T.S. Elliot - The waste Land - ''A Game of Chess''

‘’Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal; bad poets deface what they take, and good poets make it into something better, or at least something different.’’ That is how T.S. Eliot defines his ars poetica in The Sacred Wood, ‘’Philip Massinger’’. Indeed, modernist artists wanted the renewal of poetry and of the principle of romanticism. For Eliot, modernist poetry dances with previous poetry and not with the emotions of reader, it allowed Eliot to bypass romanticism. Poetry is the expression of the collective heritage of the European culture and civilization. A civilization that has been transformed by the Second World War. In The Waste Land published in 1922, through strong references to classics of literature, he explored the darkest aspects of human nature. The document understudy is an extract from part two of The Waste Land entitled ‘’A Game of Chess’’. In this section, two different stories are taking place. They both involve a married couple. The first section depicts the faded relationship between a wife and her husband who are imprisoned in a monotonous married life. The last narrative features low-class women in a pub scene. It focuses on their vulgar conversation: one is unwilling to meet the sexual demand of her husband who came back from war, the other woman seems to be more willing to do so. This conversation between two friends which seems, in the first glance sterile, is in fact a testimony of the modern man’s despair. This excerpt raises the central question of how these protagonists embody the decadence of the post-war modern civilization? Firstly, the poem seems to explore the degradation of the individual within the Western modern society and of the relationship between these human beings. Secondly, this text is a criticism of modern times and of the consumer society, which has made Western civilization a land of despair.

This poem is composed of three parts in which a couple is staged in different situations. Two stories are told. One is a couple stuck into a deleterious and monotonous spiral that is their love relationship. In the last story, no man is involved, but two women who are seemingly friends. In this feminine duo, the reader witnesses an intimate discussion between two friends from a lower-class background, as indicated by the informal vocabulary and the cockney accent of the protagonists: ‘’something o’that’’ line 150 or ‘’pulling a long face’’ line 159. It is here the image of a faded relationship, not between a husband and his wife, but between two friends. It seems like the narrator is the confidant, advising Lil on her tumultuous relationship with her husband. But here, she seems to have the upper hand on Lil and takes pleasure in denigrating her. In fact, it is as if she were sermonizing a child, she is the one who speaks the most as the long lines indicate. She crushes Lil under a flood of words. Lil seems to be defenceless behind these attacks on her lack of femininity for her husband. Line 157, the modal auxiliary ‘’ought to’’ which indicates a duty, is followed by the adjective ‘’ashamed’’ giving an emphatic tone to the narrator. It is as if she was criticizing her and degrading her for her own pleasure. That idea is reinforced by the imperative used by the bartender in the repeated lines ‘’HURRY UP PLEASE IT’S TIME’’, summoning the last clients to leave the pub before its closure. It places Lil in the position of a helpless infant and gives the narrator the image of a moralizing friend. Also, though it is a dialogue between two women, their discussion is all about the well-being of men. And the narrator, far from supporting her friend, shares Albert's opinion about Lil's neglected physical appearance. This is indicated by the remark in parentheses line 158 ‘’(and yet she is only thirty-one)’’, it is an element of theatricality, like an aside, she talks to the reader and expresses her personal point of view on her friend’s unattractiveness, she is disdainful. She tries to convince Lil to make herself desirable for Albert with all the sexual connotation that it entails. She is the one who will pervert her. There is this biblical image of the serpent which, in Genesis, tempts the woman, who eventually eats the fruit of the tree of knowledge, and then gives it to Adam. Women are depicted here as temptresses. Furthermore, the absence of quotation marks makes the two friends' voices blurred, it formes only one voice. This transforms the dialogue between Lil and his friend into an internal monologue. The reader does not know who speaks, but it seems like they are plunged into Lil’s flow of consciousness. The repetition of ‘’I said’’ which randomly peppers the text, indicates a duplication of personality. It is a schizophrenic dialogue between the body and the mind.

There is a sort of tension between the two women. The narrator sermonizes Lil for not being as feminine and appealing as she should be for her husband. The term ‘’ashamed” line 157 used by the narrator conveys this absence of feminine solidarity. T.S. Eliot depicts a patriarchal world that has shaped women’s reprepresentation of their own status. It is the brutality of a civilization where men, like Albert on the one hand, are those who leave out and explore other lands through war. Women, like Lil on the other hand, are self-effacing, cloistered into the domestic and family sphere. It calls to mind the epic image of Ulysses gone for the Trojan war and fighting gloriously while faithful Penelope spurns her suitors’ advances. She does not leave the palace and weaves all day long patiently waiting for her husband to come back from war. Women are homemakers and must take care of their children while man are those who explore the outside world. Eliot denounces the Western civilization where women are in the service of man and live only through their husband’s eyes. This idea is reinforced by the onomastics of the poem. Indeed, Albert comes from the Germanic Adalbert, composed of the words adal meaning ‘’noble’’ and beraht meaning ‘’brilliant’’. Lil, on the contrary, seem to be a shorter and more colloquial way to say ‘’little’’. The female character is belittled in favour of the male character who is highlighted, conveying the inequality between man and woman in patriarchal society. Furthermore, the traditional image of women is challenged in this poem. T.S. Eliot’s depiction of Lil suggests that being a woman is a burden in a traditionalist and paternalist society. Lil embodies this double burden, the incompatibility of being a good-looking woman to keep her husband away from cheating and being a fertile mother. Line 159, she attempts to justify why she looks so unkempt giving a rational explanation: ‘’It’s them pills I took to bring it off, she said.’’ There is

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