The ‘Wheel’ represents the circle in which the whole world moves on. The process, how it seems to be presented by unreal cities is nothing but an illusion. Eliot shows that there is no progress, only change that nonetheless does not change anything. ‘Crowds of people, walking round in a ring’ alludes to ghostly figures created by an unreal city. For example in an industrialized world, in big cities, where people go to work every day and just follow the crowd. Cities, civilization and culture pretend to lead people somewhere and to make them move on. They think they have a destination. However, they do not move on, but stay in that circle. The ‘Wheel’ capitalized stands for a higher power that makes the system move. A wheel standing for a new invention and for progress does not apply in this context, because it is personified as God. The clairvoyante could therefore just stand for mankind’s predetermined destiny. The ‘one-eyed merchant’ stands for another aspect of an unreal city. In the modern world, due to the consequences of the industrialization, there is a big difference between rural and urban areas. Cities stand for agglomeration of people, capital and products. The ‘one-eyed merchant’ however, seems not to see the ‘whole thing’. He seems to be blinded by the illusion of the unreal cities and the modern world. This also refers to Eliot’s rejection of a modern world. In a city, people just follow the mainstream and believe in non-existing things, they are not alive and conscious, but just ghostly figures. Furthermore, the ‘one-eyed merchant’ carries something on his back, which the clairvoyante cannot see. It is a blank card. It seems like a burden for humanity that men must carry, especially the one-eyed merchant, as a representative of a ‘modern urban man’. If the clairvoyante cannot see it, it might contradict the fact that the future is pre-determined and hence the ‘Wheel’ can be interpreted differently. The blank card could mean that there is still a possibility to change the future and that people are able to act. The ‘Wheel’ itself is just turning around its center, but seen as a whole the ‘Wheel’ could be moving on.

I found the translation "peace" for shantih, which could mean that there will be peace when the cities haven fallen down. When the 'frame of civilization' collapses, when mankind is closer to nature again, then there could be peace.

Tension because all these cities are real places yet he has paired them with the word 'unreal'