Sexual Wasteland in T.S. Eliot's

The Sexual Wasteland in T.S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land”
Over the course of human life, the sexual encounters between a man and a woman have allowed for the existence and reproduction of mankind. What was once considered sacred to be used for the sole purpose of human reproduction, sexual intercourse has become something more favorable in our modern times than to be utilized for just survival. In our day and age, especially now more than ever, sex is not only for the ongoing creation of humans, but it has also become a source of pleasure as well. However, in T.S. Eliot’s 1922 influential poem “The Waste Land,” the women portrayed in the poem all lack the true happiness and meaning that comes behind the nature of sexual interactions. Though most of the characters of the poem are all living in physical and/or mental wastelands, it seems as if the cruelest wasteland is experienced from three women who endure the sexual wasteland in their lives, due to the impression that their sexuality yields absolutely no bliss for them or any kind of hope for regeneration. Though we see numerous cases of sexual wastelands among other characters in the poem, three women in particular are conspicuous in my eyes. However different their lives may be, the women all experience sexual liaisons void of the pleasure it brings, either through the physical pleasure of the sex itself, the intimate connection that comes from sex, or the desire to procreate. In the second section of the poem titled “A Game of Chess,” Eliot introduces us to two very different women; one woman is wealthy yet trapped in a loveless marriage, while the second woman is married yet physically tainted by the various fruits of her womb. In the third section, “The Fire Sermon,” we are introduced to another example of women suffering from sexual wastelands. Eliot speaks of a typist and her obvious indifferent sexual relationship with a clerk, but makes a very interesting choice to include a section on Queen Elizabeth I in regards to her relationship to Leicester. Like the first two women in “A Game of Chess”, these women are also from different sides of the social hierarchy. It is incredibly interesting that all women are so different from each other but are connected, somehow, by the sexual wasteland they are all experiencing individually in their lives. Among the three women that I am focusing on suffering from a sexual wasteland, the first woman from “A Game of Chess” is a very interesting character aside from her connection to any of the other women. Eliot has made her section the longest out of all women because he has described her in great detail with strong images of her wealthy life. The woman’s wealth is described as so elite that she could possibly be of some nobility; however, despite all this wealth, her mind is continuously restless, especially around her husband. In the first section of “A Game of Chess,” the woman and her husband engage in a conversation, in which we see the self-destruction of the woman and the unsympathetic response of her husband. She says “Speak to me. Why do you never speak? Speak” (112). Her demanding and impatient cries for some kind of communication with her husband are almost useless. We can sense from the woman’s hysterical need for attention that she is very insecure in her marriage and her husband’s unresponsiveness to her shows that their marriage as a whole is a type of wasteland. The wealthy woman’s worries are attributed to her constant curiosity of her husband’s thoughts and her own neurosis. The husband, it seems, cannot help but think random thoughts of rats in an alley and dead men.
Beside her husband’s inattentiveness of her, the wealthy woman seems to be completely dependent on the lives of others for her to function, as shown later in the passage. She wonders, “What shall I do now? What shall I do?/ I shall rush out as I am, and walk the street/ With my hair down, so. What shall we do to-morrow?” (131-133). If her biggest proclamation is that she will walk outside with her hair down, then it seems as if this woman, with such a grand wealth that many people would be eager to have, is suffering from complete boredom and needs others in her life to help overcome the loneliness she feels inside; she is both isolated on the inside, emotionally, as she is on the outside, in her marriage. It is interesting that Eliot decided to include a few lines in this section on the nightingale, Philomel(a). After a brief discussion in class about this Greek myth hearing the story of how this young woman was raped and had her tongue cut off, it made sense to me why Eliot would want to include such random lines in the passage about this woman. It seems as if there is a connection to be made with both women in that they are both unable to communicate their inner feelings to the outside world, or in the case of the wealthy woman, she can speak out, yet seems to be unheard. Though there is no actual sex scene described between the man and the woman, their disappointing marriage shows an example of what an emotional wasteland is. The marital union that should bring happiness to people and the wealthy environment in which the woman lives in is virtually meaningless and barren. It seems as if there is no hope to create any kind of rejuvenation.
Continuing “A Game of Chess” is the passage about a woman named Lil and though she is not the direct speaker of this passage, we get a strong sense about the emotional and sexual wasteland that she is experiencing through the account told by two of her acquaintances. Lil’s life has been much different than that of the wealthy woman in the previous passages. Lil, unlike the wealthy woman, not only has children but she has had five of them with difficulty all by the age of thirty-one. Although it is not entirely clear whether or not her relationship with her husband is a good one, we can a sense that Lil is trapped by role as a reproducer. Her friend recalls a time when she mentioned to Lil, “Well, if Albert won’t leave you alone, there it is, I said,/ What you get married for if you don’t want children?” (163-164). She is expected to both bear children, yet keep up her physical appearance if she wants to keep her husband interested. It would seem as if Lil is living, not an ideal life, but the accepted life of woman in her time. She has gotten married and cared for her children while her husband was away in the army, yet it is still not good enough. She has risked dying from her last pregnancy to no avail as she has become a gruesome sight for her husband. “…get yourself some teeth… He said, I swear, I can’t bear to look at you/ And no more can’t I…” (144,146-147). Lil is living in her own emotional wasteland because after years of bearing children for her husband, her body has gotten the worst of her and her unsightly appearance has, somehow, devalued her in the eyes of her friends and husband. After almost dying giving birth to her last child, Lil has decided to take some kind of abortion pills to keep her from ever getting pregnant again. Her choice to stop reproduction is the sexual wasteland that she is experiencing. Not only had sex been deemed a burden by her for having so many children and complications associated with her pregnancies, thus making her unhappy, but sexual intercourse for Lil will no longer breathe new life into the world. For Eliot, I believe, Lil’s role as a type of dejected “baby-making machine” along with her attempt to stop procreation has made her sexuality a wasteland for the reason that life, in essence, will not be renewed though her. Eliot concludes the section on Lil with some lines of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. The closing bartender from where this scene takes place tells the women, “Good night ladies, good night, sweet ladies, good night, good night” (172). However, I think these final lines are highly influential in a way. If one recalls the play of Hamlet, Hamlet’s love interest Ophelia speaks these final lines are she is about to die, most likely by committing suicide. It is interesting that, like the woman from the previous section had a connection to another popular fiction figure in history, Lil, too, can be seen to have a connection to Ophelia. To me, it is strongly suggested that this wasteland Lil lives in will drive her to madness and possibly suicide, which is yet another kind of wasteland for ending a life, rather than producing it. Perhaps the strongest example of a sexual wasteland comes from the typist in “The Fire Sermon.” Eliot carefully details each moment of the dreary sexual encounter between the woman typist and the male clerk, so much that it becomes boring to me as a reader to read and even uncomfortable because we see plenty of imagery. It seems as if there is absolutely no hope for the typist from any angle. She has a tedious life both at her job and at home because her life is carried out in a daily routine that is only added on by the passionless sex that she engages in with the clerk. Though the clerk can be seen as her lover, there is no love that seems to exist between the two companions. During their liaison, the narrator, Tiresias, describes the moment, “Hardly aware of her departed lover; /Her brain allows on half-formed thought to pass: /‘Well now that’s done: and I’m glad it’s over.’” (250-253). Eliot seems to suggest that sex with no love and no happiness is a wasteland in itself.
The sex scene between the typist and the clerk becomes a gruesome scene, too, because Eliot not only describes this moment as a kind of wasteland, but it also mimics a kind of rape scene:
Flushed and decided, he assaults at once; Exploring hands encounter no defence; His vanity requires no response, And makes a welcome of indifference… Bestows on final patronizing kiss, And gropes his way, finding the stairs unlit…
(240-243, 247-248).
His use of words such as “assaults,” “patronizing,” and “gropes” make the scene uncomfortable and further support the idea that the sex between these two characters is certainly boring and unpleasing, at least to the typist. Sex that should bring pleasure and joy brings a moment of boringness, if only for a brief instance. Finally, Eliot chooses to add a small section on Queen Elizabeth I and her lover Leicester, following the typist’s bland sexual encounter. It is quite interesting that Eliot has decided to include her, considering she was famously known as the “Virgin Queen.” Though we see no real evidence that the Queen was suffering from a sexual wasteland, she never married nor produced any offspring, though she did have a love interest, Leicester, who was more than likely her sexual partner. In class, I believe we discussed that she never married partly because she wished to remain in power. Unlike the other women I have discussed, Queen Elizabeth was not dependent on any men and she ruled England for forty-five long years. Her image of a virgin and her high place atop the hierarchy ladder has made her a very appealing character in “The Waste Land.” The other women previously discussed have longed for sexual attention from the men in their lives or have sought after a more meaningful experience out of their sexual relationships, yet have gained no real benefits or any kind of happiness from the sexual experiences. The irony in Eliot making mention of the Queen is that Queen Elizabeth, who had remained a “virgin,” had gained power and independence from others, especially men, by refraining from having sex. It seems as if only she, out of all the women, has avoided a sexual wasteland. With the three women enduring an emotional and sexual wasteland, the act of engaging in such an intimate relationship has left them unhappy and barren. Sex, which is supposed to be pleasurable and intimate for the women, is meaningless in their lives as they have not seen any of the benefits stemming from such a sexual relationship. Most importantly, their sexuality as a whole is a wasteland as suggested by Eliot, because even though they engage in sex, none of the women have hope of creating new life. The women are, thus, left with no hope of new life and no hope of ever finding happiness as long as they are trapped behind their own individual wasteland.