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Eliot argues in his well-known literary theories that literary works should not carry a poet's individuality, but subject himself to the traditions of the literature he belongs to. On the level of consciousness this argument may not be objectable, but a poet's voice cannot avoid betraying his unconscious through his works and life. From this perspective, here an attempt has been made to trace how Eliot's unconscious worked while he composed The Waste Land, whose themes are centered around man-woman relationships. With this scheme the focus here lies with the anima archetype whose function is to balance man's unilateral psychological propensities and also to help him relate to women effectively. Eliot displays negative attitudes toward them, reproaching them for causing such a barren state to the land. Actually those images and episodes Eliot describes about women characters in The Waste Land carry significant parallels with attributes Jungian psychologists argue the anima carries and they suggest the stage in which Eliot was placed then. However, Eliot was not stuck long in the stage reflected in The Waste Land, but outgrew it into maturity and stability, which psychological state was to be shown in Four Quartets, where those doubt, mistrust, hostility are sublimated into harmonized transcendental expediences.
