(43)
, who speaks of the Tarot cards and the "Drowned Phoenician
sailor" (47) as well as "Belladonna, the Lady of the Rocks" (49).
Sosostris advises the person she is reading, presumably the narrator, to "fear death by water" (55). However, the psychic's words are deceptive. Although water implies death in both cases (Belladonna is a siren, a creature who calls men to their deaths by singing), which would seem to be negative, the theme of the section is that death must precede transformation and rebirth. Death in this case is tied to religion; in many religions, gods are burned or drowned in effigy so that they may be reborn, in accord with religious myth. Therefore from a religious standpoint, these references to water are actually positive.In fact, this rebirth is referred to at the end of the section, only with the god being planted and then dug up instead of burning or
drowning: "That corpse you planted last year in your garden,/Ha it
begun to sprout? Will it bloom this year?" (71-2) The death it his
instance refers to the spiritual and cultural death of the people of Europe after World War I, and the rebirth is their anticipated reawakening.
In the second section, "A Game of Chess," water is referred to during dialogue between a husband and a wife. They are discussing what to do that day, or any day, and in their tone and words they exhibit their ennui. The activities described include "The hot water at
ten./And if it rains, a closed car at four" (135-6). Again, these
references are negative, and typical of the perversity of the wasteland. Whereas water is usually seen as desirable and purifying; here it is merely for a regular bath, or something to get away from. This is characteristic of the deadening of the people to nature and beauty as part of their spiritual death. The pair's boredom with life ties into the section's theme that sex without love in the modern world has become a battle within and between the sexes. This is yet another aspect of the waste land, and parallels the negative symbolism of the water; whereas the couple should be happy and loving, they are bored and disinterested, almost at war.
The third section, "The Fire Sermon," contains two sections of long
description of the Thames River:
The river's tent is broken: the last fingers of leaf
Clutch and sink into the wet bank. The wind
Crosses the brown land, unheard. The nymphs are departed.
Sweet Thames, run softly, till I end my song.
The river bears no empty bottles, sandwich papers,
Silk handkerchiefs, cardboard boxes, cigarette ends
Or other testimony of summer nights. The nymphs are departed.
(173-179)
A rat crept softly through the vegetation
Dragging its slimy belly on the bank
While I was fishing in the dull canal (187-9)
This section, again, is a negative association with water. Now, the river is brown and deserted, with no evidence of the former happiness (sex) that happened on the river bank, with the nymphs. The only sex now is referred to as "White bodies naked bodies on the low damp ground" (193), which implies lust and an unpleasant sexual experience ,devoid of love. The fishing reference is an allusion to either the Fisher King, Buddha, or Jesus, which again ties water to the religion motif. The second major reference to water in this section regards two prostitutes washing their feet:
O the moon shone bright on Mrs. Porter
And on her daughter
They wash their feet in soda water (199-201)
This is a perversion of Jesus washing the apostles' feet as an act of humility; here are two prostitutes, considered dirty and sinful, doing the same. Here again is a religious tie-in. The perversion also emphasizes the waste land's twisted mode of existence.
Both of these references to water also tie in with the theme of the
section, that fire is a symbol for the meaningless pleasures of the
world. All three of the references to water have something to do with
sex.
A third reference to water in this section again describes the Thames, in two contrasting ways. The first focuses on the negative, the dirt:
"The river sweats/Oil and tar" (266-7). The second focuses on two
lovers, "Elizabeth and Leicester/Beating oars" (279-280), which is a positive association with water and sex (one of the few).
The fourth section, entitled "Death By Water," makes reference to the Tarot card of the Phoenician sailor:
Phlebas the Phoenician, a fortnight dead,
Forgot the cry of gulls, and the deep seas swell
And the profit and loss.
A current under sea
Picked his bones in whispers. As he rose and fell
He passed the stages of his age and youth
Entering the whirlpool.
Gentile or Jew
O you who turn the wheel and look to windward,
Consider Phlebas, who was once handsome and tall as you. (312-321)
Here, the narrator is holding up Phlebas as an example of one who died for a good reason: Phoenician sailors were responsible for developing and (through trade) spreading both religion and what has become our modern alphabet. This is a parallel with the idea that drowning is positive, and essential to rebirth.
The last section is titled "What the Thunder Said." In the beginning of this section, the idea of aridity is repeated, this time with insistent, repetitive language from line 331 to line 358:
"Here is no
water but only rock/Rock and no water and the sandy road" (331-2).
This insistence is followed later by relief: "...Then a damp
gust/Bringing rain" (393-4). Finally, rain has come to the waste land, bringing with it the rebirth and cleansing that it has traditionally symbolized. This is a double symbolism in that the symbolism of the water has reverted from a perversion back to its normal meaning, symbolizing the approaching end of the waste land. The rain falling on the parched earth is a metaphor for the reawakening of the people shell-shocked from the world war, ready to begin their lives again.
Water is again mentioned in this section in reference to the Hindu
word for control, Damyata:
Damyata: The boat responded
Gaily, to the hand expert with sail and oar
The sea was calm, your heart would have responded
Gaily, when invited, beating obedient
To controlling hands (418-422)
This is one of the three parts of the thunder's advice to reach
Nirvana, according to Hindu myth; the other two are "give" and
"sympathize." The three together comprise the theme of this section.In this passage, control refers to regaining control of your life, in particular to the Fisher King legend, in which a king's land falls to waste when he himself is diseased. This is paired with lines 423-6:
I sat upon the shore
Fishing, with the arid plain behind me
Shall I at least set my lands in order?
This means that the waste land is coming to an end, that the king is at last returning to health and returning to control.
Rain The rain image clearly overlaps and reinforces that of water stirring
Dull roots with spring rain
· a shower of rain
· if it rains, a closed car at four
· dry sterile thunder without rain
· a damp gust
Bringing rain
· the limp leaves
Waited for rain
dry
The opening verses of 'The Hollow Men' use images of dryness very
similarly to 'The Waste Land'. it does not represent simply death
(which in Buddhist thought, is the supreme goal of Nirvana, only
reached by the most enlightened beings), but a lack of real life, a
dreadful, sterile limbo state devoid of redemption or spiritual
meaning.
· the dry stone
· a little low dry garret
· Her drying combinations
· Sweat is dry
· dry sterile thunder
· dry grass singing
· Dry bones can harm no one
The winter's evening settles down
With smells of steaks in passageways.
Six o'clock.
The burnt-out ends of smoky days.
And now a gusty shower wraps
The grimy scraps
Of withered leaves across your feet
And newpapers from vacant lots;
The showers beat
On empty blinds and chimney-pots,
And at the corner of the street
A lonely cab-horse steams and stamps.
And then the lighting of the lamps.
--
First of all winter, especially in cold countries like England, is not a
refreshing image, it is both dull and uninspiring and if we can say so,
lifeless too. And rain in winter is the most unwelcome of all. The
pitiable condition of the streets after an evening shower is a picture
not so worth mentioning after all. Maybe the images have been
deliberately chosen by the poet in order to reflect the dull and dreary
times in England then, when under the sway of industrialization and war,
life was undergoing a tremendous change, which to these poets was not
inspiring at all. Eliot draws our attention towards burnt-out ends of
cigarettes, grimy scraps, withered leaves and broken blinds, none of
which are refreshing or pleasing even in the remotest sense of the
words.
The modern poet looks for meaning not in the beautiful and refreshing
aspects of Nature like the Romantics, but in the dull and dreary aspects
of mundane living. And failing to find any assurance in these, they are
disillusioned and frustrated. The modern poet is not obsessed with
'beauty', but he etches life's ugliness in verse. The portrayal is so
stark and real that it has a great impact on the reader and transforms
their mood completely.
The lonely cab horse may symbolically represent the lonely man or even
the lonely poet, who is frustrated with life and steams and stamps in
disgust. The lighting of the lamp doesn't illuminate in a positive
sense. It only serves to highlight the miserable condition of the
streets after the gush of rainfall.