The Waste Land; Women Characters

Women Characters in The Waste Land
The Waste Land is the most anthological poem of T.S. Eliot. The poem earned a distinct reputation in the history of English poetry and the fame of the poem, now, is nearly same as that of its composer.
The Waste Land was conceived in the embryonic form about a decade back but the poem was published in 1922. It was first mentioned by the poet in a letter to John Quinn in 1919. The letter was dated 5 November. Eliot's interaction with Ezra Round contribute quite significantly to the design and form of the poem. When Eliot offered The Waste Land to Pound on 20 January 1922, he commented that the poem "will have been three times through the sieve". (Jain, 127) The views of Pond make clear his reservations against the volume of the poem. "Pound's role", as Manju Jain opines the editing of The Waste Land has been the subject of much critical controversy. (p. 128) However, his contribution in rendering shape and form to the poem cannot be denied. Eliot himself confesses the role of Pound in transforming The Waste Land 'from a jumble of good and bad passages into a poem'. (p. 128) There are, however, many critics like Bernard Bergonzi who raise objections to the editing done by Pound still the fact cannot be denied that the unity and coherence of the poem can be credited to Pound, who, as Tom Moody points out, is the man behind distinguishing between the veritable and genuine and the false or factitious writing. (p. 317)

Technical complexity and the idea of form are two principal associations of the poem. The complexity of the poetic technique is undoubtedly the most conspicuous aspect of the poem. The use of the technique of the point of view, of allusions and references, the use of myth are some very important aspect of the poem that have been integrated into unity of form.
The technique of the point of view is the parameter of appreciating a piece of fiction. The term come into existence after the publication of Percy Lubbock's The Craft of Fiction in which the critic keeps into view various limitations of human mind and takes the point of view of the story–teller to be the governing principle of the technical appreciation of a piece of fiction. 'It is' Lubbock tells about a novel, revealed little by little, page by page and it is withdrawn as fast as it is revealed. (p. 7) In the light of the natural predicaments of man, Lubbock takes the 'whole intricate question of method' to be governed by the point of view – 'the question of the relation in which the narrator stands in the story'. (p. 248). Eliot, to confirm his respect for the technique of the point of view makes use of the technique of dramatic monologue. It is important that the technique of dramatic monologue endures but little change during the poet's journey up to Poems 1930. In The Waste Land also Eliot makes use of the same technique of dramatic monologue but the voice of the speaker in this poem ceases to be singular. It is split, fragmented, bifurcated along many dimensions. There are interpenetrating voices constituting the voice of the speaker and the voice comes from different times, different spaces and even from different genders. Tiresias, the protagonist of the poem is the device used for fusing different times and places and even genders. Tiresias, the bisexual sage cursed for blindness and blessed with sight beyond times and places performs the task of the speaker of the poem. In "The Fire Sermon", he makes his identity and function clear. The speaker says :
I, Tiresias, old man with wrinkled dogs.
Perceived the scene and foretold the rest
I too awaited the expected guest.
He, the young man carbuncular arrives,
A small house agent's clerk with one bold stare,
One of the law on whom assurance sits
As a silk hat on a Bradford millionaire.
(128–134)
The lines quoted above make it clear that there is a complex intricacy of many distinct voice fused into one identity. The voice vary along times, spaces and genders as well. The interpenetration of sexual identities seek reflection in the lines quoted above. The first person pronoun used in the poem cannot have a definite singular identity, but, quite paradoxically, it becomes a monologue with many voices. In becomes the voice of hyacinth girl when she says : "They called me the hyacinth girl" (L.36). These subtle variation make the real fabric of the poem characterizing the complexity of theme and technique.
Allusions and the use of myth are other very prominent aspect of the poetic technique of Eliot. I.A. Richards justifies the fucntionality of these illusion and takes them to be 'a device for compression' as in the poem is equivalent in context to an epic and in the absence of this device, "twelve books would have been needed". (290–291).
There are two main sources of the poem. Eliot in his notes written after the poem, acknowledges his debt for two main books – Sir James Frazer's The Golden Bough and Jessie L. Weston's From Ritual to Romance. The title of the poem has been taken from Ms Weston's book From Rituals to Romance. The land in her book is blighted by the curse of impotence. These corpse do not grow, animals can't reproduce and the king of the land has been rendered impotent. The curse may be eliminated only by the appearance of a knight who would ask the meaning of three symbols and if the three questions are replied well, the land would get rid of the curse of impotence and infertility.
The poem has been divided into the five parts. The first section of the poem is titled "The Burial of the Dead". The second section is titled "The Game of Chess", the third section, "The Fire Sermon", the fourth section is titled, "Death by Water" and the title of the last section is "What the Thunder Said".
It is with this background that we proceed to examine the role of woman in The Waste Land. The discussion will advance section by section that is from "The Burial of the Dead" to "What the Thunder Said".
"The Burial of the Dead" is the first section of Eliot's The Waste Land. This section of the poem details the agony of the speaker at a philosophical level. It seems that the succeeding section illustrate the philosophical expression of the agony causing pain to the poem.
The poem, reminding us of the Preface to Canterbury Tales, begins with a reference to spring. The reference to spring brings into prominence the theme of life in death and death in life.
April is the cruelest month, breeding
Likes out of dead land, mixing
Memory with desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.
Winter kept us warm, covering
Earth in forgetful snow, feeding
A Little life with dried tubers.
(Ll. 1–7)
The images of weather aptly reveal the thematic complexity of the poem. The woman who first appears in the poem is Marie. It is obvious that Marie echoes the mother figure, but in the context she undergoes complete metamorphosis. George L.K. Morris locates Marie in the autobiography of Countess Marie Larisch – My Past. Morris puts forth a number of facts to justify the parallel. The countess was niece and confident of Austrian Empress Elizabeth who was famous for beauty and 'neurasthenia'. The author also confides that 'she was endowed with a surprising gift for vivid characterization'. (p. 165). Manju Jain, commenting on the allusion, says :

The specific borrowings from the books are of less importance than the picture of contemporary Europe decadence which this passage evokes through Eliot's recollection of his conversations with the Countess and through his use of details from her autobiography.
(p. 153)
Eliot refers to Marie in association with fright, thus, creates the ironic vision which is painted with the grey strokes of desolation and death. Eliot's reference to Wagner's Tristan and Isolde bring into picture the figure of Tristan and Isolde, the main characters of a medieval romance. The reference to these two characters once again brings into prominence the theme of life in death and death in life. Tristan brings Isolde from Ireland to Cornwell, where she is supposed to marry his old uncle. It is through accidental consumption of a magical juice that the two fall in love with each other before Isolde reaches her destination. Tristan is wounded when his love with Isolde ceases to remain a secret. Tristan is wounded on the bank of flowers. He is taken to the care of Brittany. He dies after the arrival of Isolde in her arms.
It is clear that the figure of Isolde bring into prominence the theme of life in death and death in life. The correlation between the Trista and Isolde and the episode of the hyacinth garden are closely associated. Hyacinth is the flower symbolizing resurrection. The reference to hyacinth girl is Eliot's contraption of combining antiquity and contemporaneity. A reference to the words of Sir J. G. Frazer becomes obligatory. He wites :
Hyacinth was the youngest and handsomest son of ancient king Amyclas ... One day playing at quoith with Apollow, he was accidentally killed ... The hyacinth "that sanguine flowers inscribed with woe" – sprang from the block of the topless youth, as anemones and roses from the blood of Adanis and violets from the blood of Athis. Like these vernal flowers, it heralded the advent of another spring and gladdened the hearts of men with the promise of joyful resurrection.
(p. 182–183).
It can be easily inferred that hyacinth girl represents life in death and death in life, the phrase that encapsulates the whole theme of the poem in general. The image also justifies the cruelty of April. The protagonist meets with the promise of a happy resurrection while meeting the hyacinth girl but, being habitual to the "warmth of winter (C.5) he finds himself neither living nor dead" (L.139–40). The confrontation between the speaker of the poem and the hyacinth girl aptly demonstrates the idea.
Madam Sosostris is another very complex metaphor in the poem. She is a "famous clairvoyant" (L. 43) . The first imprint on the mind of the reader makes us realize the pervasion of fear and uncertainty pervading the milieu. The character represents and illustrates the vulgarity of contemporary Europe. The "wisest woman in Europe" (L. 45) draws a sharp ironic contrast with a "wicked pack of cards" (L. 46).
It is another very important observation that many characters prefigure in the cards of Madam Sosostris. The myth of the drowning of Phoenician Sailor is fused with many names with reverberation of contemporaneity. The female character Belladonna is the "Lady of Rocks" (L. 49) and the "Lady of Situations". The appendages associated with Belladonna ratify vulgarity of modern Europe and the decay of Christian values. The Shakespearean line in parenthesis – "those are pearls that were his eyes (L. 48)", imply the reduction of an individual into a depersonized unit and, simultaneously, it also suggests Madam Sosostris becomes instrumental in defining irony if her character is examined in the light of Ms Weston's book, where, as Cleanth Brooks observes, after carefully examining the sources of The Waste Land that in Ms. Weston's book "Tarot-cards were originally used to determine the events of the highest order of the people". He confirms the ironic overtones in the character of Madam Sosostris that she has fallen a long way from the high function of her predecessor" (p. 133). The name of Belladonna also scintillates with paradoxical shades of meaning. The word, in Italian, literally means a beautiful lady while the same word also means a poisonous tree. Eliot fuses the two implications. Women character, that, again becomes a metaphor of cultural disintegration and decay of values and Christianity. Mrs. Equitone is yet another character who sparkles with figurative suggestions. It reverberates with modern suggestion and appears to be a client of Madam Sosostris.
Thank you. If you see dear Mrs. Equitone,
Tell her I bring the horoscope myself.
One must be careful these days.
(L1. 57–59).
The character of Mrs. Equitone, like Belladonna is enriched with ironic suggestions. She seems to be a kind of socialites and a alien of Madame Sosostris.
The last stanza of the poem begins with a reference to a poem by Charles Baudelaires Les Septs Vieillords (The Seven Old Man). The unreal city ceased to be meaningful. The difference between the real and the unreal is the same as that between the living and the dead. The theme of life in death and death in life recurrs when the poet alludes to Dante's Inferno and says : "I had not thought death has undone so many/Sigh's short and infrequent were exhaled (L1. 63–64)". It is a reference to the Limbo where the people are neither cursed nor blessed and lived without praise or blame". Dante comments that these wretches who never were alive (Brooks, 135). It is again obligatory to quote Eliot to confirm his concept of life in death and death in life. He says :
So far as we do evil or good, we are human : and it is better, in a paradoxical way, to do evil than to do nothing : at least we exist (Brooks, 135).
The excerpt–quoted above from the preface to Lancelott Andrews aptly and clearly defines the view of the poet and his concept of life in death and death in life. Eliot acknowledges his debt to Dante in his famous essay "What Dante Means to Me" and writes :
Reader of My Waste Land will perhaps remember that the vision of city clerk trooping over London Bridge from the Railway Station to their offices evoked the reflection - "I had not thought death has undone so many", and that is another place I deliberately modify a line of Dante by altering it - "Sighs short and infrequent were extruded". And it gave the references in my notes in order to make the reader who recognized the allusion, know that I meant him to recognize him.
(p. 128)
Dante, provides essential poetic value to the poem. It is also clear that woman characters play an essential role in illustrating the thematic contents of the poem. The reference to Dante fused with a reference to Baudalaire makes the picture clear before us, and it is the spiritual landscape of Modern Europe. The reference to Dante and Bundalaire is followed by a reference to Frazer's The Golden Bough, the ritual in which the priest used to bury effigies of Osiris made of earth and corn. The sprouting of corn is associated with the body of Osiris.
That corpse you plant if last year in your garden.
Has it begun to sprout ? Will it bloom this year ?
Or has the sudden frost disturbed its bed ?
(Ll. 71–73)

The reference to Webster's dirge sung by Cornelia for her son in The White Devil further intensify the milieu of fear and at the same time this reference consolidates the prominence of the theme of life in death and death in life.
O keep the dog for hence that is friend to men
Or with his nails he'll dig it up again.
(Ll. 76)
In the concluding line of this section has been taken from Baudelaire's "Au Lecteur". In this line Baudelaire takes the reader also to be a victim of this spiritual inertia, boredom and inaction. Eliot, in the last line of "The Burial of the Dead" generalizes the implications of poem and identifies the readers with the agony caused by spiritual hollowness and decay of Christian values.
"The Burial of the Dead" generalizes the thematic contents of the poem and presents before us a philosophical interpretation of the contemporary Europe. The poet perceives the whole picture as wrecked and fragmented. The role of women in painting the landscape is of great importance. The women in this section of the poem are delineated with great metaphorical significance, and serve to illustrate the complex theme of the poem.
The second part of the poem highlights the theme of the poem in a more concrete manner. If "The Burial of the Dead" gives the general abstract statement of the situation, says Cleanth Brooks, "the second part of The Waste Land, "A Game of Chess", gives a more concrete illustration" (p. 137). The protagonist explores two different kinds of life in Europe and observes same finding in both the constituent sections of the society.
The title of this section of the poem has been taken from Thomas Middleton's play Women Beware Women. In the play, Bianca, is being seduced by the duke while duke's accomplice Livia keeps Bianca's mother in law busy with the game of chess and confines her attention. It is also remarkable that each and every move of the game is synchronized with the steps taken to seduce Bianca.
The title of this section of the poem and its source and background make it clear that women play a dominant role in the poem and are delineated with great metaphorical significance.
The opening lines of the open offer apparent ironic contrast to the main theme of the poem. The opening lines of the poem are full of romantic passion. The lines owe their genesis to Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra, where Enobarbus describe Cleopatra's first meeting with Antony.
The opening lines of "A Game of Chess" portray Cleopatra in modern European spirit. The women is surrounded by the images of cosmetic glory and artificial glow. The protagonist says :
The Chair she sat in like a burnished throne.
Glowed on the marble, where the glass
From which a golden Cupidon peeped out.
(Another lid his eyes behind the wing).
Doubled the flames of seven branched
candelabra.
Reflecting light upon the table as
The glitter of her jewels rose to meet it
From solia cases poured in rich profession.
In voils of ivory and coloured glass.
Unstoppered, lurked her strange synthetic
perfumes.
Unguent, powdered, or liquid–troubled confused
And drowned the sense in stirred by the air.
That freshenol from the window, these ascended
In fattening the prolonged candle–flames,
Flung their smoke into the laquearia.
Stirring the pattern on the cattered ceiling.
(Ll. 71–93)
The images around Modern Cleopatra create a milieu of waste and boredom : a kind of inertia being compensated with the help of artificial glory knit around the woman. There is ironic recreation of the milieu of spiritual inertia and void pervading Modern European woman. The contrast that exists between Modern Cleopatra and Shakespearean Cleopatra vibrates with meaning and experience. The woman also reminds us of the principal woman character, The Rape of the Lock by Alexander Pope. The conventional images undergo a natural and undeniable distortion. The golden cupidon refers to a sculpted god of love and dehumanization of the emotion of love and its transformation into a mechanical act lacking spiritual magnificence. The reference to Virgil's Aeneid reminds us of the Queen of Carthage deserted by Aeneas and, eventually after being deserted, she kills herself on a funeral pyre. Thus, Modern Cleopatra re–enacts the theme of life in death and death in life. Hugh Kenner points out that the Modern Cleopatra 'lacks nerves, forgetting after ten words its confident opening to dissipate itself among glowing and smouldering sensations' (p. 175). The echo of Pope's mock epic reveal the advancement of the idea along the movement of time.
The philomel myth brings another woman character into picture who shared agony and identity with Modern Cleopatra. Eliot's notes refers to Ovid's Metamorphosis, in which the king of Thrace–Terenis, rapes Philomel, the sister of his wife Proche. The king, in order to hide the news from his wife cuts the tongue of the victim so that she may not disclose the act to her sister. However, she disclosed by weaving some words on a garment. Philomel was later, metamorphosed into a nightingale.
And still she cried and still the world pursues.
Jug Jug to dirty ears.
And other withered stumps of time.
Were hold upon the wall : staring forms
Leaned and leaning hushing the room enclosed.
(Ll. 102–106).
In these lines, Eliot contrives parallel between the past and the present and simultaneously he also identifies Modern Cleopatra with Philomel. There are implied allusions to Cordelia and Ophelia – the Shakespearean heroines of Hamlet and King Lear.

It is thus clear that modern woman draws a sharp ironic contrast with Cordelia and Ophelia. It is again remarkable that both these Shakespearean heroines embody strong emotional exuberance, whereas the woman in the opening lines of "A Game of Chess" is reduced to a deharmonized mechanical identity, as against the emotional magnificence of the two Shakespearean heroines. She offers a sharp ironic contrast to the Modern Cleopatra. The Philomel myth, in a brilliant complimentation with allusions to Ophelia and Cordelia intensify the ironic contrast between life and death. The sharp ironic overtones are further intensified by simultaneous occurrence of the past and present.
The last few lines of this section confide the pervasion of psychosis, neurosis and other similar disorders characterizing spiritual inertia and life of inaction which makes the agony of the poet :
And other withered stamps of time
Well told upon the walls; staring to forms.
Leaned out, leaning, hushing the room enclosed.
Foot–steps shuffled on the stair.
Under the fire light, under the brush, her hair.
Spread out in fiery points
Glowed into words, than would be savegely still.
The first part of "A Game of Chess" deals with the upper section of social stratification, whereas, the second section of the poem deals quite exclusively with the lower section of the social order. The pervasion of neurosis, psychosis and such disorders unify the two sections of the society in to one singular perception of defining significance.
My nerves are bad tonight. Yes bad, Stay with me.
Speak to me, Why do you never speak ? Speak.
What are you thinking of ? What thinking ? What ?
I never know what you are thinking. think.
(Ll. 111–114).
The lines quoted above, are echo of feminine reverberation. They illustrate cultural disintegration and consequent disorder owes its origin to feminine psyche. They also illustrate the spiritual and ritual disentanglement between the two sexes and pervasion of mechanical bond replacing the emotion of love. 'The effect is of', says David Craig, "landing up with final disenchantment face to face with the unpleasant reality of life today (202). The milieu of neurosis is further extended to the re–enact the repeated theme of life in death and death in life, amidst the mass of spiritual waste. The recreation of the Shakespearean line – "Those are pearls that were his eyes" (L. 125) brings forth the re–echo of the theme of life in death and death in life which is further ratified by the fear of death in the succeeding lines :
Are you alive or not ? Is there nothing in your
head ?
(L. 126)
The irony is manifest at its best when the game of chess in Middleton's Women Beware Women is juxtaposed with the same game played by Ferdinand and Miranda in Shakespeare's The Tempest, where, it symbolizes love and harmony.
The reference to Shakespearean Rag "written by Buck, Ruby and Stampar for 1912 Ziegfeted Follies, accounts for the expansion of thematic contents of the poem to the U.S.A as it seems Eliot might have heard the lyric in Harvard. Eric Sigg opines that Eliot might have called The Waste Land "a kind of rag, a rhythmical weaving of literary and musical scraps from many hands into a single composition" (p. 21). The reverberations of the agony of disintegration sterity and spiritual vacuum is further heard again in the feminine voice.
What shall I do now ? What shall I do ?
I shall rush out as Jam, and walk the street
With my hair down, so, what shall we do
tomorrow ?
What shall we ever do ?
(Ll. 131–138)
The reference to Women Beware Women is recreated with new vitality. The speaker of the poem – Tiresias, identifies himself with one of the chess players of Middleton's paly – Livia and Bianca's mother in law and "waits for a knock upon the door" (L. 138). The metaphor owes its origin to Middleton's play Women Beware Women. It is evident that Eliot delineates his female characters with high metaphorical significance.
Life of inaction and life in death and death in life is further checked when Eliot introduces another female character Lil. She represents lower section of the society and offers a sharp contrast to Modern Cleopatra, the women in pub. Fear and frustration, illustrating psychic disorders of modern world again play a pivotal role in the characterisation. She is afraid to get herself "some teeth" (L. 143) or Albert "is coming" and she has to 'make' herself 'a bit smart' (L. 142). The fear of Lil clearly illustrates the nature of relationship between the two characters.
He's been in army for four years, he wants good
time.
And if you don't give it him, there's others will I
sure.
(Ll. 148–149)
It is clear that having good time is the only function of human relation. F. O. Matthisson views capture attention. "Sexual indulgences", he says, 'which lose sight of any higher relationship'. He points out the reduction of human relation to the 'level of beasts' (p. 92). 'Pills' used to 'bring it off' (L. 163) further distances sex with its primordial ritualistic function. The beasteal aspect of sex is further confirmed when Lil asks : What you get married for, if you don't want children ? (L. 165). The last lines of the poem perform a complex function perpetuating the implications inherent to the poem :
Goodnight Bill, Goodnight for Goodnight May
goodnight.
Tata Goodnight, Goodnight.
Goodnight ladies, goodnight sweet ladies,
goodnight, goodnight.
(L1. 170–172).
The reference to Ophelia's song heightens the irony. It also offers a sharp contrast to the working class milieu of Albert and Lil and at the same time there is implied reference to the Modern Cleopatra as well. Thus, there is a repeated enactment of the theme of life in death and death in life.
The second section of The Waste Land, "A Game of Chess", illustrates the pervasion of the latent experience and meaning of the poem across every corner of the society. The vacuum, hollowness and sterility pervades every corner of the society. There is spiritual sterility in the first part of this section when reader confronts a women delineated with the riches of Shakespearean Cleopatra. The other section of European society – the working class, also suffers the same agony of death in life.
"The Fire Sermon", the third section of The Waste Land deals chiefly with the theme of purgation. The title of this section has been taken from the Buddhist philosophy. It is a reference to the sermon preached by Buddha against vulgar passions having conformity to seven deadly sins. However, there is fusion of Buddhist and Christian point of view. The irony created by the fusion of two different points of view is the point of principal importance. In The Waste Land fire is delineated with paradoxical shades of last and purgation. One of the earliest sermons of Buddha can be read as follows :
O Priest, all is burning ? What is burning, the eye is burning the rupa is burning, the eye object consciouness is burning, the eye object impression is burning, and sensations of joy, sorrow, no joy no sorrow produced by eye object relation are all burning.
(p. 32).
The passage from the sermon preached by Buddha accounts for the real poetic value to this section of the poem. It is, however, undeniable that Christian point of view regarding purgatorial function fire simultaneously contributes to the meaning and experience of the poem.
The poem opens with a landscape symbolizing shelter in summer. Eliot fuses symbols and allusion to illustrate the picture. There is a reference to Spencer's Elizabethian nymphs with reminiscence of Shakespeare's Ophelia to intensify the ironic contrast between Elizabethan's love, modern concept of love which is in vogue.
Sweet Thames run softly till I end my song.
The river bears no empty bottles sandwitch
papers.
Silk handkerchiefs, coral board boxes, cigarette
ends.
Or other testimony of summer nights. The nymphs
are departed.
(Ll. 176–179)
There is recreation of Philomel image in modern context. When the speaker, identifying himself with some female soul, says : By the heaters of Leman, I sat down and wept (L. 182).
A reference to Mrs. Porter clay and Sweeny recolours the milieu with vulgar sexuality and ratifies the status of Mrs. Porter as a metaphor. There is poignant irony born of the fusion of the romantic symbol of 'the moon' that shine bright on Mrs. Porter and on her daughter (L1. 199–200). The irony, defined through Mrs. Porter and her daughter acquires culmination which 'they wash their feet in soda water' (L. 201). The final image of Philomel without tongue culminates the function of irony defined through the female characters.
Twit twit twit
Jug, jug, jug, jug, jug, jug
So rudely forc'd
Tereu
(L1. 203–208).
The last line quoted above 'Tereu' is the vocative form of Tereu. It confirms the repetition of the myth recreated earlier in the second part of the poem. The speaker of the poem makes his identity clear and says :
I Tiresias, though blind throbbing between two
lives,
Old man with wrinkled female breasts can see
At the violet hour, the evening here that strives
Home ward and, brings the sailor home from sea.
(228–231)
Tiresias, the speaker of the poem introduces the typist. She is delineated with the action symbolizing death. She is delineated with waste and worthlessness. It is the association of the typist with the worthless and inertia that makes her a great metaphor of cultural disintegration endured by the contemporary Europe. The relationship between the typist and the well "awaited guest" is aptly metaphorical to the real picture of England and Europe after the first World war.
I too awaited expected guest
He, the young man carbancular arrives,
A small house agent's clerk, with one bold stare
One of the law on whom assurance sits
As a silk hat on a Bradford millionaire.
(Ll. 230–234).
The relation between the clerk and the man with unspecified identity, is based on lust and sexual need, lacking any ritual or spiritual support.
She turns and looks a moment in the glass.
Hardly aware of her departed lover :
Her brain allows one half framed thought to pass :
Well now that is done : and I am glad its over.
(Ll. 249–252)
It is clear from the lines quoted above sex is manifest only at physical level. The succeeding lines further confirm the idea :
When lovely woman stoops to folly and
Paces about her poem again alone,
She smooths her hair with automatic hand
And puts a record on the gramophone.
(Ll. 253–256)
It is indisputable that the typist is one of the most important female characters of The Waste Land. It is also clear that her importance rests chiefly in the metaphorical values that determine her place in the poem.
The delineation of beauty draws sharp ironic contrast to our scrutiny. The beauty of the landscape draws a sharp and scintillating contrast to the background of spiritual hollowness.
Elizabeth and Leicester
Beating oars
The stern was formed
A gilded shell
Red and gold
The brisk swell
Rippled both snores
South–west wind
Carried down stream
The peal of bells
White towers
(Ll. 279–289)
The landscape given above has to represent Elizabeth and Leicester but in the light of the background of spiritual hollowness, the beauty seem ironical. Matthissen rightly points out that the 'mention of Elizabeth and Leicester brings an allusion of glamour', but he further says that on close scruitny it is revealed that 'the state presence of their relationship left is essentially as empty as that between the typist and the clerk' (p. 113). Matthiessen's remark aptly justifies the centrality of the female character – the typist and also the metaphorical contents inherent in the poem. The lines recall Enobarbus's description of Cleopatra and consequently brings into picture the ironic contrast between Shakespearean metaphor of love and its modern twentieth century counterpart. There is, in a oblique manner, identification of the typist and modern Cleopatra. Eliot's notes about the lines quoted above (Ll. 266–306) bring into prominence the three Thames daughters, taken from the works of Wagner's opera. The Thames daughters in The Waste Land offers a sharp contrast to their original identity and, at the same time, they also offer a sharp and scintillating contrast to Spencer's "Daughters of the Flood". The myth is coloured into modern sensibility by inclusion of 'trams and dirty streets' (L. 292) and references "Moorgate" (L. 292) and to Margate Sands (L. 300) complete the parallel between Modernity and antiquity and culminate the function of myth in the poem.
Women in this section of the poem finally perform the most significant function of culminating the ironic overtones in the reference to Buddhist philosophy. The interplay of the meanings inherent in the reference to fire and burning acquires new scintillation determined by the experience.
Burning burning burning burning
O Lord Thou pluckest me out
O Lord Thou pluckest burning
(Ll. 308–311)
The women characters play dominant role in fusing Buddhist point of view with Christian view of purgation. The simultaneous application of the two concepts of fire account for the actual perception of the meaning and experience inherent in the poem.
The fourth section of the poem "Death by Water" assimilates all the previous associations of life and water. The irony is manifest at the level of symbolic manifestation of water. The life giving element of the planet becomes the cause of death :
A current under sea
Picked his bones in whispers. As he rose and fell.
He passed the stages of his age and youth.
Entering and whirlpool
(315–318)
It is the only section of the poem which does not have a direct reference to any woman character. It is knit around the myth of Phlebas the Pheonician and the symbol of water.
The fifth section of the poem "What the Thunder Said" is about the paradisiacal possibilities that the speaker foresees on the crowd of waste. In the opening stanza, the speaker of the poem reiterates his adherence to the theme of life in death and death in life :
He who was living is now dead.
We who were living are now dying.
With a little patience.
(Ll. 328–330).
The search for the Holy Grail draws a close metaphorical parallel with the life in Europe as the men undertaking journey to Emmaus find "no water but only rocks (L. 335)". The fusion of a reference to Robert Shackleton's trip to Antarctica fairly inkles the presence of Divinity in the barren land. Though it is eclipsed by skepticism, the speaker apprehends the presence of 'the third who walks always beside' the other person undertaking the same journey (L. 359). However, he does not 'know whether a man or woman' (L. 364). The woman who makes a sudden appearance amidst "falling tower" (373), reminds us of the hysteria of Lil of "A Game of Chess". She 'drew her long black hair out tight' (L. 377). The emergence of the woman is full of surrealist intensity. The most pronounced image of the woman in this section occurs when the speaker elaborates the parameter of sacrifice, laid down in Brihdaranyak Upnishad.
Da
Datta : What have we given ?
My friends, blood shaking my heart.
The awful daring of a moment's surrender which an age of prudence world never retract.
By this and this only we have existed.
(400–405).
The lines quoted above firmly establish Eliot's sensitive attitude towards the metaphorical worth of a woman in his poetry.
It is clear from a detailed appreciation of The Waste Land that the theme of cultural disintegration has been enacted very successfully chiefly through women. It is also a reply to the common feminist view that Eliot is a misogenist or a women hater. A critical analysis of Eliot's poetry acquaints us with the fact that he was highly sensitive to metaphorical worth of women and in his poetry and specially in The Waste Land delineates them with great metaphorical implications.


Works Cited
Brooks, Cleanth. "The Waste Land : Critique of the Myth". The Waste Land - A Casebook, ed. C. B. Fox and Arnold, P. Hinchliffe. London : Macmillan, 1975, 128–161.
Craig David. "The Defeatism of The Waste Land". The Waste Land - A Casebook, ed. C. B. Fox and Arnold, P. Hinchliffe. London : Macmillan, 1975, 200–215.
Eliot, T.S. "What Dante Means to Me". To Criticize a Critic. London : Faber and Faber, 1978.
Frazer, Sir James George. The New Golden Bough. New York : Doubleday, 1941.
Jain, Manju. Selected Poems and A Critical Reading of the Selected Poems of T. S. Eliot. New Delhi : Oxford University Press, 1992.
Kenner, Hugh. The Invisible Poet. London : W. H. Allen, 1960.
Lubbock, Percy. The Craft of Fiction. London : Jonathan Cape, 1965.
Moody, A. D. Thomas Stern Eliot : Poet. London : Cambridge University Press, 1980.
Richards, J.A. Principles of Literary Criticism. London : Routledge, 1978.
Sigg Eric. "Eliot as a Product of America". Thomas Stern Eliot : Poet. London : Cambridge University Press, 1980, 14–30.
Warren Henry Clark. Buddhism in Translation. London : Cambridge University Press, 1953.