Samuel Mundru

Symbolism in T S Eliot’s “Game of Chess”

Samuel Mundru

Abstract

Everything matters in poetry right from a coma to an exclamatory mark, format to figurative language, phrases to words, scenes to small objects. This article focuses on these small objects used in the elaborate description of the unnamed lady described in the second section the poem Wasteland titled ―Game of Chess‖, Authored by four times nominee to the noble prize, a poet, essayist, publisher, playwright, and literary critic Thomas Stearns Eliot. Along with allusions and anthropological pieces of evidence, there is also an extensive use of Symbolism in the poem Wasteland. Harvard union library, and writings of Valarie Eliot hold the evidence that T.S Eliot was greatly influenced by Arthur Symons's ―The Symbolist Movement in Literature‖ which introduced him to the literary style of combining "ironic elegance and psychological nuance" popularized by Jules Laforgue, the unique style of describing a personality with the help of objects that he/she uses or are present around them. Game of Chess is the best example of this kind of narration. When it comes to the question of interpreting Game of chess, it is common for critics to talk about allusions and attributing the unnamed lady to Eliot's first wife Vivienne, ignoring the significance of the objects in the poem. The main aim of this article is to analyze the roles of these objects namely the Glass, the Door, the seven branched lamp stand, the carved dolphin, which are all a part of the subtle elegance of the poem and have double-layered meaning to describe the psychological condition of the characters in the Game of Chess.

Keywords: Symbolism, Eliot, Game of chess, Objects, Wasteland

Symbols are to express something which would otherwise be inexpressible. F. Clarke Fraser

The provenance of Symbolism takes us back to Parnassianism, a French literary movement in reaction to romanticism sparked by author Théophile Gautier and Arthur Schopenhauer. Parnassianism is very much similar to Neoclassicism with its rigid rules and conventions. The pioneers of Symbolism, like Stephen Mallarme, Paul Verlaine, who were against naturalism and realism in literature, refused to accept the clarity and objectivity of Parnassianism by allowing free verse and retaining the Parnassianism love for wordplay and musical qualities

of the poetry, they started a new literary theory, Jean Moreas, entitled it as Symbolism in Figaro 18th September 1886.

Symbolism is a creative way of approaching art by erasing the thin line between the internal and external world of the writer and the reader which gives more freedom to them to express their thoughts. Critics say that the interpretation of Symbolism mostly depends on a readers' thought process for example red colour might not symbolize ‗Love‘ for everyone and white colour might not reflect peace for everyone universally. Using universal symbols with highly personalized metaphors to express the deepest thoughts of the author to the reader, who might be analysing the text is an entirely different thinking process, and is a challenge in symbolism. T.S Eliot came across this challenge in the Harvard union library, which made this budding author in the university order another three volumes on Symbolism to get a complete understanding of the theory of Symbolism, which showed a marked transformation in Eliot's poetry.

The earliest works of Eliot as the "tale of the whale" and the "man who was a king" while he was preparing for Harvard entrance in Smith Academy shows Eliot's gift for irony and parody. When Eliot aspires to settle in England in order to pursue his interest in literature, his father was not supportive. When Eliot was finally successful and wanted to share his success with his father, he was no more. Eliot's marriage with Vivienne was an obligation in order to stay in England and pursue his interest in literature. His job in Lloyds bank was merely a necessity to maintain his financial stability. When reality dawned upon Eliot and the monotony of everyday life felt as thou it was a race, the actual reason for staying in England was forgotten and he went through a nervous breakdown and advised to take three months off work. He travelled to Margate, then Lausanne for sick leave, where he got time and space to ponder on his true passion "literature.‖ And symbolism helped to give a form to the fragments of poem he is writing since a decade, while returning Eliot handed over the manuscript to Ezra Pound, Pound, in his letter to John Quinn, says, "Eliot returned from Switzerland with a damn good poem." This later turned out to be Wasteland

Wasteland is a collection of fragments written for nearly ten years. This long poem consists of five sections, namely ‗The Burial of the Dead‘ , ‗The Game Of Chess‘ , ‗The Fire Sermon‘ , ‗Death By Water‘ , ‗What The Thunder Said‘, and Epigraph.

This article focuses on the first part of ‗Game of Chess‘ that is the second section poem Wasteland, which narrates a story of a rich woman waiting for her husband in her room, and her room is very elegantly described, right from a chair she sat on to the elaborately carved ceiling of the room. Surprisingly there is no line in the whole section of the poem that explains the mental situation or the background of the lady in the poem, except for the conversation between her and her husband, who finally arrives in the last few lines, there is no other explanation that portrays their unhappy marriage. This narration of the poem indicates the objects described elegantly are Symbols, which hold doubled layered meanings; few of the objects have marked their importance with allusions of classics, Another few became a part of our discussion, because of Ezra pound‘s editorial work when Eliot handed over the manuscript to Pound to edit the document consists of thousand lines and eight sections; Pound delete chunks of the poem for example he deleted the whole shipwreck scene and made it a poem of just four hundred and thirty-three lines consisting of five sections. However, he did not even attempt to avoid a single object in the Game of Chess that describes the lady, this Indicates that even the objects like ―door‖, ―glass‖, ―seven-branched candelabra‖, ―the carved dolphin‖ which does not hold any allusions have something to say through Symbolism. This article is an attempt to decode those symbols.

Analysis

where the Glass

Held up by standards wrought with fruited vines From which a golden Cupidon peeped out (Another hid his eyes behind his wing)‖ (Wasteland 79-81)

The use of word ―Glass‖ rather than mirror and the lines in the brackets, symbolize that the lady in the poem has nothing in the room to examine herself, if there was a mirror she would have admired herself or she would have put her hair strands straight or straightened her dress, As she was waiting for her husband to come back. However, the Glass in the poem is to look through not to a mirror to look into. Even the lines in the brackets propose an idea portraying a cupid hiding his eyes behind his wing, the idea of a cupid hiding eyes behind his wings belongs to book of the bible, Isaiah chapter six," the lines being ―With two wings they

covered their faces.‖ Continuing the biblical reference god also talks about people in the same chapter the lines being

Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.‖

The above lines are pertinent to the state of the lady in the poem who has Glass a transparent object to examine herself rather than mirror a reflecting object, indicates the emptiness of her life, if the mirror not used to look into, it does not make a difference of having a glass or having a mirror, according to Eliot a mirror can be personified as life in itself the modern-day generation that Eliot talks about is only thinking about the future they do not reflect upon their past action or life in itself this causes the reflecting mirror to change into solid glass which does not reflect back

Doubled the flames of seven-branched candelabra

Reflecting light upon the table as The glitter of her jewels rose to meet it,

Burned green and orange... In which sad light a carvéd dolphin swam. (Wasteland 82-96)

Light from the seven-branched lamp stand is a well known Jewish symbol for hope, We observe two different forms of light (symbolizing hope) one being the jewels and the other being the dolphin swimming. According to the above line when the light from the candelabra falls on her jewels the room brightens up this indicates that although there is an emptiness prevailing in her life which is reflected by the presence of the Glass, she still has hope that something will change when her husband arrives. in the next few lines, Eliot talks about dolphin shaped curves in the fire place which signifies that the burning fire is in lukewarm state and almost about to be put off these lines indicate the loss of hope. This fluctuation in her emotions reflect her inconsistency of thought which is common for the 21st century

generation or the modern era where life is so fast paced and world is extremely competitive which lead to relationship being strained and deterioration of mental health.

Pressing lidless eyes and waiting for a knock upon the door. (Wasteland 132)

After the arrival of her husband, the couple have a bland conversation, in which she forces her husband to tell her what they are going to do next. In response the husband replies with above lines "wait for a knock upon the door." As Eliot was profoundly religious and the bible has a significant influence on many of his writings, undoubtedly we can dram a reference from scripture book of revelations chapter three, where Jesus the symbol of life, the symbol of salvation knocks the door to grant salvation to whoever opens it, the husband means the spiritual knock upon the door of their hearts, as they were going through troubled times which has being depicted in the line 115 which say that their home has became a ―rats alley‖ as they were seeing but unable to perceive depicted by the presence of ―Glass‖, as they are is inconsistency in their emotions and thoughts depicted by the light from ―seven branched lamp stand‖ the husband wants that ―knock‖ which can set right all the chaos, the main idea of poem wasteland is need for spiritual awakening, towards the end of poem Eliot suggest spiritual awakening as one of the methods to save the modern age from chaos, the rich couple in the game of chess are also somewhere seeking this spiritual awakening in themselves and waiting for that ―knock up on the door‖.

Conclusion

As quoted in the beginning, "Symbols are to express something which would otherwise be inexpressible." without symbols, it is difficult to draw the beginning and endpoints of "Game of Chess‖ due to its complex structure of juxtaposing objects in describing the characters present in the poem such as, the Glass, the door, the seven-branched candelabra which are the usual set up of any lavish room. However, with the application of symbolism, these objects turn out to be narrators of the central theme of the poem wasteland. the Glass asks us to reflect upon the past and make the present better; the seven-branched lamp stand portrays the inconsistency of modern generation decisions and thoughts and shows the importance of constant thought and action, The Door establishes the need of spiritual awakening like this

although Game of Chess is part of the poem Wasteland it summarizes the whole idea of the poem from "April is the cruelest month" to ‗shantih shantih shantih‘.

Works Cited

 The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. "Symbolism." Encyclopædia Britannica.

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 22 May 2013. Web.  Eliot, T. S., and Valerie Eliot. The Waste Land: A Facsimile and Transcript of the

Original Drafts including the Annotations of Ezra Pound. London: Faber and Faber, 1986. Print.

 Jain, Manju. A Critical Reading of the Selected Poems of T.S. Eliot. N.p.: Oxford UP, 2011. Print.

 McAloon, Jonathan. "TS Eliot's The Waste Land Remains One of the Finest

Reflections on Mental Illness Ever Written." The Guardian. Guardian News and

Media, 13 Feb. 2018.Web. <https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2018/feb/13/ts-eliot-the-waste-landmental-illness>

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