"The Waste Land" - The Fire Sermon (part 2 of 2)

continuing our discussion of the fire sermon we left off with a look at the three preludes or overture passages that introduced us to what would ultimately be the most famous passage from the fire sermon that of the typist and her lover returning from sea with a look at mr. Sweeney Sweeney himself the rake and mrs. Porter the image of an illicit love affair the rape of Phil amela by Kent arias a brutal assault of sexuality and rape and then the proposal of mystery identities for a homosexual episode at the Metropole over the weekend three distinct different perversions and corruptions of pure innocent sacred love now we get to the passage itself we were marking on the typist the female typist returning home from work preparing her room in her bedroom for her lover to return and yet in the wasteland no real intimacy is possible so even this section will be despairing and will be inconclusive ultimately the first thing to note is that this passage is presents at least a fairly strict rhyme scheme an Elliot is typically intentional with everything that he included in the wasteland although it went through several edits from Ezra Pound it seems to assume that Elliot had an overarching methodology in how he wrote and constructed the different parts of the wasteland and for this passage to follow a fairly regular rhyme scheme that seems to recall the kind of love poetry that he is trying to imitate in this scene however the irony is quite thick that here we do not have the standard glorified ideal love sequence that we would tend to expect from love poetry in antiquity here we have a much reduced much more unsatisfying depiction of love the wasteland he says at the violet hour were at Twilight which tends to be the time of day where the magical and supernatural occurs you have know that the nymphs have departed that there is no real prospect of magic and supernatural reality any longer at the violet hour when the eyes and back turned upward from the desk when the human engine waits like a taxi throbbing waiting here we have a picture of the typist ending her day at work of her eyes turning upward from the desk of the day at work being over and the human engine perhaps a reference to her heart like a taxi throbbing and waiting for the encounter she's anticipating that evening with her lover perhaps the human engine being just a reference to her as this mechanized object which we will see her to be she waits like a taxi throbbing waiting for the evening encounter to take place I Tiresias now we have an indication of who the narrator is we've had this first-person narrator throughout the section of the fire sermon so far and tiresias as the narrator's action is a rather interesting choice for Elliot Tiresias was a mythological creature who like the Sibyl was a seer or a prophet remember the seer in the epigraph the Sibyl in the epigraph who was cursed doomed to eternal life without eternal and he knew that she was a seer or prophetess now we have Terry seus who is functioning as a prophetic voice within the wasteland for us he is the speaker that perhaps most resembles Elliot as the speaker who has a broader understanding of the dangers and pitfalls of the wasteland we live in he's a mythological figure who was cursed and experienced both male and female identities he had the fortune of understanding human life from both angles that he was male and female at the same time as also a part of the curse he was blinded physically but we'll note that this physical blindness doesn't necessarily bring any relevance to what Tiresias claims to be able to see what he is attempting to see is ultimate meaning and depth and perception of reality and truth beyond the physical realm Therese is attempting to see beyond the physical landscape of the wasteland and the interactions of the characters within it as we've seen throughout the fire sermon so far there is a level of sight and insight and depth to the narration here that is able to cut through the charade and the routines and monotony of the characters and interactions and events that occur within the simple scenery Therese though blind throbbing between two lives male and female identity old man with wrinkled female breasts there's our indication that he represents the all man that he represents all of mankind both male and female he is a voice that perhaps is the central voice to the wasteland the only credible voice that can speak to the male and female experiences separately and together in one narrative voice though he's blind he can see at the violent hour this Twilight hour where we can imagine something meaningful will take place that we should know better the evening hour that strives homeward and brings the Sailor home from C so what Tiresias is seeing here as the Prophet is the expectation of a wonderful homecoming for the typist to see her lover come home from sea what ought to be a beautiful reuniting a beautiful homecoming that tiresias is able to see beyond that he is blind to the physical truth that can often be misleading and manipulative what our eyes can see is often not as true as what they cannot see so tiresias serves as the perfect narrator here that he can understand and empathize with the male perspective of love and the female but he also is blinded to the charade he's blinded to the facade he's blinded to the physical events and details and is only able to see what lies beyond he has that mythical magical foresight and he is about to narrate for us this scene and we ought to be able to see alongside him the failures of the scene and what they pretend for those of us caught in the wasteland so the typist is home at tea time she clears her breakfast lights her stove and lays out food in tents she's preparing a place for her lover out of the window perilously spread her drawing combinations touched by the sun's last rays she is drying her laundry on the divan are piled at night her bed so here's an interesting detail that she is lower class and poor she's common that for her divan to also function as for bed for her to work long hours as a typist deep into the violet hour as she is probably a lower class citizen much like the lower class wife we saw in a game of chess stocking slippers camisoles and stays I Tiresias old man with wrinkled Dougs he is giving us his narration again perceived to the scene and foretold the rest so he gives us the details of the scene itself but he foretells the rest he gives the deeper story he is prophesied he is allowing us to see a destiny or a fate that is common to all who are living in the wasteland so he giving us this sense of perceiving the scene and foretelling the rest is allowing us to get into the skin of this scene we are not meant to simply see the scene and pass over it Terry seus emphasizes twice that he is blind to the physical details but he is not blind to the greater significance of it and the greater significance of it is the prophecy it's the prophetic vision for what he sees in these two lovers Terry seus is giving us what is probably the model for all sexual encounters in this modern era this is what they will be like is for telling the rest is prophesying what love has been reduced to and it looks like this I too awaited the expected guests so he has a over arching or metacognitive level of perception on this scene he is witness to this interaction he the young man carbuncle er arrives a small house agents clerk so notice this is no grand night this is no great story of romance as from the medieval period where the grand knight would return and pay homage to his courtly love and this is just an agent's clerk with one bold stare one of the low on whom assurance sits as a silk hat on a Bradford millionaire so he is a common house agents clerk he is a low-class man yet he has the assurance of a Bradford millionaire the kind of Bradford millionaire was someone who was rich during the war and possibly as a result of involvement in the war so he's a low-class man but quite narcissistic assurance that sits like a millionaire the time is now propitious as he guesses the time is right for a lover's interaction he has returned home from sea she has prepared a place for him the setting seems appropriate for a grand reuniting of husband and wife who we had no such thing the meal is ended they share a meal together she is bored and tired there's our first indication indication that this is not a romantic experience at least not for her she is bored and tired and he endeavours to engage her in caresses which still are undone reproved if undesired this is an interesting phrase here that his caresses are not desired by her possibly the way in which he is attempting to caress her or what he is ultimately aiming for but they're not reproved she does nothing this lack of agency on the part of the typist is a big deal that she does not desire his caresses but does not reprove them she does not stop them she does nothing to hinder his advances flushed and decided committed to his actions he assaults at once so this recalls the rape of Phil Annelle of Phil amela a rudely forced sexual encounter now the man after the meal without much dialogue or conversation or intimacy engages her in caresses she does nothing to hinder him he decides he assaults at once exploring hands encounter no defense she does not resist how can she his vanity requires no response he doesn't need her to love him in return to give him any kind gestures in return he is not looking for love or at least a required love his vanity his narcissism his commitment to raping her and getting what he desires doesn't require any response from her he will simply use her as an object makes a welcome of indifference and eye Tiresias have four suffered all enacted on this same divan event Tiresias is the appropriate Meritor because he can empathize with this situation the one who is foretelling the rest has four suffered all Tiresias is a figure from history and from mythology that has experienced the same corruption perversion of sexual Union enacted on this same divan or bed I who have sat by thebes below the wall and walked among the lowest of the dead hurry CEA's can comment on this degradation because he has been there he has seen it for himself is not new this kind of interaction between men and women is not new yet in the wasteland it might be all they have left the man bestows one final patronizing kiss not loving and it's hard to avoid seeing patronizing from the root word of patronage that he is purchasing or sponsoring this sexual act much like a prostitute he gives her one patronizing kiss and gropes his way finding the stairs unlit he leaves in darkness and thus concludes our grand moment of intimacy and reunion this typist passage which had all the trappings of a classic grand homecoming and reuniting of lovers after a long time apart completely dissolves in our hands this is not a great love poem this is not a wonderful evening as lovers she prepares a place for him he is entirely neglectful of her work she is tired she is bored and he assaults her sexually leaving once he is finished in the dark this is the plight in the modern world and now we move to perhaps the most tragic scene in the fire sermon itself and perhaps in the wasteland of the hole this is the typists reflection on the evening and its deviation from her expectations it's falling apart it's fading from the ideal love affair that she would have hoped for she reflects on this experience in pure dismay and bleakness he leaves in the dark she turns and looks a moment in the glass this self-reflection trying to understand what went wrong why perhaps even if it were her fault she turns and looks a moment in the glass hardly aware of her departed lover this is no intimate relationship she barely knows he's left her brain allows one half-formed thought to pass so she has the strength and endurance after this brutal assault and disregard of her being in her identity from this man and his horrible rape that she's encountered her brain allows one half one thought to pass and this thought might serve as an anthem or as an overall truth to what has happened to sexuality and romance in the wasteland well now that's done I'm glad it's over she does not finish the sex act with a greater love and respect and appreciation for her lover there is not a greater sense of community and bond between the two this is not a marriage this is not a life and she's looking in the mirror after this moment after this horrific moment and the one thought that passes in her mind is that now it's done I'm glad it's over and sexuality presented as a thing to be endured is perhaps one of the most tragic reductions in the wasteland certainly this fundamental aspect of human experience has shattered when lovely woman Stoops to Folly and paces about her room again alone she smoothes her hair with automatic hand this is a gesture that is no longer in her own doing this seems to be caught as much in the routine and mechanics of her situation enough her experiences and puts a record on the gramophone she seeks an escape from the tragic realities of her life the horrible disappointment of her love and of her dreams that she escapes through the act of listening to music which again remember at the beginning in the past it's the prayer that the Thames would sing would run softly till I into my song and here we see the irony that she has just begun the song but the song of her life and of her hopes and of her desires has certainly ended this music crept by me upon the waters we see the music that she engages in in the aftermath of such a destructive and disappointing encounter this music crept binding upon the waters along the Strand of Queen Victoria Street Oh city city so the music is filtering throughout all of London that we are funneling out from a very narrow perspective on the scene that Tiresias witnesses and narrates the woman looking in the glass wishing for a greater life wishing for a greater experience and seeking to cope with her losses and her disappointments through music and now that music OSHA's us to a wider scope a grander scene as it floods all of London along the Strand up Queen Victoria Street Oh city city I can sometimes hear back to Tiresias lamenting and commenting on this loss of true love and intimacy I can sometimes hear beside a public bar in lower Tim Street the pleasant whining of a mandolin and a clatter in a chatter from within poor fisherman lounge at noon where the walls of Magnus martyr hold inexplicable splendor of Ionian white and gold this is an interesting contrast that Teiresias is asking us to see so he leaves the scene of the typist as she is lost in complete disarray and despair over the encounter that she has Justin doing wishing for something grander the music funnels us out into the streets of London and Tiresias says in the public bars of lower Thames the fisherman's lounges all these common lowbrow places in in London that he sees people interacting in the midst of all that he sees the image of a grand city Oh City City I can hear the music evokes an image of the walls of Magnus martyr which is an Anglican Church in London a beautiful Church and the walls of Magnus martyr hold inexplicable splendor and this splendor is in direct contrast to the loneliness and loss that the Titus has experienced it's a dream it's a desire for something lovely and perfect and holy and beautiful to still exist in such a land where this kind of interaction is still normal is still typical this interaction between the typist and her quote-unquote lover the music evokes a desire remember in the burial of the dead memory and desire the music that she puts on the gramophone that tiresias hears flowing throughout all of London brings back the memory of a greater time when love was satisfying and pure and a desire for something splendid something beautiful a place of white and gold and interesting leads in the walls of a church that that is located for Therese yes it's not the pub it's not the streets of London it's not the fishermen's lounges it's not the clatter and chatter from within it's what those things can remind him of an ultimate place of splendour inexplicable splendour perhaps there is a place beyond this wasteland where love can be meaningful again where beauty can be appropriated and seen and appreciated and honoured where men and women can truly live together in harmony we move toward the end of the fire sermon with two stanzas that are quite abrupt and disorienting particularly because they deviate from the structure of the rest of the section here in this scene we have put what is probably a limb meant from the thames maidens a reference perhaps to the nymphs that departed and essentially we are seeing what has happened to the thames now the river sweats oil and tar so there's pollution the Thames that was sweet that once ran softly is now sweating oil and tar it is filthy and corroded the barges drift they are aimless and direction with the turning tide red sails why the leeward swing on the heavy spar the barges washed drifting logs down Greenwich breach past the Isle of Dogs we lalala lalala lalala this is a lament this is a song from the maidens lamenting the loss of the Thames in the second section we have description of Elizabeth Queen Elizabeth the first the most the most revered Queen in British history and luster beating oars the stern was formed a gilded shell red and gold the brisk swell rippled both shores southwest wind carried downstream the peal of bells white towers we ll Alea la la la la la la this is again the lament of the maiden Thames maidens but now we move from the lower class description of the thames of a the typist rather and her lover to now a very high-class royal description of Queen Elizabeth the first and a perceived lover in Leicester the problem with this encounter is that Queen Elizabeth Queen Elizabeth the first was the Virgin Queen that she was certainly restricted from either by her own choosing or by matters of state that perhaps it was best for the country for her to be unaligned to any other country through marriage perhaps it made it even more stable gave it more control over Foreign Affairs and policies but her virginity and her commitment to that presents a problem that there is no real prospect for pure ideal union or love between these perceived possible lovers for another reason but now we move to a separate voice altogether we go from Tiresias to the laments of the thames maidens now we have an unidentified female voice also commenting on a sexual encounter of her own trams and dusty trees remember at the beginning of the section we saw that the rivers tint was broken the trees that sheltered the Thames and the lovers beneath it is broken and falling apart now it's dusty Highbury forming Richmond and Q undid me by Richmond I raised my knees supine on the floor of a narrow canoe here we have a rather frank and candid view of the sex act and she says all these different places Highbury richmond q where she engaged in sexual encounters with various men they undid her they caused her to unravel by Richmond she says I raised my knees soup line supine on the floor lying back of a narrow canoe so there we have her rather unremorseful unrig reading a description of sex with an unnamed men man or a variety of men my feet are at Moorgate my heart under my feet so this goes back to the typist that a recognition that love has been trampled upon has fallen apart and been reduced to simply a matter of endurance the woman endured the sex act simply to get it over with any kind of meaning or pleasure or joy that once was a part of it is now simply over and it's just a matter of survival here we see the same concept from this voice she says my feet are a Moorgate another place that's where she literally is but her heart her emotions her love are trampled under feet her heart has been trampled after the event notice how she describes sex after the event he wept he promised a new start I made no comment what should I resent to notice how the reversal of typical that gender roles has occurred she is unremorseful she has no emotional investment in the encounter her heart is under her feet he weeps he feels regret at the lack of intimacy and lack of significance of what they've engaged in he promises a new start hint at a relationship but interestingly she is silent I made no comment remember in a game of chess the wife is urging the husband to speak why do you never speak and he doesn't speak he is the one who's silent now we have those roles reversed where the man is now promising for a relationship he is weeping at the loss of meaning and loss of significance that their sexual encounter has he is mourning the loss of permanence and satisfaction to what they've done but she makes no comment and she says what should I resent what do I have to regret and so she represents the more bitter cold calculating unfeeling numb character in this engagement on Margate sands I can connect nothing with nothing again remember in a game of chess all they can see all they can speak and all they can hear is nothing nothing upon nothing the silence at the door can be more deafening interestingly Margate Sands is the exact location where Elliott's wife Vivian betray TS Eliot she committed an affair an adulterous affair with Bertrand Russell and so the inability to connect anything the inability to make sense of anything regarding sexuality in romance in the modern world has a personal tint to it for Eliot Margate Sands is the place where he personally saw a deterioration of the Honorable sacred marriage vow and the honour and beauty of true love between husband and wife the broken fingernails of dirty hands that is all we have left not pure unblemished hands deserving of rings holding one another as they exchange vows all we have are broken fingernails an image of ugliness and dirty hands an image of sin fulfill a tainted personhood my people humble people who expect nothing we can connect nothing with nothing we expect nothing for the typist after her love affair that went awry she expects nothing better for herself she says this is simply the way things are and she attempts to escape that reality to music knowingly music as an unsatisfying agent of escape we have the brief interruption of the maiden Thames of the Thames maidens singing one last time and then we have this amalgamation of two different spiritual voices a Western voice in st. Augustine and the eastern voice of Buddha to Carthage then I came his a description of augustine he eventually became the Bishop of Carthage and it's there that he discovered that city to be a vast nest and den of unholy degenerate citizens he describes that event in his confessions to Carthage then I came and then we give this interrupted voice from Buddha burning burning burning burning again the description of all of the different capacities of man to desire must be burned they must be rid of they must be eliminated we shift back to Augustine here O Lord the prayer to God thou pluck his - me out thou lookest and this harkens back to the typist where she seeks music as a way of plucking her out of the disappointing din of failure and despair that she is currently trapped in she is seeking for something to pluck her out of that monotonous unsatisfying experience and she seeks that in music she puts a record on the gramophone and that music filters out into London and reminds Tiresias of the inexplicable splendour of heaven the walls of the church that describe the gold and glory of God's eternal city and here Augustine goes to the very unholy city of Carthage and prays to the Lord to pluck him out thou lookest me out Val punkest and yet this prayer does not reach a consummation we see it without any real conclusion with the last word of the sermon the last word of the section the fire sermon given to Buddha burning the burning of desire the elimination of desire as the only way to cope with suffering but we see these two different sources intimated there is the Augustinian Christian method to pray to God for relief and comfort and ultimately to be plucked out of the wasteland itself this world that is falling apart this world that is dented and scratched and doomed and we had the advice and caution of the Buddha that the only way to escape the suffering of the wasteland is to rid yourself with any desire whatsoever to become truly and totally numb is the only way to cope and it's on his note burning of desire that we end the fire summer

Channel: Mr. Huff's Literature Class

Views: 14,997

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Keywords: Fire Sermon, The Waste Land (Poem)

Id: lzQsu4XT0pM

Length: 35min 36sec (2136 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 14 2015