings of impotence; however, it still contains products form the Earth such as the Hyacinths. This flower is believed to be the Flower of the Orient, and thus carries great meaning. The sun sets in the orient and by this it can represent the end of an era or time. If we join this with the beauty that a flower carries, we see how Eliot mentions the end of a good or beautiful time. Having lived WWI, and the great expectations of "The War to End War" and the League of nations must have brought great hope for human progress after unimaginable death during the war. However, after the great disilusionment that came after the failure of the League of Nations and a prediction of war, society was seen as irreparable. This is represented by Eliot in the stanza above, "I was neither Living nor dead, and I knew nothing (sec 1 line 40)." The next line reads, "Looking into the heart of light, the silence (sec 1 line 41)." The narrator is looking into light, into good and hope, but he only finds silence. Society has no goodness to offer.


The next stanza talks about the future. The narrator is shown his fortune with the cards of the Tarot. The narrator is given the Phoenician Sailor, Belladona the Lady of Situations, the Man with Three Staves, the Wheel and the One-eyed Merchant. He mentions that "I do not find / The Hanged Man (sec 1 line 56)." The Tarot is completely foreign to me and I do not know how to interpret these cards, but I'm sure these carry heavy metaphorical meanings in the poem. The Phoenician Sailor, is known to be an invention as this card does not exist in the Tarot deck. What did Eliot intend it to represent? This card is mentioned throughout the poem, even in an entire section, "Death by Water."


Unreal City. This final stanza speaks mostly about death. “A crowd flowed over London Bridge, so many, / I had not thought death had undone so many (sec 1 line 62).” What kind of death does Eliot mean? It is not physical, as there are people flowing through the city. I believe he is talking about a moral and spiritual death. The grim view of society after war and the failure of peace would make people feel that society was dead, irreparable. ”That corpse you planted last year in your garden, /'Has it begun to sprout? Will it bloom this year? / 'Or has the sudden frost disturbed its bed (sec 1 line 71)? Besides spiritual death, we can see the corpse buried in the garden as all the sacrifice made by society for peace during the war. The garden shows how everyone was affected in their most personal aspects. The sudden frost again alludes to climate, to power and how we cannot control it. Society killed our sacrifice and we are still waiting for the rewards it was supposed to bring.


“A Game of Chess” speaks of another element of modern society: air. Like European courtiers that often spoke lies and acted like they were someone else, modern society speaks and shows itself as if it was another thing.

In vials of ivory and colored glass Unstoppered, lurked her strange synthetic perfumes, Unguent, powdered, or liquid--troubled, confused And drowned the sense in odors; stirred by the air That freshened from the window, these ascended In flattening the prolonged candle flames, Flung their smoke into the laquearia, Stirring the pattern on the coffered ceiling. (Sec 2 line 87)

This vivid description depicts a room filled with fragrances and exotic essences that make it feel mysterious, different, something that, in reality, it might not be. This resembles humans because our species is always trying to hide its true being with a “civilized” mask. The savagery of war is hidden behind Laws and Customs of War. Domination of others is hidden behind politics and laws. With this, Eliot makes a call to the reader to realize how humans live in a fragrance-impregnated society.

But what does the author attempt to uncover after unmasking society?

"What is that noise?"
The wind under the door.
"What is that noise now? What is the wind doing?"
Nothing again nothing. (Sec 2 line 118)

The person asking the questions in this excerpt seems insecure, scared. His companion, the person who answers, acts calmly and sure of himself. When T.S Eliot read this part of the poem, he talked briskly and at a higher tone during the questions and at a slower and lower voice during the answers. This clearly shows the feelings intended for these speakers. The voices, the words each one speaks again represent society. The questions represent individual humans, people who feel scared and overwhelmed in a world filled with death and ignorance. The responses I feel are the answers of society to the individual, sure of itself and even bored by the whining of the individual. This shows the reader how society is in self denial, desiring to be secure and powerful but in reality it is scared and vulnerable.

Do You know nothing? Do you see nothing? Do you remember Nothing? (Sec 2 line 122)

As T.S Eliot reads the questions above, he seems exasperated, angry, and resentful. He is asking society why it is keeping this mask. No, it’s asking why the people allow that mask to be placed. Why does the individual seem to forget his true beliefs and falls into slavery under society? Can’t society remember its mistakes and prevent them? After such a terrible event as war, why did it go back to the way of life that led to that butchery?

This is what I feel was missing to the analysis of the first two parts of The Waste Land, after writing this and reading the sections several times I feel I have a greater understanding of T.S Eliot’s purpose when writing his masterpiece.