How does T.S Elliot’s The Waste Land and Shakespeare’s Henry iv present the disintegration of society?
The aspect of nihilism is a major contributor towards the image of disintegration. Within “The Waste Land” Elliot references sections and even quotes lines out of “The Divine Comedy”[1]. He does this to show a sense of destruction within the psyche towards the concept of religion. These predominantly seen within the stanza referring to the tarot cards in which he claims that humanity is “walking round in a ring”[2]. This is a direct reference to Dante’s Inferno with the nine circles of hell. This conveys a sense of people trapped in a world in which they are destined to walk for eternity due to their sins. This also sets the tone for the next stanza the “Unreal City”[3], in which Elliot discusses and portrays people walking around as mindless simple beings which “death had undone”[4], hence creating them effectively into “zombies”. This relates to the first circle of hell as those are the ones who are unbaptised. It is conceivable that Elliot is using this sense of punishment to convey his own judgemental views on all non-Christians, however, judging on his own beliefs one can conclude that he is ultimately being ironic and judging those who he deems are less superior to him. Elliot in addition, uses the ending tricolon of “shantih”[5] in an ironic fashion, as these words derive from Sanskrit and Hindu prayers. “Shantih”[6] would be used at the end of a prayer ceremony as a form of closure (similar to amen). This is seen as ironic as it implies Elliot judging all of Western culture and heritage by using religious words from the East, hence implying that the eastern culture is superior to Christianity. It could also be perceived that Elliot is suggesting that western society has crumbled in faith to such an extent, that western society must look towards the eastern cultures for guidance. On the exterior we can perceive that the poem is a Dante journey into hell, yet on the interior one can infer that the poem is a nihilistic outlook on the twenty-first century society.
Nietzsche once said “God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him.”[7] This feeling of nihilism which can be seen in Elliot’s The Waste Land, but can also be mirrored in Shakespeare’s Henry iv. Shakespeare cleverly uses Northumberland’s lamentation over his dead son to show his desire for chaos and his nihilistic views. Northumberland states, “Let heaven kiss earth!”[8] This line may be interpreted as romantic and could also have alluring notions, however a sense of ‘zeitgeist’ within this line is strongly perceived. Whilst allowing “heaven”[9] to “kiss earth”, Northumberland is breaking the hierarchy placed by society and suggesting that God is inferior to man. This ultimately shows a crumble in society’s faith and religious hierarchy, allowing the audience to infer the tragedy Northumberland has had to face.
Another Key example of religious disintegration within Henry iv, is the issue regarding the rebellion. Whilst the King may be the head of the Catholic Church, the Archbishop of York is one of the heads of the rebellion. This is showing the clash between two key figures in the church showing, as previously stated, the disintegration of religion. During act 1 scene 2, when discussing their motives for overthrowing King Henry iv the Archbishop claims that “the commonwealth is sick of their own choice”[10]. Not only is this showing the Archbishop being sick of his “own choice”[11] but it is also showing society being sick of it. Unlike the King, who includes all of his subjects and his people in his monologues, The archbishop only refers to the “commonwealth”[12] this refers solely to the rich and healthy society. This presents the audience with the egotistical nature of the Archbishop and presents him as a villain throughout the play. Shakespeare uses the failure of the rebellion within to show society and all those who may conspire against the monarch, what occurs if you oppose Queen Elizabeth the first.
Elliot uses the description of the Fisher King’s infertile land to reflect the disintegration of society’s health. Within book 5 (What the Thunder Said) he continuously repeats and hyperbolises on the fact that there is no water, “here is no water but only rock”[13]. This lack of water connotes the lack of life there is in that location, as to contain life water is a requirement. This is arguably construed as Elliot’s own opinion of war as it is barren and infertile. He is conveying the negative aspect of war and how this as affected society’s health, showing how the war has effected all the returning soldiers, effectively causing the reader to wonder at whether this destruction and infertility was possibly able to be reprimanded. Alternatively, it could be conceived that this sense of infertility is due to Elliot portraying his own castration within the novel stating his anger towards those who have done this deed to him. This then allows those people to see the affect it has had on him.
Unlike Elliot, Shakespeare uses the character Falstaff and his peers to symbolise the disintegration of health within society, as opposed to references. Our first perception of Falstaff, within the second half, is that he is a very anarchic character. Falstaff’s value systems are clearly different from those of nobility and of upper class. Falstaff’s very first line is showing his crude nature and how he is interested solely upon what the “doctor says to my [Falstaff’s] water.”[14] This shows Falstaff asking his page about his own urine, thus implying that he is suspicious of him having a venereal disease. After one perceives this they are able to interpret more of Falstaff, finding him to be a braggadocio. However despite his charming personality, at times, he is still the epitome of deterioration of health within society. He is also a manifestation of character and culture crumbling within Elizabethan society. This allows the audience to have a glimpse at the peasant life style and for one to imagine the lack hygiene one experienced. Shakespeare also uses the structure of his play in an ironic fashion. He does this by having one scene occurring within upper class society and normally discussing politics and the next being about the peasants, how they curse and swear at each other using double entendres and euphemisms throughout. This allows the audience to see the differences in cultures as Hal is contemplating about his future as being the King.
The Waste Land is Elliot’s method of breaking the rules and showing his own superior intellect (in his own belief). This is predominantly seen within his subverting of the “Canterbury Tales”[15] by Chaucer. He illustrates this by using the line “April is the cruellest month”[16] which directly subverts Chaucer as he narrates April is a time of progression from winter. This subversion is also seen further in as he also challenges Shakespeare, thus portraying himself as superior as he is not following the norm of that which was prior. This conveys Elliot as an arrogant man who deemed himself far better than others, according to Richard Halpern Elliot thoughts about his own poem compared to Shakespeare is that The Waste Land “is modernism’s protective amulet in the cultural wasteland.”[17] This arrogance is reflected within the era of modernism, as more and more poets and authors break the rules set before and create atrocities with these feeble attempts of something unique yet great, for instance the “Ulysses” by James Joyce. One can infer that Joyce’s attempts at being creative fail as this novel is a trail of thought and imagery with no structure making it completely incoherent.
Elliot uses the nursery rhyme “London Bridge is falling down”[18] to convey a sense of disintegration of morality. The use of a nursery rhyme is a subtle way of conveying a sense of degeneration, as it shows that the children of the world are being brought up with no hope as they sing a rhyme which is implied to be fun and entertaining for them. The use of a children’s rhyme used in such a negative fashion has major connotations as it begs the questions, how can such a innocent thing be related to such a negative thing? However, when one digs deep enough they discover that the literal meanings of the world imply that London bridge fell down showing the crumbling of society. They are unable to stop it from happening as the future generation believes this will happen themselves. This creates a sense of hopelessness for the reader as one infers the future will hold worse atrocities than before.
Unlike Elliot, Shakespeare uses the character of feeble to show that morals are stronger within certain characters. As the name implies, Feeble is portrayed at being a weak and feeble character. Despite this, when being recruited to join the Kings army, unlike his peers who pay off Bardolph so they do not serve, Feeble patriotically states that:
“By my troth, I care not; a man can die but once; we
owe God a death. I’ll ne’er bear a base mind. An’t be
my destiny, so; an’t be not, so. No man’s too good to
serve’s prince; and, let it go which way it will, he that
dies this year is quit for the next”[19]
Despite being a character of low status, he is still given possibly the most powerful monologue in the play. Unlike most characters, and even those who are considered to be of noble character, Shakespeare gives Feeble this powerful monologue. He accepts that “no man’s too good to serve’s prince”[20] and that one “owe[‘s] God a death.”[21] This romantic yet powerful monologue shows the audience that those who are portrayed as weak are in fact the strongest characters.
[1] Dante, The Divine Comedy
[2] Elliot, T.S, The Waste Land (The Criterion, London, 1922) line 56
[3] Elliot, T.S, The Waste Land, Ibid line 60
[4] Elliot, T.S, The Waste Land, Ibid line 63
[5] Elliot, T.S, The Waste Land, Ibid line 433
[6] Elliot, T.S, The Waste Land, Ibid line 433
[7] Nietzsche, F, The Gay Science ( , Berlin, 1882) section 125
[8] Shakespeare, W, Henry IV (Wordsworth Edition, London, 2013) 1, 1, line 153
[9] Shakespeare, W, Henry IV, Ibid 1, 1, line 153
[10] Shakespeare, W, Henry IV, Ibid 1, 3 line 88
[11] Shakespeare, W, Henry IV, Ibid 1, 3 line 88
[12] Shakespeare, W, Henry IV, Ibid 1, 3 line 88
[13] Elliot, T.S, The Waste Land, Ibid line 331
[14] Shakespeare, W, Henry IV, Ibid 1, 2 line 1
[15] Chaucer, G, The Canterbury Tales
[16] Elliot, T.S, The Waste Land Ibid line 01
[17] Halpern, R, Shakespeare Among The Moderns (Cornell University, New York, 1999) p. 143
[18] Elliot, T.S, The Waste Land, Ibid line 426
[19] Shakespeare, W, Henry IV, Ibid 3, 2 line 221-225
[20] Shakespeare, W, Henry IV, Ibid 3, 2 line 223
[21] Shakespeare, W, Henry IV, Ibid 3, 2 line 222
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