Throughout The Wasteland, Eliot examines various moments of sexuality rooted in anxiety, disconnection, or another disturbed mental or emotional state. The emotionally disturbed nature of sexuality is also attached specifically to women’s aberrant sexuality as female voices in Eliot’s poem are somewhat divergent in their attitudes towards sex. For example, one female voice refuses to succumb to sexual expectations while another gives in to a sexual relationship without enjoying any pleasure herself.

In Part II “A Game of Chess,” Eliot establishes a conversation between two speakers regarding a returning solder, Albert, and his sexual expectations. He writes, “He’s been in the army four years, he wants a good time, / And if you don’t give it to him, there’s others will, I said” (148-149). Eliot then demonstrates the heightened emotion of procreation anxiety following World War I: “What you get married for if you don’t want children? / HURRY UP PLEASE ITS TIME” (164-165). While “HURRY UP PLEASE ITS TIME” is a reference to a pub’s closing hour, Eliot’s repetition of the line, as well as its capitalization, creates a frantic and anxiety-ridden tone surrounding the couple’s sexual relationship. More specifically, as we’ve hinted at in class, the sexual anxiety seems very much embedded in concerns over reproduction and the continuation of the English bloodline. This fear comes to fruition as the woman Eliot describes refuses to procreate with the returning, theoretically triumphant Albert. Thus, the woman specifically becomes a force of anti-English sentiment as she refuses to do her duty to carry on the nation’s sacred bloodline.

Eliot further complicates the relationship between women and their sexuality in The Wasteland as he describes “the young man carbuncular” (231) having sex with an unnamed woman. Eliot writes:
    Flushed and decided, he assaults at once;
    Exploring hands encounter no defence;
    His vanity requires no response,
    And makes a welcome of indifference.” (239-242)
While Albert’s partner retains all sexual control of their relationship, the young man carbuncular’s lover gives in fully to sex even though it bores her completely. Her indifference but willingness to submit to sex perpetuates the notion that a woman’s sexuality does not exist for her pleasure, but instead exists for the pleasure of someone else—namely, a man.

Eliot further complicates the questioning of women’s sexuality through his reference to Tiresias (218)—a Greek mythological figure who lived as both a man and a woman, and determined that women experience more sexual pleasure than men do (see p. 46 of the Norton Critical Edition). By including this figure, Eliot questions the oft prevailing notion—which he himself depicts with the vignette of the young man carbuncular and his lover—that women’s sexuality exists as a commodity to be enjoyed by someone else. By including these disparate views of women’s sexuality, Eliot reveals the complexity of navigating issues of sexuality for all people following World War I, and for women specifically.