Critical Article

Erwin R. Steinberg

Mrs. Dalloway and T.S. Eliot's Personal Waste Land

Erwin R. Steinberg’s article, Mrs. Dalloway and T.S. Eliot’s Personal Waste Land, adds expanded critical theories to James E. Miller’s book, T.S. Eliot’s Personal Waste Land. Miller argues that Eliot’s poem The Waste Land was written in memory of a French medical student that lived in the same boarding house in Paris as Eliot in 1910-1911, and who later died in a battle of World War I. Steinberg says that reviews have been critical of Miller’s theory and say that more evidence is needed. Steinberg suggests that more evidence can be found in the relationship between Virginia Woolf’s novel, Mrs. Dalloway, and The Waste Land. Steinberg opens his article by showing the relationship between Virginia Woolf and Eliot that began in 1918 and blossomed during the years of 1922 and 1925 when Mrs. Dalloway was under construction. Steinberg claims that through that year of interactions between Woolf and Eliot he can provide circumstantial evidence to support Miller’s theory that The Waste Land depicts Eliot’s sadness over the loss of his friend. Steinberg refers to Miller’s book many times throughout the article to reinforce his new theory. Miller has multiple examples of Eliot claiming through letters and other documents that Prufrock and Other Observations were based on his friend. Steinberg believes that Septimus in Mrs. Dalloway reflects Eliot’s life and his grieving over the loss of a friend. Furthermore, he points out that there are passages around Clarissa in the novel that allude to young men going into battle to meet their death. Steinberg believes that the connections between Septimus and Eliot are too closely related to be coincidental and that it reinforces Miller’s argument behind the inspiration for The Waste Land.


Steinberg, Erwin R. "Mrs. Dalloway and T.S. Eliot's Personal Waste Land." Carnegie-Mellon University. Web.