NAME : Mahida Bhumika Prakashbhai
M A Sem - 2
ROLL NUMBER : 4
ENROLLMENT NUMBER :3069206420200021
SUBJECT : Paper 106: The Twentieth Century Literature: 1900 to World War II
ASSIGNMENT TOPIC : Critical analysis of "The Waste Land" by T.S. Eliot
INTRODUCTION:
T.S.ELIOT :
Thomas Stearns Eliot OM was a poet, essayist, publisher, playwright, literary critic and editor. Considered one of the 20th century's major poets, he is a central figure in English language Modernist poetry.
T.S. Eliot was best known as a leader of the Modernist movement in poetry and as the author of such works as The Waste Land and Four Quartets .
T.S.Eliot known for his most famous poem…
⚪ The waste land ⚪
The Waste Land is widely regarded as one of the most important poems of the 20th century and a central work of modernist poetry. While it is not considered as Eliot's masterpiece by many critics, it is undoubtedly his most famous poem.
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 poems of the 20th century. It is a long poem of more than four hundred lines in 5 parts entitled: 1) The burial of the Dead; 2) A Game of Chess; 3) The fire Sermon; 4) Death by Water; 5) What the Thunder Said.
The Waste Land, a poem in five parts, was establishing the form of a fragmented modern poem. These fragmented poems are characterized by jarring jumps, in perspective, imagery, setting, or subject. Despite this fragmentation of form, The Waste Land is unified by its theme of despair. Its opening lines introduce the ideas of life's ultimate futility despite momentary flashes of hope. The poem goes on to present a sequence of short sketches following an individual's baffled search for spiritual peace. It concludes with resignation at the never ending nature of the search. The poem is full of literary and mythological references that draw on many cultures and universalize the poem's themes. According to legend, only the pure of heart can attain the Grail. 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 Waste Land appeared in the aftermath of World War I , which was the most destructive war in human history to that point. Many people saw the poem as an indictment of the postwar European culture and as an expression of disillusionment with contemporary society, which Eliot believed was culturally barren.
The theme of the poem is the spiritual and emotional sterility of the modern world. Man has lost his passion, that is 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. Consequently, life in the modern wasteland is a life-in-death, a living death, like that of the Sibyl at Cumae. According to Eliot's philosophy, in so far as we are human beings we must act and do either evil or good, and it is better to do evil than to do nothing. Modern man has lost his sense of good and evil, and this keeps him from being alive, from acting. In the modern desolate, there is a life in death, a life of complete inactivity, listlessness and apathy. That is why winter is welcome to them, and April is the cruelest month, for it reminds them of the stirrings of life and, "They dislike to be roused from their death in life."
The poem thus presents "a vision of dissolution and spiritual drought". This spiritual and emotional sterility of the denizens of The Waste Land arises from the degeneration, vulgarization, and commercialization of sex. 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. 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. It then represents the primacy of the flesh over the spirit, and this results in spiritual decay and death.
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. There is the fashionable society woman who, despite all her pomp and show, despite all the luxury with which she is surrounded, is bored and hysterical as a consequence. Her love, too, suffers from mental vacuity and is unable to keep up even small conversation.
The theme of The Waste Land is essentially the spiritual experience of man; it has to be related to its background. In the world of today, one cannot ignore the social, secular, commercial and technical compulsions of the modern world. 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 to the problems of our time.
Moreover, the past has another advantage over the present. It showed the courage and vitality of the human spirit; it had the capacity to do things both good and evil. People then were not inert, lazy and bored. Elsewhere, Eliot wrote that the quality which distinguishes humanity is its capacity to do good or evil. Vigor and vitality are the secret of any civilization or a great period in history. In the modern age, spiritual paralysis has overtaken man. 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. Man may be an atom in this great universe, but he is an intense atom, capable of yielding energy and power. It is this latent power which needs to be discovered and utilized.
Let's we talk about the symbols which used in "The Waste Land":
Critical Analysis of Allusions and Symbols:
There are four wastelands in literary history. The First Waste Land is of King Oedipus of Thebes, which shows Oedipus complex i.e. sexual intercession between mother and son. The Second Waste Land is of King Fisher, who became impotent due to some immoral activity. The third Waste Land is the Biblical Waste Land; it is concerned with the sufferings of people who worshipped idols. The fourth or modern Waste Land is written by T. S. Eliot which signifies the sins and fire of lust in modern society. Well at the end of every waste land we find a solution and penance of rebirth or regeneration. Similarly, the modern waste land by T. S. Eliot also ends in the ray of hope; here T. S. Eliot gives us a message that the three "DA's", Datta, Dayadhvam and Damyata are the solutions to save the modern civilization from chaos and ruin.
Symbols and Allusions in First Section "The Burial Of The Dead":
In literature, April is considered the month of rebirth or regeneration but for waste-Landers April is the cruelest month as they are not willing to revive. In line 20 "son of man” symbolizes the Holy Christ. In line 22 "heap of broken images' ' symbolizes loss of spiritual values in the modern man. In line 23 "dead tree" symbolizes complete barrenness of modern civilization. In line 25 "red rock" symbolises Christian Church. In lines 35, 36 and 37 "Hyacinth" is a plant which is a symbol of sensuous love. In line 52 "one-eyed merchant” symbolizes the modern man whose commerce eye is opened but the religious eye is closed. In line 60 "Unreal City" symbolizes London city, this is also an allusion taken from Baudlaire’s poem in which this phrase refers to Paris. Line 62, "A crowd flowed over London Bridge, so many," is parallel to Dante's line in Inferno. Line 64, "Sighs, short and infrequent, were exhaled," is allusion from Dante's Divine Comedy. Line 68, "with a dead sound on the final stroke of nine" is an allusion towards the boring mechanical life of waste landers and "final stroke of nine" symbolises the death time of Christ. There is another allusion from the opera of Richard Wagner's Tristan and Isolde in lines 32, 33 and 34 which are
" Der Heimat zu Mein Irisch Kind Wo weilest du? "
Symbols and Allusions in Second Section "A Game Of Chess":
This section is about the rap of a young girl and problems of married life in lower class families. The title of this section is allusive which is taken from Middleton's play "Women Beware Women". In line 77 "The Chair she sat in" is an allusion taken from Shakespeare's play Antony and Cleopatra. Lines 92 and 93 are allusion taken from Aeneid in which the ceiling of a banquet hall of Queen Dido of Carthage is described, the lines are "Flung their smoke into the laquearia Stirring the pattern on the coffered ceiling "
Symbols and Allusions in Third Section "The Fire Sermon":
This section is about the sex perversities in modern man, and tells about the rape of three daughters of River Thames. The title of the poem is allusive and is taken from the Sermon of Lord Buddha. Lines 177 and 178 are about the pollution of the river Thames, these lines symbolises spiritual degeneration of the modern civilization. In lines 176, 183 and 184 "Sweet Thames" is allusion from Spenser's Prothalamion. In line 182 "water of Leman” is another allusion, the reference is to Lake Leman, where Bonnivard was imprisoned. Line 191 "Musing upon the king my brother's wreck" is allusion taken from Shakespeare's play "The Tempest". In line 204 "Jug Jug jug jug jug" is a French term which symbolises sexual intercourse. In line 207 "Unreal City” symbolizes London city, this is also an allusion taken from Baudlaire’s poem in which this phrase refers to Paris. In lines 218, 229 and 243 "Tiresias" is another allusion taken from Sophocles' Oedipus Rex. Line 221, "Homeward, and brings the sailor home from sea", is an allusion taken from Stevenson's play Requiem. Lines 277, 278, 290 and 291 are a reference to Wagner's Opera. In line 279, "Elizabeth and Leicester", is a allusion to Queen Elizabeth and Leicester sailing upon the river Thames in the past time. Line 292 "Trams and dusty trees” is a symbol of the progress of materialistic culture in London. Lines 307, 309 and 310 are allusions from St. Augustine’s confession, who prayed to God to save him from the fire of lust. Line 308, "Burning burning burning burning" is an allusion to Buddha's fire of lust and hatred.
Symbols and Allusions in Fourth Section "Death by Water":
This is the smallest section of the poem; Eliot wants to tell us that we are like dead bodies although we are physically alive, yet spiritually dead. Water is a symbol of rebirth, life and purification but for waste-landers it has become a source of death. In line 312 "phlebas” is a symbol for 20th century modern man, in the same line "Phoenician" is a symbol for London city. Line 317 "He passed the stages of his age and youth” is allusion towards the captivation of the image of nice Osiris who gets old as he rises and falls on the waves, later he is reborn.
Symbols and Allusions In Fifth Section "What The Thunder Said":
This is the last section of the poem and about how the modern man can get deliverance. The title symbolises hope and rebirth. In line 327, "thunder of spring” symbolizes rebirth of Holy Christ. Line 328, "He who was living is now dead" is about the Fructification of Holy Christ. Line 354, "And dry grass singing” is a symbol for minor spiritual revival. Line 358, "But there is no water" symbolises that in order to gain spirituality one has to face hardships. Line 373, "Falling towers” stands for Christian Churches. In line 411, "I have heard the key” is an allusion to the story in Dante's Inferno. Key symbolises one's release from one’s own ego. Line 416, "Revive for a moment a broken Coriolanus" is another allusion borrowed from Shakespeare's play Coriolanus. In line 418, "The boat responded” is an allusion from Wagner's Opera, Tristan and Isolda. Line 427, "Poi s'ascose nel foco che gli affina" is an allusion borrowed from Dante's Purgatory, this line means please remember my pain. In line 431 "Hieronymus" is an allusion from Kyd's Spanish Tragedy. In lines 402, 411, 418 and 432 "Datta, Dayadhvam and Damyata" these words are allusions towards Indian Mythology. Datta means to give, Dayadhvam means to sympathize and Damyata means to control. Eliot wants to say that deliverance can be achieved by acting upon these three doctrines i.e. to give, to sympathies and to control. Line 428, “Quando fiam uti chelidon O swallow swallow” is an allusion towards the story of Philomela and her sister and their transformation in to nightingale and swallows respectively.
Conclusion :
Eliot's allusive and symbolic technique is far reaching. He uses more allusions and symbols than that of John Milton. He wants to relate the present to the past, in order to convey some didactic purpose from the past incidents. Through these allusions and symbols he forecasts the future of modern man and modern civilization. Modern man can attain deliverance by acting upon the message of Thunder that is give, sympathize and control. He quotes the references of more than thirty writers. Mostly he takes those allusions from the past which symbolize spiritual hollowness, degeneration in free sex and sterility.
Refferences:
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