The poems of T.S. Eliot require close reading, understanding numerous references, and careful consideration of why each word appears in the position it does and how it relates to every other word in the poem. In longer poems such as "The Waste Land," the connections can become quite complex, with a number of sections linked together by a central idea which is not readily apparent until the reader begins to make the connections between images from the different sections. Eliot develops his themes through the interplay of ideas and images, instead of through characters, and the reader moves from one image to another by means of a dramatic arc. Two such images in "The Waste Land" center on the figure of Tiresias from classical drama and on the church and the people based on ceremonies of death.
Tiresias first appears in Section II, headed "A Game of Chess":
I Tiresias, though blind, throbbing between two lives, Old man with wrinkled female breasts, can see
At the violet hour, the evening hour that strives
Homeward, and brings the sailor home from sea,
The typist home at teatime, clears her breakfast, lights. Her stove, and lays out food in tins (218-223).
Tiresias was a Theban prophet who, though blind, could "see" more clearly than could others. He was an important character in Oedipus Rex and foretold the destruction of Oedipus. He is utilized here as an observer, one who sees not with his eyes but with his heart and mind, and so one who sees more than could be seen with the eyes. The idea that the blind can see more clearly is an ancient anomaly used here by the poet to elevate what Tiresias sees to a higher plane. What he sees in the passage quoted above seems mundane, actions taken each day in the normal course of living, but these actions are embodied with greater import as they are selected and described through this character. The importance of the character is indicated by Eliot himself in a f...