Windswept Commuters and Dancing Stars: Shared Imagery in Dante and T.S Eliot, Pt. 1
In the early fourteenth century Dante Alighieri described himself having a mid-life crisis and taking a quest through Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise. In the early twentieth century, Thomas Stearns Eliot wrote about a world full of shattered monuments and a generation struggling to make sense of life. Eliot wove much of The Divine Comedy’s imagery into his poems The Waste Land and The Four Quartets.
Although he wanders into error, Dante, a Catholic, knows that life has purpose — his quest is to join pre-existing harmony. In contrast, Eliot’s culture was increasingly post-Christian — doubting whether meaning existed at all. Both poets reference circular movement to illustrate the difference in how people live when they seek a higher purpose.
To Hell With the Daily Commute
Inferno, Purgatory, and Paradise are structured as concentric circles that souls move through. Dante sees souls herded through Inferno like cattle “. . . in a long file . . . I had not thought death had unmade so many” (Inferno 3.57). The souls are not stagnant, but their movement is aimless. In The Waste Land Eliot paints a bleak picture of people trudging to work — “A crowd flowed over London Bridge, so many. / I had not thought death had undone so many” (The Waste Land1.62–63). Dr. Mount explains that Eliot uses the “infernal allusion” to create a parallel between aimless souls and daily commuters. Without a higher purpose, movement is just the “rat-race” of modern bureaucracy where the only goal is to beat your neighbor to retirement.
As he descends, Dante finds that Hell becomes narrower and more restrictive (Inferno 5.1–3). Sinners lose their freedom and are forced to spend eternity fixated on what distracted them from God. Eliot sees people,
Filled with fancies and empty of meaning / Tumid apathy with no concentration / Men and bits of paper, whirled by the cold wind / That blows before and after time (Burnt Norton 3.103–104).
As in Dante’s Circle of Lust, Eliot’s characters are blown by and trapped in their desires, unable to grasp the call of transcendence.
Purgatory: Dance Class and a Spiritual Gym
Souls in Purgatory are still stuck walking in circles, but they have a goal — Paradise (Purgatory 11.28–30). Souls in Purgatory must purge away pride, which holds humans back from moving towards something beyond selfish desires.
Eliot sprinkles his poetry with references to “the still point of the turning world” (Burnt Norton 2.62). Somewhere–although it’s elusive — there must be a central purpose to life. Finding this point transforms apathetic despair into redemptive purpose–from Hell to Purgatory.
Eliot remarks that, “From wrong to wrong the exasperated spirit / Proceeds, unless restored by that refining fire / Where you must move in measure, like a dancer” (Little Gidding 2.144–146). Humans were not meant to move in carpool lanes, but in a dance. The dancer must step in time to the music, conforming her body’s movements to an external rhythm. In one sense, Purgatory is a spiritual gym where souls improve by continual exercise. But Purgatory is also a dance class that prepares souls to join Heaven’s choreography.
We’ll be Dancing in Paradise
In Paradise Dante says, “The holy circlings showed me a new joy / in their revolving and their wondrous song” (Paradise14.23–24). The movement is meaningful, but not utilitarian. It transcends mere purpose and becomes joyful.
Although he doesn’t explicitly name the “still point”, Eliot describes it as Dante describes God — an unmoving Love that both ignites and directs movement (Burnt Norton 5.163–164 and Paradise 24.131–132). But choosing God’s path instead of our own doesn’t mean sacrificing freedom. Unlike in Inferno where souls are chained by obsessions, love allows for continual growth and moves us into “a deeper communion” (East Coker 5.204–206).
Dante concludes, “Already were all my will and my desires / turned — as a wheel in equal balance — by / The Love that moves the sun and the other stars” (Paradise 33.143–145). In submitting his will to God’s, Dante has joined the movement that guides all the celestial spheres.
Humans move throughout their lives and cannot help but move in some direction — intentional or not. If there is a fixed purpose to the world, then it lays a claim upon individual lives. Distraction and rebellion result in restless circlings blown about by winds of fashion and emotion. Eliot and Dante believe that the true center of the circles is God and that purpose is found when we orbit around Him in a celestial dance.
