The French Lietenant's Woman

The only book I've read by the (pedantic?) John Fowles. I found that the novel was, surprisingly, a modern, ironic intake on Victorian fiction, where Fowles lightly sprinkles a critical vision upon typical Victorian characters and literature. Delving deeper into the story though (no spoilers), the theme of the novel is truly that of appearance and reality, like so many other authors have chosen to interpret through their writing. It is the way in which we view ourselves, and the way in which we deem others and therefore, the way in which we consider others to either fit into our hibitual realms, how they as 'foreign elements' would fit into our norms of life, how we can mold ourselves to fit into theirs and, most importantly, whether it is necessary or whether we should merely continue with what we know and are comfortable with. Such is the case of Charles, Ernestina and Sarah, This peculiar love triangle, amidst a dense boast on how Fowles is so extremely talented and culturally educated, is what leads the reader to understand the deep and meaningful theme. It's true, Fowles is an extremely talented author-as far as I've read (my Fowles literature, as mentioned before, does not go beyond this novel). He proves it to us by taking a mundane theme and twisting it till the very end, where he offers us three possible endings to the story. None of this was truly impacting, but the way in which Fowles chooses to criticize the Victorian mind set and simultaneously create a work of literary art is quite wonderful.

Having seen the Wasteland performed majestically and rather brilliantly by Fiona Shaw, I regret to say that although her expressions, her dynamism through movement and tone and her enthusiasm when relating the 23-minute poem made it infinitely easier, I still found it a poem seemingly impossible to understand. I read over it once out loud to attempt a further understanding of the complex poem and surprisingly, ideas that hadn’t occurred to me the first time I heard the poem began to bloom, for example the extended metaphor within the section ‘The Fire-Sermon’. The ‘female breasted man’, Tiresias, is something out of the ordinary, as his name suggests, a fantastical character extracted from a Greek or Roman myth or legend. He describes himself, comparing himself to a ‘taxi throbbing, waiting’, again suggesting the idea of the mechanical versus the natural, and the real versus the fantastic. His ‘waiting’ shows his desolate nature, torn between two sexes and unsure of his life’s path. In a completely pure and in no way voyeuristic, he contemplates a man ‘rudely forced’ into a woman, whose boredom is clear. One imagines how tragic it is that one who in lost in the world and who mourns his identity, contemplates the regular mortals and comes to realize that even they are unsure of their lives’ paths. This anecdote amongst so many others within ‘The Wasteland’ is a common problem: the assertion of identity and the strife to assert one’s identity by comparing oneself to others.

Perhaps the song that follows this section is part of a random stream of consciousness, which was necessary within the poem, as it is in itself the running of thoughts of the narrative voice. Or perhaps, as it comes directly after a short story about one’s assertion of identity, it is a medium through which the narrative voice asserts his personality, as music is a common way to identify oneself. The use of places shows, again, the importance of identity.

Having understood the section of ‘The Fire Sermon’ best within the poem, I believe that ‘The Wasteland’ is essentially a poem about identity, about finding oneself, through themes such as the latter, sexuality, death, relationships and time.