T. S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land” demonstrates a religious sentiment about the increasing lack of restraint in human sexuality. The reader experiences a morose overtone from the title of the poem to its almost nonsensical conclusion as Eliot describes this fantastic yet hauntingly familiar wasteland. The oncoming sexual revolution appeared imminent as a reaction to the repressive Victorian society of the past generations. Eliot sensed the changing world and forged this poem to strike at the heart of this growing trend of immorality. Eliot critiques many aspects of European society but sex is the easiest facet of his assault on society to recognize and unpack, perhaps done so on purpose. Despite the overwhelming concern of spirituality and the casual references about gender and culture, sex appears to be at the ominous center of it all, the bane of Eliot’s conservative Christian attitude, and the running theme in “The Waste Land.”

The first English lines of the test refer to the prospect of sex in a negative light: “April is the cruelest month, breeding/ Lilacs out of the dead land mixing/ Memory and desire (ll. 1-3).” Already the description of the setting is a menacing take on the act breeding. Spring, traditionally the time of rejuvenation and rebirth, operates with “dead land.” The act of breeding is much less harmonious than tradition would state.
The most prominent example in dealing with the prospect of intercourse in European society at the time is in the second book “A Game of Chess.” “think of poor Albert/ He’s been in the army four years, he wants a good time/ And if you don’t give it him, there’s others will (ll. 147-149).” Sex, here, is viewed as a bare human necessity, lacking all forms of spirituality, love, or respect between two individuals. It is purely for the satisfaction of man against the celibacy of time and war. The bothersome aspect of this conversation is the fact that any woman will do. All that the wife is expected is to receive first priority. She should fail, another will take her place. Eliot demonstrates the human persona as devoid of reason by the imposing carnal desires of the flesh. The wife had also been expected to pay for teeth, making her more appealing to her husband, Albert. Should she fail to do either the task of replacing her teeth or satisfying him sexually, she will lose him.