Tarot and T.S. Eliot in Stephen King\u27s Dark Tower Novels [Article]

Abstract

Characters and events in King’s Dark Tower series are inspired by the Fisher King, Arthurian, and other mythologies and legends, as well as the works of more contemporary authors who derived inspiration from similar sources. This paper explores King\u27s use of Tarot motifs in the Dark Tower series with attention to similarities and parallels to the presentation of Tarot in T.S. Eliot\u27s The Waste Land. King’s central character Roland, whose cards are read by his nemesis, has the satisfaction of knowing when the cartomancer is dead and of saving multiple universes, but then discovers that he is doomed to keep saving those universes over and over again

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