Richard Wagner wrote Tristan und Isolde based on the Arthurian myth of Tristram and Isolt. He changed the story so that it would be less complex and more understandable to the audience of the opera. These changes, however, do not leave a simple story. Tristan is a knight who works for his uncle, King Mark of Cornwall. Mark has no children, and so he has named Tristan his heir. Isolde is an Irish princess who is famous for her beauty and for her healing powers. She is betrothed to an Irish king. Tristan kills Isolde’s husband-to-be in battle, but he is grievously injured. So, he goes to Isolde to be healed, but Isolde discovers that he is her betrothed’s murderer and decides to kill him. But, when he looks into her eyes, she cannot kill him and instead falls in love with him. Tristan returns to Cornwall and convinces King Mark to marry Isolde. King Mark agrees, and sends Tristan to bring her back.

The opera opens on the boat that is bringing Tristan and Isolde to King Mark. The first quote in The Waste Land from Tristan und Isolde is from the first act. A sailor is singing about the love he is leaving in Ireland:

Frisch weht der Wind
der Heimat zu:-
mein Irisch Kind,
wo weilest du?
Fresh Western wind
O blow us home:-
My Irish Child,
Where do you roam?
(Tristan Und Isolde, I, 5-8)

Isolde interrupts his singing, and begins to yell at him because she thinks he is mocking her. Angry at herself for letting emotion get in the way of her revenge, she vows to poison Tristan and herself. When her maid hears this, she switches Isolde’s potions, and instead of using a poison, Isolde uses a love potion, which causes them to fall into uncontrollable love.

When they are in Cornwall, another of King Mark’s knights catches them in one another’s arms and attacks Tristan. Tristan does not resist the attack, and thus is injured badly. He returns to his home where he waits for Isolde to come and heal him. The second quote is from a shepherd who has been commanded to play a happy tune when he sees Isolde’s ship, but he sees nothing and plays a sad tune. “Öd’ und leer das Meer!” “Lone and bare the sea!” (Tristan und Isolde, III, 24). Isolde does later come to heal Tristan, but when he sees her, he tears off all of his bandages and bleeds to death in her arms. King Mark comes to forgive them for their love, because it was the potion’s doing, but it is too late. Isolde commits suicide and joins Tristan in death. Through their deaths they are transfigured to symbols of great and passionate love. The curtain closes on their two dead bodies, and the four hour long opera comes to a close.

Despite their length, Wagnerian opera was more unified than previous opera had been because of the use of leitmotif (Waldron, 421). Similar to a theme song, a leitmotif is a musical phrase associated with a recurring theme. Perhaps the most well-known leitmotifs come from John Williams’s movie scores, like Jaws and Star Wars. A two-note musical phrase is enough to let us know that there is a shark in the vicinity or the more dramatic “Imperial March” lets us know that Darth Vader will be appearing on screen soon. Similarly, Wagner used music phrases for different ideas presented in the opera. Isolde and Tristan have themes, much like Darth Vader had a theme. These leitmotifs are like musical fragments that have been joined together to tell a story. Eliot uses the idea of the leitmotif in The Waste Land. The different fragments and repetitious themes in The Waste Land are joined together like the different and repetitious leitmotifs in Tristan und Isolde (Waldron 434).

Because of these leitmotifs, when Eliot refers to a line in the opera, he is also referring to a musical theme. The first quote is to the same tune that is used as the theme for the sea in Tristan und Isolde, used especially when the sea interrupts the thoughts of the characters (Waldron 427). Water plays an integral role in The Waste Land, “Fear Death by Water,” and the drought in “What the Thunder Said,” among others, and the theme of the interrupting Wagnerian sea adds to the dualistic view of water. Water is both something which gives life and something that can take it away. Adding to this, the second quote is also talking about the sea, something which can bring the healing of Isolde, but which is now desolate without her.

The quotes also add to the fragmentation of voices in the poem. They are especially applicable to the original title of the poem, “He do the police in different voices.” The two quotes used are sung by the same actor, who is playing two different characters. So, it is the same man, but speaking in different voices. Additionally, the quotes add to the different languages used. Like line 12, “Bin gar keine Russin, stamm’ aus Litauen, echt Deutsch,” the quotes from Tristan und Isolde are in German, but about people who are not. Also, it adds to the musical tone of the poem. Eliot uses many different songs throughout the poem, as though there is constantly music playing in the background. The songs’ different origins add to the diversity and fragmentation of the poems. However, it is not just when music is present that it has an influence on The Waste Land, but when the music is not there it adds to the desolation of certain moments, such as the drought (Waldron 422).

There is also a contrast between the deaths in the opera and the death in the poem. In Tristan und Isolde, the characters are transfigured in death, but in The Waste Land, there is not redemption through death (Waldron, 430). However, Eliot suggests that their can be, if society recovers from the trauma of war. Just like the lilacs growing from the dead land and Tristan and Isolde’s transfiguration from death, society has the chance of growing from the war if they make the effort. The passion for life and death is what is missing from The Waste Land, and passion is what it needs.

To some extent, the story of Tristan und Isolde reflects T.S. Eliot’s life. He caught his wife in an affair with his best friend; much like King Mark found his bride-to-be in an affair with his most trusted knight. However, Eliot had been an avid fan of Wagner long before he discovered the affair, and if he was using the story as a parallel to his friend and wife’s betrayal to him, he would more likely place himself as a hero, not a background character. Additionally, if he saw the story as a parallel, he would surely have some resentment towards the main characters, which is not evinced in the poem.

Many critics have avoided discussing Wagner’s influence on The Waste Land and on Eliot in general. Some did this because they resented Wagner’s anti-Semitic feelings and others did it because the challenge of fully understanding an opera did not appeal to their more literarily focused minds. However, to ignore Wagner’s vast influence on Eliot is to ignore the fact that Eliot was obsessed with Wagner’s work, especially Tristan und Isolde. Eliot put so much importance on it that when he first published The Waste Land, he placed before it an article by Sturge Moore, “The Story of Tristram and Isolt in Modern Poetry” (Waldron 434).

John, Nicholas ed. English National Opera Guide 6: Tristan and Isolde-Wagner. New York: Riverrun Press, 1983.
Waldron, Philip. “The Music of Poetry: Wagner in The Waste Land,” Journal of Modern Literature, XVIII, 4 (Fall 1993), pp. 421-434. Temple University, 1994.