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T.S.Eliot’s The Waste Land According to Psychoanalytic Criticism
Marwa Makram Attiya
1
Introduction
T.S.Eliot ( 1888 – 1965 ) was an American – English poet, dramatist,
and literary critic. He was a leader of the modernist movement in poetry in such
poems like The Waste Land. He influenced by Ezra Pound’s Imagism.1
(Britanica).
Imagism is a 20th century movement in poetry advocating free verse and
the expression of ideas and emotions through clear precise images.2 ( Merriam-
Webster).
According to this influence Eliot wrote The Waste Land in free verse.
He divided it inot five sections. He expressed his ideas in short and unconnected
way. When you read it you will feel that you are looking at many photographs or
images.
The most clear idea and emotion of the whole poem is pessimism.
Eliot’s psychological state during writing The Waste Land was so bad. His life
during the early 1920s was under personal strain, because he had marriage
difficulties with his wife Vivienne Haigh-Wood. He was near nervous
breakdown.3 (Litkicks).
Thus, we can explain The Waste Land according to the psychoanalytic
criticism. It expands the meaning of text to include the psyche of the auther,
seeing the text as the expression in fictional form of inner workings of the
human mind.4 ( Sohag University,12).
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Section One
The Burial of the Dead
From the early beginning of the poem, Eliot introduced an Epigraph
written in Latin and translated into English as follows: “ I saw with my eyes the
Sibyl at cumae hangin in a cage, and when the boys said to her ‘Sibyl, what do
you want that one replied ‘I want to die’ “.
The original story is about Sibyl who wished immortality. But she forgot
to ask for youth. When she grew up she wished to die, to put an end to her
misery and to have a new beginning. 5 (Faten, Lecture).
The Epigraph was very pessimistic sprang from Eliot’s desire to die. It
seemed that at this time he hated life so much and wished to die. He may
introduced Sibyl’s story in particular because of his illness and his feelings of
being old, although he was only 34 years old at this time.
The theme of this section is death. Eliot again expresses his feelings of
pessimism and death.
At the first episode he mentions Maria, who speaks about the seasons of
the year. She speaks about the spring that ought to be the season of fresh life and
happiness. But Maria believes that it is the most cruelest one. It represented by
April. Because April wakes up the memories of the past with the spring rain.
Then Maria speaks about winter that ought to be the season of cold life.
But again she has another idea, she believes that winter covers the past
memories with cold snow.6 (Faten, Lecture).
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Here we can see that Eliot prefers dark and cold season which covers the
memories of the merry past before his marriage difficulties.
After that Eliot moves us to another scene. The speaker remembers a
love scene when her beloved gave her hyacinths.But she believes that love is
nonsense. She feels no hope in future, and she feels pessimism. Because the sea
is empty.
In the third episode, Eliot speaks about Madam Sosostris, a wise fortune
teller. She gives the speaker his card which is the drowned phoenician sailor.
Also she shows him many other cards. The cards of Belladonna, the man with
three staves, the weel, the one eyed merchant who carrys something that she is
forbidden to see. And the blanck card which resembels the thing that the
merchant carrys. She also sees a crowd of people. And she can not see the
hanged man. So she warns him from death by water. The crowd of people that
Madam Sosostris sees round in a circle, without reaching any where.7 (Faten,
Lecture).
Eliot here expresses many allusions from ancient myth to indicate that
every thing are useless. People believe strongly in myth, but Eliot wants to say
that even strong believes are useless and insignificant.
He continues his pessimistic feelings in the last episode. In London’s
street a crowd of dead people. It may be the same crowd that Madam Sosostriss
saw in her cards. Eliot wants to say the London is unreal city. It will vanish as
every thing.
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Among the crowd there is Stetson whom the speaker knows, from the
battle of Mylae. The speaker asks him about the crops he planted last year. The
speaker believes that this dead crops will never grow or bloom. Eliot wants to
say that nothing can stand against death. The speaker believes that Stetson is a
hypocrite because he wants something dead to bloom. At the last line, the
speaker speaks directly to the reader. The speaker says that he himself and the
readers are hypocrite like Stetson. The speaker may be Eliot himself who wants
to say that everything is dead and any one sees any thing live is hypocrite.8
(Faten, Lecture).
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Section Two
A Game of Chess
The theme of this section is the description of life and people as unkind
and foxy. Through the episods of this section, Eliot describes many sad scene to
emphasise his ideas.
At the first episode he compairs between the lifeless and the game of
chess. Both of them depend on cold strategies and relations away from feelings
and humanities.
Then he introduces a description of a woman’s room. The chair in
which she sits is a burnished throne. This is an allusion from Shakespear’s
Antony and Cleopatra. There is a golden cupidon and another one covers his
eyes with his wings. The speaker also describes her jewels and perfums. There
are the paintings of some ghosts and Philomel. This is also an allusion from
Ovid’s Metamorphoses.
The original story is about king Tereus’s wife bids him to bring her sister
to her. Upon seeing Philomela, Tereus falls in love. He rapes her. After that he
cuts her tongue in order not to tell others what happened. But Philomela is able
to weave on a loom what has happened. When she returns to her sister she
shows her the loom. Her sister discovers the truth, she retrieves Philomela and
slays Tereus’s son and feeds the carcass to him. Upon discovering that, he
chases Philomela and his wife out of the palace. All of them transform into
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birds. The speechless Philomela becomes a nightingale. Here Eliot expresses the
idea of betrayal.
After that Eliot completes his sad scene. A woman complains to the
speaker her bad nerves. She asks the speaker to stay with her. Whe wants to
know what the speaker thinks about.
Then there is a dialogue between the woman and the speaker about the
noise of the wind which brings nothing. And a game of chess.9 (gradesaver).
Eliot here may express the problems between him and his wife. Because
after that he compaires between the good past and the bad present. He may be
happy before these problems. Then he expresses a failer relationship between a
husband and his wife.
The last part of this section speaks about two cockney women talking in
a pub about Albert the husband of one of them, who comes back from the army.
The other woman asks Albert’s wife because this is the time of Albert’s coming
back. They speaks about Albert who may leave his wife if she does not relief
him. He left money to her to change her tooth to become beautiful. They also
speaks about getting red of pregnance. At last there is an allusion from
Shakespear’s Hamlet. Speech said by Ophilia, “ Good Night “. Eliot wants to
compaire between the two ladies and Ophilia to say that the past was better than
present.10 (gradesaver).
In this section it seems that Eliot distrust people. This feelings may come
from his marriage difficulties with his wife. Because when any one has
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problems with the only person whome he loved it may cause him to lose trust in
life and people as a whole.
1
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Section Three
The Fire Sermon
In the first part of this secion, Eliot trys to connect between this secion
and the previous sections. So, he speaks again about death to connect this secion
with the first secion.
The speaker describes a scene of a river that is embty of life. No tent, no
emby bottles, and no rymphs. The speaker asks the Thames river to run till the
speaker finishs the songs.
Then the speaker speaks about the rattle of the bones, and the wreck of
his father and brother. There is a rat walks on a white dead bodies. Eliot wants to
say that every thing is dead and lifeless by drawing dead scene.11 (gradesaver).
Then Eliot speaks again about Philomela to connect this section with the
second one.
“ jug, jug, jug “ is her voice as a nightengale. “ Rudely forc’d “ refers to
the violence treatment which she received from Terues who expressed by the
last word “Tereu”.
After that there is a sex scene. The speaker is a merchant. He may be the
one eyed merchant whome Madam Sosostris mentioned in her card. He
describes a love scene between a secretary and a young man. After that he left
her alone with her mirror, and phonograph. Eliot wants to say that every thing is
nonsense even love.
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At the last part, the speaker is a woman speaks about her bitter lose. She
was born in Highbury and lost her innocence in Richmond and Key. She speaks
about her beloved’s promises of new start but invain.12 (gradesaver).
Again appears the influence of his marriage difficulties that causes him
to disbelieve in love.
10
Section Four
Death by Water
This short section deals with Phlebas, the drawned phoenician sailor
mentioned by Madam Sosostris.
Again Eliot trys to connect between all sections by mentioning Madam
Sosostris through all sections. He also speaks again about theme of death
particularely by drawning. It seems that he expresses his feelings of drawning in
problems, ill, and sadness in his life.
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Section Five
What the Thunder Said
At this section Eliot expresses his pessimistic feelings about lifeless life
and distruction. About suffering people in places that full of stones and embty
of water. It means that these places are lifeless. And the unreal cities of
Jursalem, Athens, Alexandria, Vienna, and London. They are distroyed, rebuilt,
and distoryed again. Nothing can stand against death.
At the end Eliot expresses a fisher sits in the sea shore while London
bridge is falling. Then comes the chant “ shantih, shantih, shantih “. Eliot in his
note to the poem, transtalted this chant as “ the peace which passeth
understanding “.13 (gradesaver).
At last it seems that Eliot’s marriage difficulties influenced him so much
to the extent that the female characters more than the male ones. Also his sad
life during this time influenced his great poem The Waste Land. In contrary to
the sad feelings that he experience in this period we can see how this bad
feelings spring good thing that is his creation of his best works The Waste Land.
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Works Cited List
Ahmed, Faten. Lecture. Egypt : Assuit University.2008.
(All subsequent references to this work will be taken from this
edition and indicated in textual paranthesis ).
Britanica Encyclopedia. T.S.Eliot. n.p.
GradeSaver. Study Guide of The Waste Land. GradeSaver LLC. 2008.
< http://www.gradesaver.com/classicnotes/titles/wasteland/section2.html>
(All subsequent references to this work will be taken from this
edition and indicated in textual paranthesis ).
GradeSaver. Study Guide of The Waste Land. GradeSaver LLC. 2008.
< http://www.gradesaver.com/classicnotes/titles/wasteland/section3.html>
(All subsequent references to this work will be taken from this
edition and indicated in textual paranthesis ).
GradeSaver. Study Guide of The Waste Land. GradeSaver LLC. 2008.
< http://www.gradesaver.com/classicnotes/titles/wasteland/section5.html>
McGuirk, John. T.S.Eliot’s The Waste Land. 2003.
<http//www.litkicks.com/TSEliot>.
Merriam-Webster’s Collegiat Dictionary. Eleventh edition. Springfield,
Massachusetts:U.S.A . 2003.
Sohag University, Dep. of English. Modern & Contemporary Literary
Criticism. 2006.
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