T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land (TWL), line 111
“My nerves are bad to-night. Yes, bad. Stay with me...”
This is the fifth directly quoted passage of The Waste Land, after THE SYBIL’s
wish to die (TWL Epigraph), THE HYACINTH GIRL remembering how she
was named (TWL 35-36), THE POET calling out to his reader STETSON (TWL
69-76), and THE NIGHTINGALE’s inviolable cry (TWL 103, and see TWL
203-206). Only three more direct quotes will follow: single lines from THE
LOVELY WOMAN (TWL 252) and the Tempest’s ARIEL (TWL 257), then the
songs of THE THREE THAMES DAUGHTERS (TWL 292-305).
With a total of fourteen lines (TWL 111-14, 117, 119, 121-123, 126, 131-134),
THE NERVOUS SPEAKER has the most extended of the quoted passages, and
it is interspersed, sans quotation marks, by the responsive dialogue of THE
SPEAKER’S COMPANION. The two speakers hear one another, so the lack
of quotations of the companion appears to be simply a means to distinguish them.
This also happens, though without interactive dialogue, after the Hyacinth Girl
speaks (TWL 37-41), and the two passages are even related: “I knew nothing,”
says the Hyacinth Girl’s respondent (TWL 40); “Do you know nothing?” the
nervous speaker retorts (TWL 121-122); the Hyacinth Girl’s respondent observes
“your hair wet” (TWL 37) while the nervous speaker mentions going outside with
her hair down (TWL 133), after which her companion considers that it might rain
(TWL 136).
Separately, several other characters appear without quotation marks, often in
pairs: before this, MARIE and a GERMAN COFFEE DRINKER (TWL 5-18), a
PROPHET speaking to THE SON OF MAN (TWL 19-30), a VIGILANT SAILOR
(TWL 31-34, 42), MADAME SOSOSTRIS (TWL 46-59); after this, LIL and a
BARTENDER (TWL 139-172) and the blind TIRESIUS (TWL 215-248), endured
by the Lovely Woman.
Beyond these, there are no clearly distinguishable speeches in the poem, though
myriad other voices, or “fragments,” as the Poet suggests (TWL 431), can be
heard within the flow of musings and allusions. One could cast these fragments
as separate characters, but really they are more reflections of either the Poet,
e.g., THE FISHER KING (TWL 182-202 and 424-426), or the city around him:
e.g, BABY-FACED BATS (TWL 380-385)
There are also at least six prominent characters in the poem who do not speak: the
spoken to Stetson (TWL 69-76), the Cleopatra-like QUEEN (TWL 77-110), MR.
EUGENIDES (TWL 207-214), PHLEBAS THE PHOENICIAN (TWL 312-321),
THE WALKING COMPANION (TWL 360-366) and a BLACK-HAIRED
WOMAN (TWL 378-385).
So who is the nervous speaker? There are ambiguities tying all the characters
together throughout the poem, and here it is no different: by the context of dialog,
the nervous speaker would seem to be the Hyacinth Girl or the walking
companion; by appearance she might be the lovely woman or the black-haired
woman; by her melancholy she could be the Sybil or the nightingale or one of
the Thames daughters; by her spouse-like behavior she could be Lil or the
queen or, with an external reference, Eliot’s wife Vivienne. Perhaps most
conclusively, within the continual stream of fragments she, or he, would seem to
be an extension of the Poet himself.
from T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land, with annotations (and other explanations)
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