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Questions
to Guide Your Reading
T. S. Eliot, East Coker (selections) 1. Who is it, according to Eliot, who “goes into the dark”? What sort of darkness is this? Is this the same sort of “darkness” that St. John of the Cross discusses in The Dark Night of the Soul? 2. In the middle of section III, Eliot says: We all go with them, into the
silent funeral,
Nobody’s funeral, for there is no one to bury. What does he mean when he says “there is no one to bury”? 3. At this point in the poem, Eliot tells his soul to “be still, and let the dark come upon you.” Is he talking about the same sort of darkness here that he was above? Or has he perhaps added a new meaning to the word? Explain the meaning of the following images: the passengers on a subway train which stops between stations and the patient under ether. 4. Why does he need to “wait without hope,” “wait without faith,” and “wait without love”? Aren’t faith, hope, and love good things? Why, similarly, does he need to “wait without thought”? How might Thérèse of Lisieux’s description of the obscuration of her faith provide a particularly good example of what Eliot is describing? Explain. 5. How is it true, even in everyday life, that (paraphrasing Eliot) to arrive there – namely, the place where you are not (that is, you are not there now) – you need to go by a way in which you are not? How is it true, even in everyday life, that “to arrive at what you do not know, you must go by a way which is the way of ignorance”? How is it true, even in everyday life, that “to arrive at what you are not, you must go through the way in which you are not.” 6. Who is “the wounded surgeon”? 7. Why is the job of the “dying nurse” to “remind [us] of our, and Adam’s curse, and that, to be restored, our sickness must grow worse”? 8. Indeed, the whole of section IV is based on a parallel set of paradoxes: (a) It is a “wounded surgeon” who
operates (“plies the steel” scalpel) with “bloody hands” (which is
quite true, in fact, if you’ve every seen actual surgery).
(b) The surgeon exhibits “sharp compassion” when he “plies the steel” (That is, he has got to cut us to make us well). (c) “Our only health is the disease” and “to be restored, our sickness must grow worse.” (That is, our only path to wholeness and health is to realize our emptiness: only the sick look for a physician, not those who think they are well). (d) Where does the “wounded surgeon” operate? In a “hospital” – namely, the earth. (e) Who has financed (“endowed”) the hospital? A “ruined millionaire.” In this hospital, oddly, we die of “absolute paternal care” – care that “will not leave us, but prevents us everywhere.” (That is, our Father, the richest Being in the universe, who has made Himself into a pauper for our sakes, cares for us by not leaving us to our own devices, but by preventing us from harming ourselves further). (f) To be “warm,” I must first “freeze,” in “frigid purgatorial fires.” (Are “frigid” fires unbearably hot or cold? Well, think about it: Have you ever touched liquid nitrogen? Or heard of “freezer burn”?) John of the Cross says that the “dark night of the soul” is a purgation – one that is needed if we are to enter into God’s light and warmth. Do you suppose the “dark night” can “burn” you with its freezing cold? So, in an exam, if I ask you to explain to me the significance of the following paradoxes, you should be able to do so: (a) the “wounded surgeon” who
operates with “bloody hands” and exhibits “sharp compassion.”
(b) Why our “only health is the disease,” and that “to be restored, our sickness must grow worse”? (c) the “ruined millionaire” who “endowed the hospital” (d) dying of care (e) to be warm, I must first freeze 8. By the way, where do you suppose Eliot learned to set up paradoxes like this (health/disease; warmth/freezing; wounded surgeon; ruined millionaire; dying of care)? [Hint: Who said that “the first shall be last and the last first?] |