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.
(The Waste Land, lines 111-115 )
The constant questioning, added to the repetition of the words ‘speak’ and ‘think’, creates a tone of extreme anxiety as the woman tries to communicate with her partner. Nevertheless, this is a futile attempt, as she fails to elicit any verbal response from the man, despite allowing him time to respond, signified by the caesura between the two stanzas above. From the initial imperative the woman uses, ‘Stay with me’, it is apparent that her desperation is more the result of a fear of being alone, rather than a fear of losing the man’s love: the fact that all sense of communication between them has broken down indicates that, if love ever existed between the pair, it has long since vanished.
On the other hand, while the man fails to respond to his wife’s utterances, we do receive an insight into his thoughts throughout the episode. He makes known that he believes that, metaphorically speaking, they are ‘in rat’s alley, where the dead men lost their bones’ (TWL, ll.115-6 ). As such, he suggests that the relationship is already dead, ‘rat’s alley’ holding connotations of the grave, where the rats can gnaw upon the bones of the dead relationship. The relationship is, ultimately, beyond revival; and to return to the earlier point, it seems even more valid to suggest that the woman only wants to hold onto it out of a fear of being alone, rather than out of love. Once again, then, relationships in the city are depicted in a negative light, this one being almost as loveless and futile as Connie’s in Tales of the City.
Eliot’s title for this section of the poem, ‘A Game of Chess’, gives a further insight into the nature of the couple’s relationship. A two player strategy game where the opponents engage in a battle of wits, each being required to out maneuver the other and to anticipate what the other is thinking before making the next move, chess is the perfectly chosen metaphor for the relationship described. The use of the indefinite – rather than the definite - article in the title, however, suggests that such occurrences as those described in this section are common within the relationships held in the city; while the fact that the two players, so to speak, remain unnamed and are only ever referred to as ‘I’ and ‘you’, suggests that their individual identities are of little importance, since they are one of many couples engaged in such futile games.
Eliot continues this portrayal of the meaningless sexual relationships inherent in the city when he describes the actions of a young secretary and her lover in ‘The Fire Sermon’:
The meal is ended, she is bored and tired,
Endeavors to engage in her caresses,
Which still are unreproved if undesired.
Flushed and decided he assaults at once.
(TWL, ll.236-9)
Though undoubtedly charged with greater sexual energy than the actions of the couple in ‘A Game of Chess’, once again this relationship appears to be devoid of love and feeling for the other. The couple have engaged in one of the formal means of romance, sharing a meal together, but this has failed to provoke the expected feelings, since the secretary is ‘bored and tired’. Nevertheless, her lover is unperturbed by this and sets out to gain the sexual satisfaction he is looking for by endeavoring to caress the young lady. Moreover, while these advances are ‘undesired’ by the secretary, they remain ‘unreproved’, suggesting that the secretary is going to engage in sexual intercourse with the man despite having no feelings for him. Again, like with Connie’s relationships in Tales of the City, this implies that sexual encounters in the city are not associated with the expression of love for another, but merely serve as satisfying sexual needs. Eliot’s word choice used to describe the man’s advances, ‘assaults’, shows just how self-centered and unfeeling these relationships are, as this word holds connotations of the most predatory and self-orientated type of sexual encounter, rape.
While it may be assumed that like Connie and her former lover, the characters in the relationships described thus far in Eliot’s poem are not parents (and the couple in ‘A Game of Chess’ are not necessarily married), Eliot also provides a depiction of one other relationship in ‘A Game of Chess’ which shows that loveless and futile relationships exist within family life in the city. Moreover, while the first couple described in ‘A Game of Chess’ seem very affluent – not only does the room consist of ‘marble and ‘golden’ objects, but it is lit by a ‘sevenbranched candelabra’ which makes the lady’s ‘jewels’ glitter – Albert and Lil, the second couple he describes, are drawn from the opposite end of society. Nevertheless, like all of the other relationships described thus far, theirs is also loveless and built on selfish satisfaction of one’s sexual desires. This is shown when Lil’s friend tries to persuade her to smarten herself up for Albert returning home from the army so that she can satisfy his sexual needs:
I said, and think of poor Albert,
He’s been in the army four years, he
Wants a good time, and if you don’t
Give it him, there’s others will.
(TWL, ll.147-50)
Once again, the relationships held within the city are shown as being depraved and devoid of love, given the implication that Albert will be forced into an infidelity if Lil won’t give him ‘a good time’. Moreover, the fact that there are ‘others’ who ‘will’ readily give him ‘a good time’ suggests that immoral behaviour is commonplace. This is made even more deplorable by the fact that Lil’s looks have become so ‘antique’ because, after giving Albert children, she has taken ‘pills’ to ‘pull it off’, meaning that she has had an abortion after falling pregnant once again (TWL, l.156). It seems that Lil is only there to satisfy Albert’s libido and that if she is not sexually attractive to him, then she is of no use to her husband. As such, Eliot shows that city relationships are loveless and futile, no matter whether these are between singles or married couples, rich or poor.
Part Two – Relationships based on Love and Respect
While the relationships described thus far are loveless and futile, these contrast greatly with the majority of relationships involved in Dickens’s Great Expectations. More significantly, these relationships tend to be based in the countryside, rather than the city. For example, the relationship that exists between Pip’s sister and her husband, Joe, is meaningful. No matter what happens, they continue to love one another, even if theirs is not an ideal relationship: throughout the novel, they fail to show any sexual passion for one another, or other outward expressions of love. Indeed, the closest Joe comes to showing that his thoughts are with his wife is when he tells Pip, ‘Your sister, she’s no worse than she were’ (Great Expectations, page 208). Nevertheless, in their simple relationship, such terms of endearment as Joe’s manner of referring to his wife, ‘Mrs Joe’, show that he values his wife and their marriage. This sense of value is strengthened when Joe describes the effects of his wife’s illness upon her as ‘the waste of my wife’. This indicates that ‘Mrs Joe’ was of great value to him and shows how deeply hurt he is that his wife is dying and that, with her death, he will lose their relationship. More to the point, Joe sticks by his wife throughout her illness and nurses her, something Albert and the other city dwellers described thus far would seem to find unthinkable.
On the evidence presented above, it would seem that while the relationships set in the countryside are more simple than those set in the city in the three texts, they also possess depth and meaning rather than being loveless and shallow. Nevertheless, to categorise all city relationships in this way is to ignore one important factor: all of the relationships described so far are sexual in nature. When we consider relationships based on friendship, rather than sex, then the picture changes. This may be seen most clearly in the relationship shared by Mona and Michael in Tales of the City. Mona being lesbian and Michael gay, their friendship is not complicated by sexual desire. The platonic love these characters hove for one another is exemplified by the mutual respect they hold for one another. This is seen when Michael splits up with his boyfriend and Mona unconditionally offers him a place to stay:
‘You’ve saved my life again.’
‘Don’t mention it babycakes.’
(TOTC, p. 58)
The fact that this is not the first time that Mona has helped out her friend, coupled with Michael’s hyperbolic expression of thanks, shows that this is a relationship built on love and concern for each other. Mona’s instant dismissal of the magnitude of what she has offered her friend – ‘Don’t mention it’ – shows that this is not a self-fulfilling act, but one that is expected between loving friends. Furthermore, her use of the pet name she has for Michael, ‘babycakes’, highlights the closeness of the relationship they share, much like Joe’s referring to his wife as ‘Mrs Joe’ in Great Expectations. By offering Michael a place of solace after the breakup of his sexual relationship, Mona expresses the love that seems to be missing in the sexual relationships that exist in the city within these texts, showing that friendship can offer the companionship that sexual relationships in the complexity of city life cannot. If only the female involved in the first relationship described in ‘A Game of Chess’ in Eliot’s The Waste Land had found such companionship, she would not have to yearn for her partner to ‘Stay’ with her despite their relationship being loveless, dead and in ‘rat’s alley’, so that she does not have to face the harshness of city life alone (TWL, ll.111-6).
Part Three – Urban Drabness Versus Rural Bliss
Despite Mary Ann of Tales of the City and Pip from Great Expectations sharing the desire to leave their rural homes and head for the bright lights of the city, the overwhelming impression offered of city life within the three texts is one of a very mechanical, monotonous and drab existence. While we never really encounter a rural setting in Tales of the City, the other two texts provide a neat contrast between the country and the city, with city life apparently revolving in a day to day cycle of boredom that has little meaning or substance This is very potently expressed in Eliot’s depiction of London city workers making their journey to work:
A crowd flowed over London Bridge, so many
I had not thought death had undone so many . . .
And each man fixed his eyes before his feet.
(TWL, ll.62-64)
This impression of dehumanized individuals who seem to behave automatically is strengthened by Eliot’s use of metonymy here, where all individuality and uniqueness are lost and the workers are merely ‘A crowd’. The tone is also very pessimistic and there is a great sense of hopelessness in the repetition of ‘so many’ when describing the workers being ‘undone’ by ‘death’. Ultimately, to Eliot, the city workers appear little more than corpses with the life drained out of them by the monotony of city life. This depressing picture is furthered by the fact that ‘each man fixed his eyes before his feet’, as if the men do not want to be taking part in this ritual, but must do so simply to survive. There is no human contact or communication described, suggesting that not only have the men lost all sense of hope, but that they have nothing of worth to say, so boring and mundane is their existence within the reality of the city.
Eliot furthers this notion that city existence is drab and monotonous when he describes another side of city life, the prostitutes found on the banks of the River Thames. Here, Eliot uses pun to contrast these women with beautiful mythological creatures associated with the countryside: he refers to them as ‘nymphs’ (TWL, l). While this term is used to describe beautiful young ladies, it is also a colloquial term for nymphomaniacs. Moreover, in contrast, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, it also describes ‘the variety of mythological semi-divine spirits regarded as maidens and associated with nature, especially rivers and woods’ (The Oxford Encyclopedic English Dictionary, page 1001). The sordid nature of these women’s occupation in contrast to the idyllic life of the mythological nymphs, suggests that life in the city is tainted and debased, as women are forced to carry out this demeaning act night after night. Being described as ‘nymphs’, like the male workers described as a ‘crowd’, these women are allowed no personality by Eliot; and the fact that we are given no insight into their emotions reinforces the notion that city life is not only drab, but mechanical, the women only serving a sordid function within the city and nothing else.
Similarly, this sense of an emotionless, mechanical existence can also be seen in the life of Estella, the adopted daughter of Miss Havingsham, a countryside neighbour of Pip’s in Great Expectations. Jilted at the altar and a spinster all her life, Miss Havingsham raised Estella to feel nothing, especially towards men. Indeed, Miss Havingsham raised Estella with the purpose of breaking men’s hearts with her beauty, in order to avenge her own heartbreak at being jilted. This lack of emotion is shown when Estella remarks to Pip, ‘You must know . . . that I have no heart’ (GE, p.224). Moreover, when Pip reveals to Estella his feelings for her, her response is startling for its passiveness and coldness in tone: ‘You address nothing in my breast, you touch nothing there’ (GE, p.343). While this appears harsh and cruel, Estella’s intentions are admirable: knowing how she has been raised to lack feeling, Estella knows she has to hurt Pip rather than allow him to be devastated by the failure of a relationship she is incapable of sustaining. As such, while her coldness and mechanical manner seem more in line with the relationships found in the city within these texts, and in contrast to those found in the country, by wanting to do right by Pip, Estella’s behaviour does reinforce the notion that relationships in the country are much less self-orientated and immoral than those in the city: she could have used Pip merely for sexual satisfaction, but does not because of a sense of what is right and because he offers her love.
Finally, one other way that Eliot creates a contrast between the mechanical boredom and predictability of city life and the country setting, is by showing how unpredictable the elements in the more natural rural settings are in comparison. This is shown when the thunder finally sounds in ‘What the Thunder Said’:
Ganga was sunken, and limp leaves
Waited for rain, while the black clouds
Gathered far distant, over Himarant.
The jungle crouched, humped in silence.
Then spoke the thunder.
(TWL, ll.396-400)
Unlike the depersonalized human ‘crowd’ who cross London Bridge, even ‘the jungle’ is presented as an individual through Eliot’s use of personification. Nevertheless, as all around anticipates the thunder, Eliot’s use of syntax shows how this occurs spontaneously. This is shown in his following of ‘Then’ with ‘spoke’ rather than the more common “Then the thunder spoke”. This use of syntax suggests that the noise startled everything and that recognizing that it was ‘the thunder’ occurred after the noise was made (when the thunder ‘spoke’). As such, rural life being more closely associated with natural occurrences, it seems that Eliot is implying that it too is far more spontaneous and lacks the mechanical monotony of the predictable city life.
Conclusion
While the three texts address the theme of the dichotomy that exists between city and country life in different ways, each of them offers similar interpretations of this theme. The stereotype of city life being cold and unemotional, where relationships are self-orientated and futile, is for the most part apparent in all three texts. Moreover, the portrayal of country life as a far more moral and loving existence in Great Expectations and the depiction of country life being less monotonous and predictable than city life in Eliot’s The Waste Land, also correspond with the stereotypes. Nevertheless, by showing that love and companionship can be found in the city, and that the cold mechanical heart can be found also in the country, respectively, Maupin’s Tales of the City and Dickens’s Great Expectations show that the stereotypes are too closely defined and that characters – and people’s – individuality should not be discounted when assessing the nature of country and city life and the portrayal of them within works of literature.
Word Count: 3601
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Primary Texts
DICKENS, C., Great Expectations, Penguin Classics: London.
ELLIOT, T.S. (1910), The Waste Land, in ABRAMS (et al) (eds) 1993, The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Vol. 2, 6th Edition, W.W Norton and Company: London.
MAUPIN, A., Tales of the City, Black Swan.
Secondary Reading
GRAY, M., 1992, A Dictionary of Literary Terms, 2nd Edition, Longman York Press: Beirut.
HAWKINS, J. & ALLEN, R. (eds), 1991, The Oxford Encyclopedic English Dictionary, Oxford University Press: Oxford.
