Eliot “exploits” these literary figures to guide the reader’s attention to the crucial points of the poem. The language he uses doesn’t only serve to illustrate his views and feelings of the waste land; the language and literary elements are meant to be taken exceedingly literally. He makes essential elements, such as the mixture of perfume and candle smoke, apparent by using personification. His use of alliteration (“…strange synthetic perfumes […] drowned the sense in odours; stirred…”) gives significance to the monotony of life in the waste land. Virtuousness and ferocity blend to allocate a feeling of anxiety in the waste land. Eliot brings this across by making use of an oxymoron; “savagely still”.
Eliot’s style of writing is a matter of taste. He hid many “inside references” in his work. The first lines of this section illustrate “The Chair she sat in, like a burnished throne…” along many other opulent ornamentation’s which decorated her luxurious boudoir. This profound eloquent section includes vivid literary allusions to Antonie and Cleopatra. It is said to be a parody of ActII, scene ii of Shakespeare’s play. “The change of Philomel, by the barbarous king so rudely forced…”associates with the dreadful rape of her by the King Tiresius, who cut out Philomel’s tongue. She then metamorphosed into a nightingale (“yet there the nightingale”). The poem seems very challenging and incomprehensible to most readers, where as some very read readers might find it extremely engaging. To me, The Waste Land is a poem that the reader would lover of passionately hate.
Numerous and very specific adjectives are use to grant the poem an overpowering characteristic. Eliot’s evocative language appeals to the readers senses. “…Her strange synthetic perfumes, unguent, powered, or liquid- troubled, confused and drowned the sense in odours…”(87) and ironically awakens the readers senses. It suggests the “obuse” of the perfume, which can now even be tasted. The perfume has lost its beauty and became unattractive and unbearable.
The tone of this section is set by the title, A Game of Chess. Eliot took this title from two plays of Thomas Middelton, a 17th-century playwright. In one of these plays, the moves made during a game of chess symbolise the steps involved in seduction.
The theme of poverty and wealth are present in A Game of Chess. Wealth and poverty overlap and appear to be linked. These, however, contrasting themes add a feeling of perplexity present in the waste land. Another theme is disappointment. The woman portrayed in the first section of A Game of Chess is unable to impart her interior self to the world. Her world is ,at the end of the day, sterile and worthless. This also ironically corresponds to the theme of wealth.
T.S. Eliot’s poem, The Waste Land, has different literary inside backgrounds. Eliot, however didn’t simply exploit other poets and authors, he integrated their works wisely to establish his waste land. He used literary devices, which are to be taken literally, to create vibrant images. I rather despise this poem since I do not have enough literary background knowledge to grasp all the allusions to other works from Shakespeare (etc.). Eliot tries to elaborate, with the help of certain literary devices, on the corruption, as an effect of relationships, love and life. The melancholy side of life is shown in his work.
