Ophelia in The Waste  Land


Ophelia in The Waste  Land   


Eliot uses many allusions to bring about the main point of the poem. We find Ophelia through the chorus of a woman leaving the bar.  
This chorus- “good night ladies, good night sweet ladies, good night  good night.” 

Eliot refers us to Ophelia’s madness with this line; it is an exact echo of her line in Hamlet.

Ophelia in hamlet is a obedient daughter of Polonius and hamlets love interest. She caught between her obedience to her father and her love for hamlet which has tragic consequences. She is separated from normal life because of her madness that is triggered by her father’s death and the banishment of hamlet.She suffered a mysterious death, she accidently falls in the water and then simply neglects to save herself from drowning. Her drowning links her to the image of death by water that recurs throughout the wasteland.

Ophelia’s death by water is believed by many to be a suicide. Suicide suggests an upset world, a wasteland of emotion. Eliot links Ophelia with the allusions of Cleopatra and dido, who committed suicide because of frustrated love.

Eliot also stands against the typical ideas through the allusion of Ophelia. She dies in water with flowers is a direct contradiction to the typical meaning behind the symbol of water. Water is generally thought as a healing source, a place of birth and rebirth. But her death signifies the idea of how water can kill.

Eliot symbolizes the oppression of women by those who are supposed to love them. Through the backdrop of futility and sterility Eliot   creates an emphatic conclusion of the game of chess.

Location: Dhanmondi, Dhaka, Bangladesh

Comments

  1. English LiteratureOctober 28, 2020 at 9:05 PM

    Really useful one, compact yet packed with important points.Thank You very much for the effort to make the hard one looks so simple. Further, you can access this site to read Method in Hamlet’s Madness

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousFebruary 8, 2021 at 12:13 AM

    can someone tell me in which line she dies?

    ReplyDelete

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