In the poem, The Waste Land, T. S. Eliot gives a primarily positive connotation by using the theme of speech, language, and failure of speech. In each of the sections, Eliot shows how speech and communication are important in life. He also shows that speech cannot always accomplish what actions can. The way the characters in the poem use speech show that speech and communication are important. A Game of Chess This section may be the best example of communication in the whole poem. While many of the other themes are present, the main part of this section deal with the interaction between two people, in two different places. Although at first these conversations seem to be very fruitless and unproductive, at the end it is revealed that what was trying to beaccomplished by the conversations happens anyway.The first part of A Game of Chess tells of a man and a woman having dinner. A very elaborate description of the dinner scene, the woman, and the sights and smells that fill the room. After dinner to woman tries to engage the man in conversation but to no avail. As she continues to get more frustrated with and his unwillingness to answer her questions, it would seem Eliot is showing how speech and communication do not accomplish their intended goals. The woman keeps asking the man what he wants to do after dinner, but only his thoughts are revealed to thereader, he does not respond to the woman. Eventually after the woman's tiring effort to get a response they still end up taking a carriage ride and playing a game of chess. So while the woman thought that she was getting no where with him, she actually achieved exactly what she wanted. In this sense a transformation occurs from the point in which the woman thought that she was getting no where to the point where she realized that he had been listening the whole time, and she still got to do what she wanted to do.The second part of this section tells of two women who's husbands are off to...
