Allusion in The Wasteland

For my allusion from The Wasteland, I choose to research "Belladonna, the Lady of the Rocks." Belladonna, which means beautiful lady in Italian alludes to the Virgin Mary. This allusion is confirmed by "the Lady of the Rocks" which sounds similar to the da Vinci painting, Virgin of the Rocks, which depicts Mary. In the painting, Mary appears to be calm, kind, and tranquil as shown through her facial expressions. This depiction is used to characterize the female character in The Wasteland. However, Belladonna is also a type of poisonous flower, which was used by women as a form of facial enhancement. Thus the allusion combines two different perspectives which are juxtaposed. On one hand the female character looks kind and pure but she is really poisonous, vain, and dangerous.