the waste land analysis

According to legend, only the pure of heart can attain the Grail. This is due to our secular democracy, commercial interests and mechanical and technological progress which has eroded man's faith in religion, moral values and individual development and achievement. Moreover, the past has another advantage over the present. It must be clearly understood that The Waste Land is a social document of our times, a poem which throws light on the problems and perplexities of modern civilization. Eliot is not enamored of the golden past nor does he heave a sigh for the vanished glory of the past. Eliot? Ina way it presents the "disillusionment of a generation." Eliot has referred to the past in order to show the similarity of the problems of both ages and how the experience of the past can help in finding solutions of the problems of our time. It was written during the autumn of 1921, in Switzerland, where the poet was just recovering after a serious breakdown in health caused by domestic worries and over work. In the version of the Grail myth that Eliot draws on, a wasteland is awaiting a miraculous revival-for itself and its failing ruler, the Fisher King, guardian of the Holy Grail. The poem goes on to present a sequence of short sketches following an individual's baffled search for spiritual peace. A dramatic monologue that changes speakers, locations, and times throughout, “The Waste Land” draws on a dizzying array of literary, musical, historical, and popular cultural allusions in order to present the terror, futility, and alienation of modern life in the wake of World War I. Journey of the Magi: Summary and Analysis, Morning at the Window: Summary and Analysis, Rhapsody on a Windy Night: Summary and Analysis, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock: Summary, About Us In the modern age, spiritual paralysis has overtaken man. Sexual violence has always been there: Philomela was raped and her tongue was severed so that she may not reveal the crime. It is this latent power which needs to be discovered and utilized. The mood is cautionary. resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel. These fragmented poems are characterized by jarring jumps, in perspective, imagery, setting, or subject. The narrator cries for rain, and it finally comes. Eliot, literature essays, a complete e-text, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis. | This section once again ushers in the issue of biographical interpretation. Shades of the Gothic are introduced here as well, echoed by the bats with the baby faces in the chapel. It concludes with resignation at the never-ending nature of the search. The Waste Land appeared in the aftermath of World War I (1914-1918), which was the most destructive war in human history to that point. The theme of The Waste Land is essentially the spiritual experience of man; it has to be related to its background. It then represents the primacy of the flesh over the spirit, and this result in spiritual decay and death. The Waste Land draws much of its symbolism and narrative framework from the mythological story of the quest for the Holy Grail, the sacred cup that Jesus Christ drank from at the Last Supper. It, no doubt, deals with the tragedy of the modern age, but it also shows that tragedy is at the heart of life, all life, in all ages. In all these respects, the present resembles the past. This might seem puzzling, to start a poem with death, but the world was still in shock from the first world war, and the mass destruction, so it must have been uppermost in Eliot's mind. Consequently, the life in the modern wasteland is a life-in-death, a living death, like that of the Sibyl at Cumae. Elsewhere, Eliot wrote that the quality which distinguishes humanity is its capacity to do good or evil. In the last section of the poem, the thunder is already heard and the clouds are there. At the same time, Eliot is not pessimist rather than despair it is hope that sustains The Waste Land. Analysis of The Waste Land - Lines 1 - 18 - The Burial of the Dead The Burial of the Dead refers to the Anglican service of burial, found in the liturgical book which Eliot possessed. If you are at an office or shared network, you can ask the network administrator to run a scan across the network looking for misconfigured or infected devices. There is an apocolyptic mood with images of dryness and draught. In it, the narrator -- perhaps a representation of Eliot himself -- describes the seasons. Berkow, Jordan ed. But when it is severed from its primary function, and is exercised for the sake of momentary pleasure or momentary benefit, it becomes a source of degeneration and corruption. Reference to Elizabeth and Leicester in the song of the daughters of the Thames shows the sex- relationship in the past also has been equally futile and meaningless. There are several reasons for his using this approach, from a feeling of being isolated, to a problem articulating thoughts (Bergonzi 18, Cuddy 13, Mack 1745, Martin 102). BachelorandMaster, 25 Nov. 2013, bachelorandmaster.com/britishandamericanpoetry/the-waste-land.html. It showed the courage and vitality of the human spirit; it had the capacity to do things both good and evil. his faith in God and religion; his passion to participate in religion and this decay of faith has resulted in the loss of vitality, both spiritual and emotional. The mood is sad and filled with futility. Sex- relationship in the middle is equally mechanical. What is the mood of "The Fire Sermon" by T.S. Man has lost his passion, i.e. There is neither repulsion nor any pleasure, and this absence of feeling is a measure of the sterility of the age. They and their people are too poor and too apathetic to make any efforts of the betterment of their lot. The only difference is that in the past, suffering and penance resulted in spiritual regeneration and return to health: Philomela was transformed into the bird of golden song and King Fisher was cured and his kingdom redeemed. Eliot's study of the fertility myths of different people had convinced him that the sex - act is the source of life and vitality, when it is exercised for the sake of procreation and when it is an expression of love. Privacy and Cookie Policy In the world of today, one cannot ignore the social, secular, commercial and technical compulsions of the modern world. "What the Thunder Said" shifts locales from the sea to rocks and mountains. Section IV: “Death by Water” and “What the Thunder Said”, "A Room of One's Own", "Wasteland" and "J. Alfred Prufrock": The Affairs of Society, Dry, Allusive, and Ambiguous: A Close Reading of "The Wasteland", Modernist Experimentation in The Waste Land, T.S. Your IP: 47.88.104.193 Rather, he was revealed, the resembling contrasts between the past and the present. Next he finds himself on London Bridge, surrounded by a crowd of people. The poem returns to the river, where maidens sing a song of lament, one of them crying over her loss of innocence to a similarly lustful man. Thus Mr. Eugenides is a homosexual and Hotel Metropole is a hot bed of homosexuality, a relationship which is essentially sterile. GradeSaver, 26 October 2007 Web. Eliot's "The Wasteland": Portrait of a Desolate World, View Wikipedia Entries for The Waste Land…. The gloom and despair of the poet are mirrored in this poem. The next section, "A Game of Chess," transports the reader abruptly from the streets of London to a gilded drawing room, in which sits a rich, jewel-bedecked lady who complains about her nerves and wonders what to do. Not affiliated with Harvard College. Within a few stanzas, we have moved from the upper crust of society to London's low-life. Not only has sex been vulgarized and commercialized there also prevailed abnormal sex- practices of various kinds. Here, Eliot includes references to Germany, such as a lake called the Starnbergerse, and uses German speech excerpts, such as the following (which means \"I'm not Russian at all, I'm from Lithuania, really German\"):Marie speaks of the changes from winter (on which sh… "Death by Water," the fourth section of the poem, describes a dead Phoenician lying in the water -- perhaps the same drowned sailor of whom Madame Sosostris spoke. He is not an escapist or a romanticist; he is a stern realist who laid his hand on the pulse of the modern man. The title "A Game of Chess" suggests that sex has become a matter of intrigue, a matter of moves and counter- moves, a source of momentary pleasure, a sordid game of seduction and exploitation of the innocent. The poem begins with a section entitled "The Burial of the Dead." He remembers a fortune-teller named Madame Sosostris who said he was "the drowned Phoenician Sailor" and that he should "fear death by water." The narrator sits on the banks and muses on the deplorable state of the world. Copyright © 1999 - 2020 GradeSaver LLC. The Waste Land by T. S. Eliot: Critical Analysis Eliot's The Waste Land is an important landmark in the history of English poetry and one of the most talked about poem of the 20th century. The theme of the poem is the spiritual and emotional sterility of the modern world.

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