We were debating today in class about the two Middleton plays Eliot references: A Game at Chess and Women Beware Women. I decided to research them both to set things straight. A Game at Chess opens up with an actual game of chess that is supposed to be an allusion to the relationship between Spain and Great Britain. At the time, there was an arranged marriage in the process between Prince Charles and the daughter of the Spanish King. Although we were confused at first as the game of chess a reference to Middleton's play with a strategic sexual seduction, the reference to the play A Game at Chess does use chess as a symbol for a heated relationship. Women Beware Women also parallels a game of chess with a relationship. In this play, as the footnote states, the relationship is more about sex and erotic escapades. The women are taken advantage of in a series of steps.
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I definitely can see how the allusion to "A Game at Chess" corresponds to the relationshp between the wealthy, elite woman and her lover. It appears that the woman is deeply, sexually attracted to her spouse. Since we see the woman supplicate him for communication, it appears that he is an elusive man. Possibly, his strategy is to play "hard to get" in order to seduce the woman.
Chrissy, I found your discovery extremely interesting. Personally, though, I was immediately reminded of Catcher in the Rye. I think your statement that "women are taken advantage of in a series of steps" is a clear comparison to a game of chess. In Catcher in the Rye, Jane "insists on keeping her kings in the back row," which is a clear sexual reference. She maintains her innocence and chastity by remaining in the "back row" of a sexual life. I believe that the moves of chess can definitely be seen as sexual movements or escapades.
As noted by Elliot, A Game of Chess refers to a scene from Middleton's play "Woman Beware Women". In this play, moves of a game of chess are linked with sexual seduction. Clearly , a heated sexual struggle is displayed in this section. The relationship between Lil and her husband is one great example of this sexual conflict. In the poem, Elliot utilizes Lil and her husband's faulted relationship in order to question the purpose of sexual interactions and its possible fertility.
In the next section of the Waste Land, called The Fire Sermon, Eliot also comments about relationships. Here, a house agent's clerk seduces an indifferent typist after work hours. Similar to the idea of sex as a series of steps in chess, the man in this relationship caresses the woman almost mechanically. To Eliot, there seems to be no passion in the modern world.
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