"The Waste Land" - A Game of Chess

we now come to the second part of TS Eliot's the wasteland title the game of chess and you'll remember from the first section the burial of the dead the primary fear and situation of those in the modern world who are caught in this barren wasteland is the burial of the dead without the prospect of rebirth that if religious truth and spiritual truth no longer suffice as no longer satisfies us and we are simply existing in a wheel of time that is perpetual and never-ending yet never without any real growth then when we die there perhaps is no prospect of rebirth or meaning Beyond and now we move on to the second section of the wasteland a game of chess where the subject matter changes dramatically that in a game of chess we see two different stories taking place both of which involve a married couple at the first section the first narrative describes a wealthier upper-class couple who are caught in a bad dull fading relationship and then the last narrative is a lower-class poverty-stricken relationship that is also dreadful and stuck and paralyzed in this modern way but both of those relationships are introduced by this very general image that Eliot incorporates that relies on several different references and allusions to mythology and to previous classical works before we get into the section proper I mentioned in an earlier segment that each of these five sections of the wasteland tend to incorporate a dimension or essential element the way that they were previously understood with earth fire water air and then the fifth element of spirit so the burial of the dead concerned earth in a game of chess we have the notion of err being employed primarily because of this image that he uses with the game of chess itself the chess is a cunning game is a very cerebral great cerebral game that involves a great deal of strategy scheming it is an intellectual match which is an interesting choice for Eliot because what this symbol becomes is an agent of communication for the husband and the wife that plays the game of chess about halfway through the section the chess becomes the symbol of the diminishment their communication has undergone that this is the only way they can connect now over a game of chess that the matters of the heart and of the soul any kind of romance or true love has diminished it has been reduced to simply a game of chess where one opponent seeks to out match and outwit the other that they are strictly intellectually sparring they're strategizing seeking to outdo one another rather than achieve any real sense of communion communion or intimacy as husband and wife all they have is this cold calculating game of chess and chess is a cerebral game it is played from an aerial knew that to conquer your opponent in chess you must have a higher perspective you must be able to see the pieces of the board which again brings those playing the game away from the the real world common plain equality of a marriage into a one-upsmanship where whoever has the higher ground wins the marriage or wins the game of chess but we get into this first section where we have just a description of this queen this woman who sits in her chair like a burnished thrown his opening line is from a play by Shakespeare entitled Antony and Cleopatra so perhaps queen Cleopatra is the figure being referenced in this opening section the chair she sat in like a burnished throne glowed on the marble and so we had the sense of queen Cleopatra the way she's described in the play as being in her barge on the Nile surrounded by all her majesty and ornate decoration and beauty all the wealth of Egypt at her fingertips and so she is the quintessential powerful woman the independent queen who out matches and outwits not only her subjects but also her husband that she is cold independent isolated and powerful but there's a deeper resonance there too with just the nature of the queen peace itself bringing back the image of chess in the game of chess the queen is the most powerful piece which seems to be an image that eliot uses as we get into this section that we have a marriage being subverted by the wife but ultimately because there is no real community between husband and wife any longer that she seeks to dominate as a way of gaining power rather than become one with her husband that she seeks control over this game of chess this symbol for their lack of real community between one another but there's also another interesting piece with the king throughout the wasteland Eliot alludes often to this myth of the Fisher King the Fisher King has to do with Arthurian legend the King Arthur tales of the essential to collapse that entire myth into a brief spot that the idea the Fisher King is that once he suffers a wound in battle the land that he governs suffers a wound and particularly a wound to the generative organ that the Fisher King suffers a wound that prohibits him from reproducing and so he becomes barren and sterile and as a result his kingdom fails and the essential point with the Fisher King myth as it's used in Elliott the one of them anyway that's used is that if the king is lost the kingdom is lost now as we saw in the burial of the dead that has a spiritual element to it that if there is no king spiritually how can there be a kingdom how can there be order to all this chaos around us how can there be law how can there be anything to govern our lives if the source of that truth is absent all along if there's no king there cannot be a kingdom and if the king is wounded the kingdom is wounded and how that applies to chest that though the Queen is the most powerful piece the king is the only piece with intrinsic value if the king is lost the game is lost which alludes to this myth in a land with no king there cannot be government meaning law order anything that would allow us to survive civilization is lost which was Elliott's perspective of the modern world then we were the lost generation we had gone off the rails of all those generations and gone before we were kingless and so what's left than for the Queen to take over the board we get to this description the chair she sat in like a burnished throne glowed on the marble where the glass held up by standards brought with fruited vines from which a golden cupid on peeped out another hit his eyes it's interesting that one can see and one is blind that essential inequality of the pair that we'll see throughout the section that it is not a real camaraderie is not a real connection if only one of the members is able to see but the glass doubles the flames this is an interesting note the glass the marble on which the chair the throne is seated doubles the flames of seven-branched candelabrum reflecting light upon the table it's interesting that the light that is so luminous and brilliant in the setting is simply reflected light an artificial deceptive sort of light and Elliot emphasizes this even further when he says the glitter of her jewels rose to meet it so there is certainly doubling going on all of the light that is filtering through the colored glass and the marble that is creating this brilliant scene for the Queen piece is all reflected light not genuine light there is no Sun to give off any real absolute light it's all reflected all artificial the glitter of her jewels meets with the reflected light of the candelabra creating a smoke and mirrors effect there's no real fire it's all reflected from satin cases poured in rich profusion in vials of ivory and colored colored glass this is certainly the language for Cleopatra the queen who is in power she is certainly wealthy and Noble unstop or lurked her strange synthetic perfumes unguent powdered or liquid troubled confused and drowned the sentient odours here's another sense of that domination this is the game of chess and she is winning her strange synthetic perfumes again the artificial is emphasized there her perfumes trouble confuse and drown the sense now this is interesting looking back and going forward this idea of drowning came up in the burial of the dead the cards that Madame Sesostris predicted for us one of them was to fear death by water to fear drowning and again in section 4 the wasteland will have that exact title but here we have the drowning of the senses descending into chaos loss of knowledge power all of it is fading under this fog of synthetic perfume which is interesting as well to consider the the fog of mustard gas that Elliott uses particularly in the left song of jail food Prufrock this yellow fog that hovers and drowns the senses here he's describing that as a woman's perfume drowns after and has troubled and Confused stirred by the air that freshened from the window these ascended in fattening the prolonged candle flames flung their smoke into the lap area stirring the pattern of the coffered ceiling huge sea wood fed with copper burned green and orange framed by the colored stone in which sad light a Karva dolphin swam now this is quite a hurdle of descriptions that Elliott is including here that not only are the strange synthetic perfumes overwhelming the senses but Elliott himself the speaker that he's crafted for this section is overwhelmingly abundantly providing intense description of the scenery and the Queen's sovereignty over it and here we switch to an interesting reference from Ovid his metamorphosis the speaker says above the antique mantel was displayed as though a window gave upon the Sylvan scene the change of Phil amel by the barbarous king so rudely forced and this is an interesting story from Ovid that we probably need some context from in order to clarify why Elliot is using this image of the woman there seems to be a contrast going on that the earlier descriptions for the Queen piece the powerful domineering woman is contrasted here with that of the abused subjected oppressed woman in Phil amel that in the story in metamorphosis Phil amel is the sister-in-law to king Tereus and ends up being raped by him and King Darius rapes Phil amela which is a story that le will bring back again in Section three the fire sermon so the barber is king and Tereus rudely forces this change on to fill amel and the change is once King tricked arias rapes Philomela he subsequently cuts off her tongue and her hands to prevent her from telling her story which again for Elliott one of his mains one of his main concerns is the inability to tell one story the inability to provide meaning and narrative in this chaotic world that we live in the multiplicity of voices tumbling on top of each other prohibits any singular narrative we'll have the same thing at the end of this section with the interrupting bartenders voice that it's hard to tell your story when there are obstacles all along the way your attempts are stymied at every turn but this change that Elliott's referring to is a change by the gods where Phil amela is transformed into a nightingale and it's in this form of a nightingale that Phil amela is able to tell her story in the form of the bird song so here the change is so rudely forced by the barbarous King yet there the nightingale filled all the desert there's our wasteland image with inviolable voice a voice that is inviolable and still she cried and still the world pursues so he or she is still longing to tell the story that the king will prevented her from telling in this domineering game of chess where love has been downgraded to rape and violence and abuse and degradation and now she is singing her beautiful Nightingale song filling the desert no one has ears to hear everyone is hiding in shadow yet still she cries and still the world pursues jug jug to dirty ears this jug jug as we'll see the fire sermon is likely a reference to a crude reference for sex that the Nightingale song is simply a repetitive monosyllabic phrasing jug jug jug jug something repeated over and over and it's only dirty years that here so her crying her Nightingale song in the wasteland in the desert which she sings it is ultimately meaningless and other withered stumps of time perhaps a reference to her arms as they are after Tereus has removed her hands we're told upon the walls all these stories were told on the walls staring forms leaned out leaning hushing the room and closed footsteps shuffled on the stair under the firelight under the brush her hair spread out in fiery points glowed into words then would be savagely still so we have a book ended phrase here with glowing on the marble and glowing in two words the woman is shining brilliantly both filum Ella and the Queen peace yet it ends on this note of savage stillness which again going into the two narratives that will have both the upper-class narrative and the lower-class narrative these two contrasting perspectives stillness itself in marriage can be Savage surely a loss of communion a loss of friendship the inability to talk but that can be a savage death blow to the unity that once was a marriage so here's where we get into the first story we have quotation marks there the woman is speaking to her husband she says my nerves are bad tonight I'm on edge tense conflicted already we get a sense of peace lessness there's no real security 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're thinking think notice the aggression of this opening voice oh this woman is pestering her husband without really giving him an opportunity to bonded she is relentless her nerves are bad stay with me pleading with him to stay pleading with him to talk questioning him why he cannot speak and the imperatives over again speak think I never know what you're thinking this is certainly a observers look into a relationship that has crumbled it as faded from what it once possibly could be there is no real prospect for understanding between the two they are not on the same page he does not respond we do not have his quotation in return he basically relays his thoughts for the reader and she says what are you thinking and he says I think we are in rats alley where the dead men lost their bones and this is an image that Elliott will bring again Ali filled with rats who as they crawl along the modern empty streets of London only have dry dead bones to screw across and he says that's where I think we are we are in rats alley cold dark alone in the land of the dead possibly even a reference to ezekiel the valley of dry bones that God brings Ezekiel to to have him preach to the bones in the burial of the dead we saw reference to Ezekiel the son of man what are the roots that clutch in this rats alley in this wasteland what are the roots that clutch here the husband says I think we are in this this alley surrounded by dry bones she responds what is that noise he does not answer he simply thinks the Wyndham of the door what is that noise now what is the wind doing nothing again nothing and this concept of nothingness is a real fear the fear of oblivion loss of meaning described as nothing but a wind under the doora there is nothing at the door there is nothing coming to save them from their marriage an image that will ultimately come by the end of this section as they play the game of chess together she says do you know nothing do you see nothing do you remember nothing the repetition of nothingness almost as a motif this under underlying current to their entire conversations grounded on nothingness they do not have a firm foundation on which they can operate he knows nothing sees nothing remembers nothing according to his wife's nagging he thinks to himself I remember those are pearls that were his eyes now again this is a reference to the tempest play by Shakespeare that was referenced in section 1 the burial of the dead it's an image of rebirth that the drowned sailor goes to the bottom of the sea and in his death his body is transformed into something more luminous more beautiful more lovely and Elliott had already used this image in the burial data to describe the impossibility of rebirth and yet here we have that again that all this man remembers is a time when there was rebirth resurrection when there's a time where life might come after death I remember those are pearls of with his eyes and yet again here the irony is that this does not apply to the man he is a part of a marriage in a part of a wasteland that is ever spiraling downward losing meaning losing definition losing trust along the way much like Dante Dante's Inferno ever spiraling downward and she says are you alive or not is there nothing in your head and again harkening back to section 1 this notion of a living death is a real fear the inability to know are you alive or not are you simply marching asleep are you Walking Dead is there nothing in your head at all have you lost everything says but oh oh oh oh that Shakespearean rag it's so elegant so intelligent this is interesting to have this phrase from Shakespeare introduced from The Tempest earlier and then now you have a a ragtime jazz song from Eliot's current culture that Elliot was fascinated by the modern culture he lived in the Jazz Age of the 20s and you have a blending of high and low culture all of it collapsing on itself it's Shakespeare as he's referenced here and referenced later in the poem is being reduced into a lyric from a ragtime song a Shakespearean rag it's so elegant and so intelligent but now we go back to the wife's voice what shall I do now what shall I do again the prospect of living in a wasteland has massive implications and one of which is that any task we set our hand to anything we fill up our days with it ultimately is robbed of its purpose and meaning if there's an if there's no aim in no direction these are the questions we're left with what shall I do what do I do now I shall rush out as I am and walk the street with my hair down so what shall we do tomorrow and then it reaches its ultimate formulation what shall we ever do that brings in this eternal fear and the fear that eternity is repetitive and dull what shall we ever do the same thing we do every day if there is no purpose no future for us to put our hand to the ground to create if there's nothing that can grow from this dry soil what do we do with these days what shall we ever do together and she answers her own question but it's only with a series of mundane details the hot water at 10:40 and if it rains a closed card for we'll go for a drive and we shall play a game of chess and their love their marriage their marriage is reduced to a game that is what they shall ever do we sit down to play their game of chess to scheme strategize out match out dominate their communication has broken down all they have is this game this conduit between the relationship the only way they are able to communicate with one another is through this chess game interestingly Eliot with the help of Ezra Pound eventually edited it out but there is a line here in the original version that's interesting to take note of where Elliot said the ivory men make company between us and though it's not in the final version I think it's interesting to see in juxtaposing with the lines we've already noticed that all they have is this game of chess and the ivory men make company between them that the figures of the chess board become the way that they can commune with one another that they are ultimately alone though they are seated together at the same game the husband and wife are in the same physical location focused on the same task the game of chess but the only company between the only real intimacy between them is in the figures of the chess board cold marble lifeless chess pieces and as they play their game of chess they press lidless eyes this wakefulness this ever wakefulness glaring at the game of chess pressing lidless eyes and waiting for a knock upon the door a knock we all know will never come whether this is a reference to Christ behold I stand at the door and knock a salvation that will never come or if it's simply the figure of death knocking on their door beckoning them into life everlasting we leave their story with this sense of waiting that knock be its salvation or the finality of death is not going to come they simply press lidless eyes as they play their game and the real image from the middle of the dead is incorporated back this is all they ever do what shall we ever do sit to our game of chess and wait for a knock upon the door that is never going to arrive for the last part of the section we move to another tale of a marriage here it is evidently much different most notably that this is a lower-class couple being described most likely because of the language Eliot uses we have the common British vernacular and of the common everyday townspeople you'll see that in the language he uses but this is a description that takes place in a this is a description of a marriage that takes place in a London bar room you have two ladies at the bar at night drinking together speaking of a third lady named Lille and her husband so already we should note the detachment that is evident in the scenery that Lille and her husband are not even represented they are simply being discussed they cannot speak for themselves other voices speak for them but the speaker says when Lil's husband got demoed demobilized from the army again this is post war it's a common event says when wills husband got demote I said I didn't mince my words I said to her myself and then we get this interruption hurry up please it's time there's no punctuation and it seems to be an interrupting voice of the bartender himself hurry up please it's time would be a last call that the barkeeper went send out to those who are still in his pub and the fact that this phrase is repeated throughout the end of this section breaks up the narrative of the story which we've seen before the moon the modern wasteland is a land of competing voices toppling on top of each other constantly interrupting constantly hindering any real narrative or real story from being told remember Phil amela she is unable to tell her story the organ of storytelling itself is removed it is permanently interrupted and hindered and so now we have this bartenders was constantly intruding in on the story and yet we have to try to make out the story of Lille and her husband but she says when those husband got demoed I didn't mince my words I said to her myself now Albert's coming back make yourself a bit smart appealing look nice for your husband returning from war he'll want to know what you've done there's that lower-class phrasing that Elliot uses he'll want to know what you've done with that money he gave you to get yourself some teeth so again this is a poor lower-class poverty-stricken marriage that she does not have the resources to be able to take care of herself properly one can only imagine the kind of life she led while her husband is at war it mentions that she has several children that this is a struggling wife that's being described diametrically opposed from the rather well-to-do wife of the earlier section he'll want to know what you've done with the money he gave you to get yourself some teeth he did I was there you have them all out low and get a nice set he said I swear I can't bear to look at you and here's where we get an inside look into the nature of their corroding marriage that whereas the earlier couple were simply halted and their ability to commune with one another the intimacy was at a standstill they had a stalemate in their game of chess here we have this aggressive belittling insulting marriage where the husband claims he is unable to bear to look at his wife in her current condition she is degraded demoted and verbally abused by Albert I can't bear to look at you and no more can't i I said and think of poor Albert's if she agrees she says think of poor Albert he's been in the Army for years he wants a good time so here we have the notion of sex within marriage used as a threat that lil had better clean herself up make herself as appealing as possible because Albert will want his good time and he is going to get it and if you don't give it to him there's others will that is the reality that has held over littles head if you do not make yourself as attractive and appealing as possible Albert has every right to seek it elsewhere and this again Elliot is speaking to a product of Darwinian thought of naturalism that man and woman operate on sexual instincts and desires and urges and for Albert to want a good time it is only natural for him in his human nature to seek it in the most convenient place possible and lyl is unable to cooperate on those lines he'll seek it elsewhere and thus the marriage would be dissolved and corroded Oh is there she said something of that I said then I'll know who to think she said and give me a straight look hurry up please it's time the interrupting voice again breaking up the narrative if you don't like it you can get on with it I said others can pick and choose if you can't to notice Lil's inability she is paralyzed she is unable to do anything about her condition and we'll see why what has she done with the money the albergue gave her to fix herself up to replace her teeth Fat Albert makes off it won't be for lack of telling you ought to be ashamed look at this degrading of the woman she ought to be ashamed I said to look so antique and her only 31 the fear of aging here again incorporated remember the epigraph with the Sybil of kamae that she is doomed with a life of eternal living with eternal aging it is a fear you ought to be ashamed to look so antique at 31 so this is still a young woman being insulted for looking so antique I can't help it she said so here is her rationalization for why she looks the way she does pulling a long face it's them pills I took to bring it off to bring what off she said she's had five already and nearly died of young George so here we get in a reference to the pills she takes and the amount of children she has that she's had five already and she almost died in giving birth to the fifth young George which this is the modern era of Elliot's time that for a woman to get pregnant and to give birth was a frightening experience that there was a high possibility she would not survive it especially if she was a lower-class poor woman as Lille is and so she says I can't help looking so antique my physical body has taken a toll because of these pills that the chemists gave me and this perhaps strikes the most dismal most despairing tone of this section where Lille claims a promise she was given that did not hold true she says the chemist said it would be all right but I've never been the same and here's the problem for Lille that she trusted that the chemists who provided her these pills said it would be alright I've never been the same it looks as though Lille has used the money that Albert has given her for the new teeth on pills to instigate an abortion her fear of losing her life yet again in another frightening experience of childbirth said she nearly died of young George were she to get pregnant again she would fear for her life surely and so she buys these pills to take care of it through abortion and her physical appearance has dealt with the aftermath of that it has taken a toll yet she says the chemist promised he said it would be alright but I've never been the same and that's the nature of this ethical decision that Lille has made that she trusted that going through an abortion to save herself and save her marriage would be alright it would have no residual effects it would have no psychological effects everything is going to be okay but she says I've never been the same and she is altered and changed forever as a result and this is a truth of the modern era that is so penetrating and so insightful even for us these decades later the how often might we believe that everything will be alright when we make unethical and moral judgments we believe we buy the lie that everything will be all right and we are burdened when reality strikes that we will never be the same will cannot be the same she is changed forever as a result of this decision but we also see the predicament of the modern woman as Elliott precedes it that is that she must maintain her physical feel as a wife fine remember Albert can't bear to look at her she must also maintain her ability to bear children as a mother and the fear is what if these two dimensions these two realities are incompatible what if the bearing of children time and time again diminishes or weakens the physical wheel or vice versa if an intense focus and emphasis on the physical feel means you must do whatever necessary to restrict the ability to bear children yet the expectations are the same the modern woman was placed in this dual identity where she must be the appealing wife as a way of keeping her man from straying but she must also bear children she must be fertile and if those are incompatible realities the woman is caught in a major conflict you are a proper full proper fool I said both Albert won't leave you alone there it is I said what you get married for if you don't want children again the woman viewed as valuable concerning her usefulness she is a piece of utility as long as she can bear children she is valuable hurry up please it's time and she describes how they met why did you get married if it wasn't for children and she says well that Sunday Albert was home they had a hot gammon and asked me into dinner to get the beauty of it hot hurry up please it's time hurry up please it's time and it's interesting that her story is interrupted yet again remember Phil amela she is unable to explain the story of their falling in love the story that everyone wants to hear about a couple and she is asked why did you get married and she goes into the story going into the past this moment where maybe things did work and maybe things were wonderful before their current state of affairs yet she cannot complete the story in the middle of her sentence the bartender repeats his last call he is wishing to close up the pub notice also the descent into darkness and closing everything is spiraling toward an end the bar is about to close and we never get the rest of her story we get a chaotic frenzy of voices drowning littles narrative good night bill good night Lou good night Mae good night Tata and night good night good night ladies good night sweet ladies good night good night and that last line has particular meaning for Ophelia I'm Hamlin when she sings her final song to King Claudius before she dies in her perceived scene of madness that what if that is the prospect for the woman who cannot maintain the identities that she's expected to maintain there are only two realities the first to become the Queen piece on the chessboard to seek to assume all authority in all power to seek to dominate the husband and thus pervert love into a game of strategies and wits that is one option the second option is to collapse like Ophelia to bow out to approach death on your own

Channel: Mr. Huff's Literature Class

Views: 29,593

Rating: 4.9395247 out of 5

Keywords: The Waste Land (Poem)

Id: MyudNgCoRSM

Length: 43min 46sec (2626 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 21 2015