Darkness & Death in The Waste Land

     While reading The Waste Land (which was, for me, incredibly difficult to get through as there seemed to be no continuous story/plot to it), I happened upon the recurrence of a darkness of some sort, which I read as hinting to death.

• Section 1:
• Line 18 - "I read, much of the night, and go south in the winter."
• Both night and winter are typically representative of death. Sunset represents the end of life, while night is the death that occurs, the end of the light of life. Winter represents death as during winter, most everything is cold and appears dead; life is difficult to both sustain and find during this season.
• Lines 25-29 - "There is shadow under this red rock, / (Come in under the shadow of this red rock), / And I will show you something different from either / Your shadow at morning striding behind you / Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you;"
• These lines almost seem to say, "Accept your death that is inevitable." At the beginning of your life, your sunrise, your shadow, or death, is often behind you, unseen and not thought of. At the end of your life, your sunset, your shadow is in front of you, very much seen and seeming to get closer with each step. It is very much thought of because it is "rising to meet you."
• Line 49 - "Here is Belladonna, the Lady of the Rocks,"
• This line contains a footnote that describes that it is likely in reference to "the poisonous plant deadly nightshade." So, this line, which ties into lines 25 & 26 ("Shadow under this red rock"), contains both direct references to night and death.
• Line 68 - "With a dead sound on the final stroke of nine."
• If one looks at this line as 9PM, then the clock would be signalling the end of evening and the beginning of night. The "dead sound" then, could be a reference to the end of day, and therefore, end of life.
• Section 2:
• Line 100 - "So rudely forced; yet there the nightingale"
• The lark signals the beginning of the day, but the nightingale signals the END of day, the end of light, the end of life.
• Line 111 - "My nerves are bad to-night. Yes, bad. Stay with me."
• Here, the word "night" is used again, but to tie in with that, later in this set of stanzas someone asks, "Are you alive, or not? Is there nothing in your head?" Not only are these stanzas taking place at night, but they also discuss death and the person speaking begs someone, likely the narrator, to stay with them, something that is frequently said to someone as they are dying.
• Line 138 - "Pressing lidless eyes and waiting for a knock upon the door."
• A knock upon the door seems reminiscent of Revelation 3:20: "Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me." The next verse in the bible goes on to say that anyone who opens the door for Jesus, will be offered a seat next to Jesus' throne, which is in heaven. Lidless eyes reminded me of a decaying corpse, whose eyelids and eyes have long been eaten away.
• Lines 141, 152, 168, 169 - "HURRY UP PLEASE ITS TIME"
• The footnote for these lines is that this was something called out by bartenders to announce that they were closing up shop, a last call, which comes at night. Also in this stanza is the repetition of the word "goodnight." It is repeated ten times within 4 lines."
• Section 3:
• Line 199 - "O the moon shone bright on Mrs. Porter"
• The moon may sometimes  be out during daylight, but it doesn't really glow or shine bright unless there is no daylight left.
• Line 220 - "At the violet hour, the evening hour that strives"
• Another hint to the end of day, beginning of night, twilight.
• Line 250 - "Hardly aware of her departed lover;"
• While this line makes no reference to darkness directly, it is in reference to a few lines from the previous stanza, in which her lover goes off to bed, taking the darkened stairs. It is in reference to darkness and night from the previous stanza, connecting the two.
• Section 4:
• Line 312 - "Phlebas the Phoenician, a fortnight dead,"
• While this line, and stanza, does not make any direct references to night, as a fortnight simply means "two weeks," it does make use of the word night, a recurring word in the poem, and is also succeeded by the word "dead." Immediately after this line, it also talks about "the deep sea swell" making use of the darkness of the sea and ties in the title of the section "Death by Water."
• Section 5:
• Lines 331-356 - The word "rock" repeats here several times, likely in reference to the earlier line containing "the Lady of the Rocks" and the lines before that mentioning the shadow beneath the rock.
• Line 364 - "Gliding wrapt in a brown mantle, hooded"
• A hooded face is typically cast in shadow. The one described here as being "hooded" is unseen as they walk along side the two and could be representative of death. "I do not know whether a man or a woman..." This could suggest that, like death, it is shadowed and dark and can take many forms. (The word "hooded" is repeated later in line 369.)
• Line 387 & 388 - "I the faint moonlight, the grass is singing / Over the tumbled graves, about the chapel"
• The moonlight is fading, making the darkness even darker in a place of death.
• Line 416 - "Only at nightfall, aetherial rumours"
• Two things in this line stood out as significant to this theme of darkness and death: 1) nightfall, & 2) aetherial (ghosts, spirits, etc.).
• Line 426 - "Shall I set my lands in order?"
• While this line makes no direct mention of darkness, it does have a very interesting footnote that ties in very well with the darkness/death theme that I have been pointing out: "Thus saith the Lord, Set thine house in order: for thou shalt die, and not live."