Eliot begins The Waste Land referring to Sibyl the prophetess, who is locked in a cage in Hades and suffers from eternal old age. Sibyl has no hope of escaping her torment: she cannot escape her cage by breaking out nor can she escape by way of death. What Eliot is saying here is that as long as there is an element of the unforeseen in the world then there is always the reason for hope and potential for meaning. The judgment that has been bestowed upon Sibyl speaks volumes to those that will die, particularly that things can only get better; although, Eliot would rather say that things cannot get any worse.
In “Section I. The Burial of the Dead” Eliot is obviously confronting the subject of death, but he approaches the subject in a strange manner. Lines 1-3 show how rebirth and desire are now being misconstrued as being reminders of death, “April is the cruellest month, breeding / Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing / Memory and desire.” Here the act of rebirth and reproduction is a reminder that all things die and that memory is only a past desire that never came to fruition.
Chess is a board game that mimics war. In Lines 131-138 in “Section II. A Game of Chess” two women speak of playing a game of chess if it fits into their schedule. These two women sit and wonder if they will be able to fit it into their busy day:
‘What shall we ever do?’
The hot water at ten,
And if it rains, a closed car at four.
And we shall play a game of chess,
Pressing lidless eyes and waiting for a knock upon the door. (134-138)
That two people would sit down to enjoy playing a game of mock war, toying with the lives of soldiers, battling each side to the death, shows how trivial and thoughtless our world, and its basis for wars, has become. Eliot calls us to a deeper realization of life: that the only meaning in life is that the future is unknown, therefore life is capable of improving and worthy of hope, even though throughout history and the present nothing has improved yet.
Eliot begins “Section II. A Game of Chess” with imagery of Cleopatra. The queen in a game of chess is the most vital of all the pieces because it is the most powerful; able to move in any direction, therefore, it is the piece you must utilize the most but also protect the most. Cleopatra was the last pharaoh of Egypt and has since been idolized, although many facts of her life are either unknown or questionable. Eliot is explicit in his description of Cleopatra’s wealth:
The Chair she sat in, like a burnished throne,
Glowed on the marble, where the glass
Held up by standards wrought with fruited vines
From which a golden Cupidon peeped out…
Doubled the flames of sevenbranched candelabra
Reflecting light upon the table as
The glitter of her jewels rose to meet it. (77-84)
Tradition holds that she committed suicide by letting an asp bite her while Octavion was holding her captive. Cleopatra’s wealth and power only lasted for a very short time. She became queen at the age of either 17 or 18 and only lived until the age of 39. Eliot’s point here rings clear: the meaning of life is not bound up in earthly riches or power; in fact, such things are really quite trivial if placed in the hands of one that does not understand.
The destruction of a city is the next stop on Eliot’s tour, found in “Section III. The Fire Sermon.” He guides the reader to the banks of a city-river with no people strolling alongside, no busy merchant boats unloading goods, and not even a single person to hear the wind that “Crosses the brown land” (175). All is laid waste throughout the city, and all that survives is the narrator, one who understands the isolation, meaninglessness, and disorder of this world. The narrator begins in line 218 comparing himself to Tiresias, who is cursed with physical blindness but gifted in that he has the power of understanding and prophecy. In Eliot’s own footnotes, he says that “Tiresias, although a mere spectator and not indeed a ‘character,’ is yet the most important personage in the poem…What Tiresias sees, in fact, is the substance of the poem” (footnote to line 218). Tiresias ‘sees’ a man full of redeeming power (235). From line 235 to 248 the redeeming man seduces a woman who does not care to receive his love, his redemption, his understanding of it all. He, the understanding fisherman, has tried to share his power with the woman, although afterwards she prefers to live the meaningless life she always had, and in consequence be destroyed with the rest of the city (249-256). The city was destroyed, the fisherman tried to save it, but since none could understand, all that was left was “Burning burning burning burning,” and the fisherman’s gratefulness for his own understanding, “O Lord Thou pluckest me out / O Lord Thou pluckest” (308-310).
“Section IV. Death by Water” is very simple in its purpose, and this is probably why the section is so short. Death comes to us all, whether “Gentile or Jew” (319). Phlebas the Phoenician has only been dead for two weeks, yet he has “Forgot the cry of gulls, and the deep sea swell / And the profit and loss” (313-314). The narrator is saying to those that desire for understanding that all things we count as gain in this life are very quickly forgotten once we die. Eliot is calling us to a change of mindset in lines 320-321: “O you who turn the wheel and look to windward, / Consider Phlebas, who was once handsome and tall as you.” Although we may think we control our own destiny by turning the will and look windward, really we are just like Phlebas, vulnerable to death at any given moment.
Eliot employs many religious allusions throughout “Section V. What the Thunder Said.” These allusions run anywhere from Christ, to Catholic traditions, to dualism, to Dante, to Judaic mysticism, and finally to Hindu mythology. By using so many references spreading over various belief systems, Eliot is accomplishing two purposes. First, that The Waste Land deserves a place among such religious and inspiring works as he alludes to. Secondly, Eliot is imploring those of that are still living to find some sort of meaning in an otherwise isolating, meaningless, and chaotic world. He is a fisherman. Those who understand him are also fishermen. He asks himself in line 426, “Shall I at least set my lands in order?” The Waste Land is Eliot’s attempt of setting his ‘lands’ in order, though all is destitute behind him as he sits in contemplation (425).