The Portrayal of Women in T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land Analysis

This essay provides an in-depth analysis of the female characters in T.S. Eliot's poem, "The Waste Land," exploring how these figures contribute to the poem's central themes of societal decay, the futility of modern life, and the degeneration of love and morality. The essay examines characters such as Tiresias, Marie Larsch, Madame Sosostris, the Hyacinth Girl, Belladonna, Lil, and others, discussing their individual stories and their representations of different social classes and experiences within the context of the poem. It highlights how Eliot uses these women to expose the emptiness and superficiality of modern society, where sex is reduced to mere entertainment, and spiritual and moral values are lost. The essay also explores the themes of materialism, the loss of innocence, and the impact of war, illustrating how the female characters serve as symbols of the broader disintegration of Western culture and the human condition. The conclusion emphasizes the importance of these women in conveying the poem's message about the raw truth of modern civilization.

Running head: THE WOMEN FIGURES IN “THE WASTELAND”
The Women figures in “The Wasteland”
Name of the Student:
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Author Note:

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Abstract:
The following research paper deals with the female characters of T.S Eliot’s poem,
“The Waste Land”, which deals with the theme of the uselessness and futility of the modern
society and the life. Through the portrayal of the women characters, the poet brings forth the
main theme and context of the poem. Through the introduction of the females such as
Tiresias, the German princess Countess Tarie Larisch, the Hyacinth Girl, Madame Sosostris,
the rich lady Belladonna and Li, T.S Eliot aims to expose the gruesome reality of the society,
where sex remains to be just an entertainment and not something that is spiritual or has
moral values.

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Table of Contents
Introduction:...................................................................................................................5
Discussion:.....................................................................................................................5
Conclusion:....................................................................................................................7
References:.....................................................................................................................8

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Introduction:
“The Waste Land” by T.S. Eliot is one of the best creations since it deals with the
theme of the modern world and that the modern life is futile. Being the most influential
poetry of the century, the poem is about the strange and gruesome reality of the contemporary
modern society. In order to deal with the themes and ideas, the author has taken the help of
certain women characters, through which he talks about the central character of the poem
which is that the love in the modern world has degenerated into lust and there has been a
change in the function of sex, and that the spiritual progress of the individuals is at stake.
Discussion:
Each women character of the poem has their individual voices and they have their
own stories (Sulaiman). T.S. Eliot’s Portrayal of women has been tremendous and the
representative of one single women. The female characters of the poem are not only different
in their stories but also in their socio economic status.
The first character of the poem is Tiresias. Eliot lets his readers know that this
character, being the main protagonist of the story is the most important person throughout the
entire poem (Hasan and Hussein). This character acts as a trope, and thus she metamorphoses
the relationship between the masculine woman and effeminate men. She not only has the
ability of prophecy, but also obscures the sexual conflicts that the poem entails. Tiresias has
the ability to witness the failed connection between the man and the woman in this futile
world.
In the Section I of the poem, the poet introduces his readers to the German Princess,
Marie Larsch, who is the representative of the aristocratic class since she had a relation with
the king Ludwig (Khalifa). She also represents the fact that the existence of the modern man
is not properly rooted and firm, and that life is lived just entirely on a physical surface. She

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provides an example of a modern person, who has no roots (Jaleel). This character is fond of
travelling and has no proper connection with her closed ones. Through this character, Eliot
sketches the idea that the modern humanity is entirely devoid of religious thoughts and the
moral values.
There is another woman character in the poem who is also the representative of the
high class society. She is often termed as “the Lady of Situation”. She waits for her lover ,
and is surrounded by all the material things, such as beauty, perfume and glamour. She
indicates that the modern society is devoid of any compassion and there is failure of sex. Sex
in the modern world has lost its importance and has moved beyond having a moral purpose to
being almost a type of entertainment (Aulia)).Materialism is all that prevails and the society
walks on a monotonous mechanical routine.
Another prime female character that the poem entails is the foreteller, Madame
Sosostris. She had the ability to see the future and the destiny and for this prime reason she
was considered to be one of the wisest women that the land of Europe had. He used to
entertain the people with different forms of tricks. In this manner she had the ability t o
foretell the destinies of the people. She often used to let her clients know that fortune telling
is a criminal offence and that she had to take care. As per the discussion of (Ward), the poet
of “The Wasteland”, depicts the themes of the poem through the character of this fortune
teller. Being the representation of gambling, which is a strict hindrance in the spirituality, she
introduces the characters in the context of the two most important things, the life and the
death. She belongs to the middle society, and is alos representative of the fact that be it the
aristocratic or the middle class people, everyone is attracted to materialism. (Medcalf)
Also through the story of the Hyacinth girl, the poet showcases the futility of love in
the modern society (Khalifa). The Hyacinth Girl is a representative of a modern beautiful girl

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who has been forgotten by her lover, since their love story was lusty. Hence, this character
brings the sense of futility of life, and that conjugal relationship is something that engulfs the
modern life.
Belladonna, another important character of the novel represents the material world.
She is portrayed in the second section of the poem. According to Jaleel., she can be compared
to the character of Belinda of “The Rape of the Lock”. She also portrays the futile
relationship between the man and the woman. “My nerves are bad to-night. Yes, bad. Stay
with me”. Through this line, the poet portrays the condition of the modern woman who gets a
nervous breakdown. Belladonna is a character who represents the cultural sterility of the
modern man. (Hasan and Hussein). In this context, as a contrast, Eliot introduces the
character of Lil, who belongs to the lower middle class (Aulia). Lil’s life story helps the
readers to understand thatr not only the rich people, but even the lower people suffer from the
inconsistency in their married life.
Also in addition to this, Eliot incorporates the character of Philomela. She is
introduced in the context of this obsession with sex. She had been a victim of rape and was
abused by her sister’s husband. Her picture on the wall represents how she had been raped
and used, and finally her transformation into a nightingale (Sulaiman). Her painting is the
representative of the lust of the modern society and how the innocence and the chastity of a
woman is jeopardized by the filth of the modern man
The poet then introduces the characters of the Thames daughters who also had been
violated. They are the final depiction of the fact that the women had always been a victim of
male oppression throughout ages. According to Hasan and Hussein, they end up complaining
about their loss of virginity and purity due to the cruelty of the modern man. This appears in
the third section of the poem, which begins with the character of Mrs Porter and her daughter.

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They too symbolize the degeneration of the modern man and the gruesome reality of
materialism. The typist girl who is another woman character of the poem, is seen to be
desiring of a mechanical life as she has no craving for love what so ever. This had been her
response to life because she also had been the victim of love making and abuse (Ward).
The fourth section of the poem is devoid of any female character but the fifth section
of the poem introduces the readers to the character of the refugee. She represents the decay
and the degeneration of the Western Europe, by symbolizing the melancholic effect of the
war (Aulia)
Conclusion:
Thus from the above discussion of the poem, it can be concluded that the women
characters in “The Wasteland” contribute to the expose of the raw truth of the modern
civilization and the society. The characters representing individual traits, sensibilities and
symbols, effectively bring out the themes and the techniques of the poem. The women
characters help to blend the past and the present, bringing forth the theme of spirituality and
the materialism of the modern world.

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Works Cited
AULIA, NOORY ANNISA. PATRIARCHAL HEGEMONY AS SEEN IN TS ELIOT’S THE
WASTE LAND. Diss. STATE ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY, 2019.
Hasan, Mariwan N., and Shamal A. Hussein. "The hurdles in front of women in expressing
their voice in Eliot’s The Waste Land." International Journal of Literature and
Arts 3.6 (2015): 171-175.
Jaleel, Jaleel Abd. "THE MEANINGLESSNESS OF THE HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS
WITH REFERENCE TO TS ELIOT’S THE WASTE LAND."
Khalifa, Majeed Hammadi. "The Moral Nature in TS Eliot’s Poetry:“The Waste Land” as an
Ethical Poem." LARK JOURNAL FOR PHILOSOPHY, LINGUISTICS AND SOCIAL
SCIENCES 2.29 (2018): 11-19.
Medcalf, Stephen. "TS Eliot’s Metamorphoses: Ovid and The Waste Land." The Spirit of
England. Routledge, 2017. 224-237.
Sulaiman, Maha Qahtan. "YOU SEE THE CORNER OF HER EYES/TWISTED LIKE A
CROOKED PIN”: THE IMAGE OF WOMAN IN TS ELIOT’S EARLY POETRY."
Ward, David. TS Eliot Between Two Worlds: a reading of TS Eliot's poetry and plays.
Routledge, 2015.`