"What the Thunder Said" Annotations
From The Waste Land Wiki
(→Lines 401-410, "The White Devil") |
(→Lines 411-417) |
||
| Line 174: | Line 174: | ||
I think in a sense, Eliot is coming to terms with what he sees as the betrayal of women, and notes that perhaps, men have something to be blamed for. | I think in a sense, Eliot is coming to terms with what he sees as the betrayal of women, and notes that perhaps, men have something to be blamed for. | ||
| − | ===Lines 411-417=== | + | ===Lines 411-417, ''Inferno'' & Shakespeare=== |
DA | DA | ||
Dayadhvam: I have heard the key | Dayadhvam: I have heard the key | ||
| Line 182: | Line 182: | ||
Only at nightfall, aetherial rumours | Only at nightfall, aetherial rumours | ||
Revive for a moment a broken Coriolanus | Revive for a moment a broken Coriolanus | ||
| − | + | ||
| + | '''Line 411: "I have heard the key"''' | ||
| + | |||
| + | Eliot's note calls attention to ''Inferno'' 33:46-47, when Ugolino explains how Ruggieri shut him into a tower with his children, without any sustenance, and when his four children die, Ugolino eats their corpses. | ||
| + | |||
| + | This describes the terrible drive to survive that leads people to do inhuman things, and as a result, puts them into a private hell--the condition of the people around him. | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | '''Line 416: "a broken Coriolanus"''' | ||
| + | |||
| + | ''Coriolanus,'' by William Shakespeare, details how a general of Rome attempts to punish the people for being fickle, and so unites with Volscians to do so. After punishing them, however, Coriolanus' wife, mother, and son convince him to refrain from sacking the city, and thus he earns the Volscians ire, and is hacked to death. | ||
| + | |||
| + | If one condemns the people, and punishes them only half-heartedly, one suffers retribution from those who joined you in the violence, perhaps. | ||
| + | |||
===Lines 418-423=== | ===Lines 418-423=== | ||
DA | DA | ||
