{"id":204,"date":"2019-05-07T06:02:57","date_gmt":"2019-05-07T06:02:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/engp04.epgpbooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/?post_type=chapter&#038;p=204"},"modified":"2019-05-08T04:10:04","modified_gmt":"2019-05-08T04:10:04","slug":"t-s-eliot-the-wasteland","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/ebooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/engp04\/chapter\/t-s-eliot-the-wasteland\/","title":{"rendered":"T. S. Eliot: The Wasteland"},"content":{"raw":"<div><span style=\"float: right\"><a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/4I4mlzb_JQw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img class=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/epgpbooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/download.png\" alt=\"epgp books\" width=\"51\" height=\"51\" \/><\/a>\r\n<\/span><\/div>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p class=\"no-indent\"><strong>Introduction<\/strong><\/p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">Thomas Stearns Eliot (1888-1965) was an eminent poet, literary critic and dramatist of the twentieth century. Eliot was one of the representative writers of the Modern age in English literature, roughly the period between 1890 and 1950.Other famous modernist authors include James Joyce, D. H Lawrence, Virginia Woolf and Ezra Pound. In 1948, Eliot was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.<\/p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<div>\r\n\r\nMajor influences in Eliot\u2019s poetic career:\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>Metaphysical poetry<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Arthur Symons\u2019 <em>The Symbolist Movement in Literature<\/em><\/li>\r\n \t<li>Ezra Pound, the American poet and critic who shaped Eliot\u2019s evolution as a poet.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<p class=\"no-indent\"><strong>Common features of his poems:<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>realistic, though depressing portrayal of contemporary society<\/li>\r\n \t<li>intellectual and rational verses<\/li>\r\n \t<li>tones of bitterness, pessimism, irony, satire and paradox<\/li>\r\n \t<li>reveal the poet\u2019s disappointment with modern life in general<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<p class=\"no-indent\"><strong>Important works:<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li style=\"text-align: justify\">\u00a0Poems-<em>The Love Song of Alfred J. Prufrock <\/em>(1915),<em>The Waste Land <\/em>(1922),<em>Four Quartets <\/em>(1945)<\/li>\r\n \t<li style=\"text-align: justify\">Criticism- <em>Tradition and Individual Talent <\/em>(1919), <em>The Function of Criticism <\/em>((1923)<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Play- <em>Murder in the Cathedral <\/em>(1935)<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<strong>Learning Outcome<\/strong>\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>To gain a general awareness of early twentieth century society<\/li>\r\n \t<li>To identify different modernist poetry techniques<\/li>\r\n \t<li>To appreciate the use of myths to convey meanings effectively<\/li>\r\n \t<li>To evaluate the language, form and content of the poem aesthetically<\/li>\r\n \t<li>To analyse the universal relevance of the poem today<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<p class=\"no-indent\"><strong>Characteristic features of modernist literature.<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li style=\"text-align: justify\">breaking away from conventional rules of narration and rhyme,<\/li>\r\n \t<li style=\"text-align: justify\">application of techniques such as stream-of-consciousness narration and free verse.<\/li>\r\n \t<li style=\"text-align: justify\">common literary topics - alienation, despair, meaninglessness of life<\/li>\r\n \t<li style=\"text-align: justify\">strong reactions against current religio-socio-political issues<\/li>\r\n \t<li style=\"text-align: justify\">focus on spiritual and moral degradation of man.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<strong><em>The Waste Land<\/em><\/strong>\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><em>The Waste Land <\/em>is considered a masterpiece in Modernist English Literature. Eliot depended on a variety of sources while composing this poem.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"no-indent\"><strong>Sources<\/strong><\/p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">Eliot was influenced mainly by the following two books, which narrate legends of many lands, from ancient Egypt to the England of King Arthur.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>Jessie Weston\u2019s <em>From Ritual to Romance<\/em><\/li>\r\n \t<li>Sir James Frazier\u2019s <em>The Golden Bough<\/em><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">Other main sources include The Bible, The Hindu <em>Upanishads <\/em>and Buddha\u2019s <em>Fire Sermon<\/em>. Eliot also quotes profusely from authors like Geoffrey Chaucer, William Shakespeare, Edmund Spenser, Aldous Huxley, Andrew Marvell, Walt Whitman and even Baudelaire, Ovid and Homer.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>\u00a0Read on the internet about the important myths\/legendsusedin <em>The WasteLand<\/em><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<div>\r\n<ol>\r\n \t<li style=\"text-align: justify\">\u00a0Legend of the Fisher King: The impotent Fisher King made his kingdom an infertile \u201cwaste land\u201d. Weston and Fraziernarrate ancient stories of healing the Fisher King to make the land fertile again. Eliot brilliantly adapts the legend of the Fisher King\u2019s wasteland to illustrate the deteriorating condition of modern society.<\/li>\r\n \t<li style=\"text-align: justify\">\u00a0Grail Legend: The Holy Grail is believed to be the cup in which the blood of Jesus Christ was collected, and has healing powers.The young knight Percival was one of King Arthur\u2019s legendary Knights of the Round Table.During his quest of the Holy Grail, he stays in the castle of the Fisher King.<\/li>\r\n \t<li style=\"text-align: justify\">Legend of Oedipus: The King of Thebes, Oedipus, unknowingly killed his father and married his mother invoking the wrath of the gods. When he knew the truth he became blind and the land became infertile.<\/li>\r\n \t<li style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"text-align: initial;font-size: 1em\">Legend of Tiresias: The legendary soothsayer of Thebes, Tiresias was gifted with prophecy and immortality. According to legends Tiresias was punished by Goddess Hera who changed him into a woman. He wasalso struck blind by Goddess Athena because he saw her bathing naked. Eliot uses Tiresias as a narrator because he has enjoyed both manhood and womanhood.<\/span><\/li>\r\n \t<li style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"text-align: initial;font-size: 1em\">Emmaus: The wasteland referred to in The Bible, in the book of Ecclesiastes. God commands the prophet Ezekiel to warn the people to stop engaging in evil activities.<\/span><\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n<strong>Narrative style<\/strong>\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>modernist technique of fragmentary narration<\/li>\r\n \t<li>verses which seem to lack continuity.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>disconnected episodes<\/li>\r\n \t<li>mostly monologues, but it also has many narrators.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>excellent use of \u2018cinematic technique\u2019 \u2013jumping from one scene to the other, juxtaposing image upon image in rapid succession.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>inter textual references<\/li>\r\n \t<li>use of many languages including Latin, Greek, German and Sanskrit.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\nEliot\u2019s narrative style has a great impact on the readers who understand the poem by successfully connecting the disconnected verses.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><em>The Waste Land<\/em>is dedicated to Ezra Pound, <em>ilmigliorfabbro <\/em>which means \u2018the better craftsman\u2019, as a mark of gratitude to Pound\u2019s efforts. Published in 1922, four years after the I World War the poem begins on a pessimistic note with an epigraph in Latin and Greek, taken from <em>Satyricon <\/em>by Petronius Arbiter:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div class=\"textbox shaded\">\r\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><em>For I saw with mine own eyes,<\/em><\/p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><em>celebrated Sibyl of Cumae, hanging in a <\/em><\/p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><em>jar And when the boys called out to her:<\/em><\/p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><em>\u2018What do you want?\u2019<\/em><\/p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><em> She replied:<\/em><\/p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><em>\u2018I wish to die\u2019.<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">According to mythology Sibyl was granted immortality by Apollo, but she forgot to ask for eternal youth. Hence her body withered away till only her voice was left and she was eventually kept in a jar (http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Cumaean_Sibyl). The epigraph points out that, like Sibyl, men and women living in the modern waste land fear life and are haunted by the wish to die. This pessimism is reflected throughout the poem, which consistsof five sections.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>The Burial of the Dead<\/li>\r\n \t<li>A Game of Chess<\/li>\r\n \t<li>The Fire Sermon<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Death by Water<\/li>\r\n \t<li>What the Thunder Said<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\nNow let us take a look at each section in detail.\r\n<p class=\"no-indent\"><strong>The Burial of the Dead<\/strong><\/p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">This section deals with the theme of the glorious past contrasted with the gloomy present.Title is an extract from the Anglican funeral service. Poem begins on a harsh note with \u2018April is the cruellest month\u2019. Theopening line echoes Chaucer\u2019s <em>Prologue to the Canterbury Tales<\/em>. Why do you thinkSpringis described as an unhappy season? The bright and joyful Spring breathes life into the dead earth which is buried during winter. But images used \u2018dead land\u2019 and \u2018dull roots\u2019 signifyunwillingness to be revived and reborn. Modern people strangely prefer the gloomy Winter thatcovers Earth \u2018in forgetful snow\u2019, itsbitter cold\u00a0and numbness enable people to stop thinking about the fertile past.<\/p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">The four narrators narrate different episodes. First episode moves to and fro, between Marie\u2019s past and present. Her nostalgic childhood recollections and fun times with cousins playing on the snow are juxtaposed with the present sombre images of having coffee in the park with friends.Marie who claims to be a pure German and not a Russian, is supposed to beCountess Marie Larisch who wrote her autobiography \u2018My Past\u2019(1916). Marie\u2019s memories end in a meditative mode, \u2018I read, much of the night, and go south in the winter\u2019 signifying her current\u00a0unproductive existence.<\/p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<div>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">Second episode is narrated in a frightening prophetic voice against the background of barren images. Certain linesare taken fromThe Bible,where prophets like Ezekiel, Isaiah and Jeremiah warn Israelites to reject their evil ways. The prophet-narrator persuades man to take shelter \u2018under the shadow of this red rock\u2019. Here red rock symbolises the church (Rosenthal 1960). References denote the spiritual degradation in post-war society. Prophet warns nonbelievers, \u2018I will show you fear in a handful of dust\u2019. The scene suddenly shifts to image\u00a0<span style=\"text-align: initial;font-size: 1em\">of a sailor waiting for the \u2018hyacinth girl\u2019. Hyacinth is a symbol of fertility in ancient Greece. Eliot introduces a happy quote from Richard Wagner\u2019s opera <\/span><em style=\"text-align: initial;font-size: 1em\">Tristan and Isolde<\/em><span style=\"text-align: initial;font-size: 1em\">, based on a medieval love tragedy. Asin the story, section ends on a tragic note, indicating the lack of love and meaningful relationships in the modern age.<\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">Third\u00a0 episode\u00a0\u00a0 shows\u00a0 an\u00a0 imaginative\u00a0 Tarot\u00a0 card\u00a0 reading\u00a0 session.\u00a0\u00a0 Madame\u00a0 Sosostris,\u00a0 \u00a0a character inspired by Huxley\u2019s <em>Crome Yellow<\/em>, is a dishonest fortune teller \u2018with a wicked pack of cards\u2019. She selects the narrator\u2019s card, the drowned Phoenician Sailor and cautions him to \u2018Fear death by water\u2019. Other cards show Belladonna (Madonna in Christianity), man\u00a0with three staves, the Wheel of Fortune, the one-eyed merchant and The Hanged Man. All\u00a0these\u00a0 images\u00a0 have\u00a0 various\u00a0 symbolic\u00a0 significances. She\u00a0 talks\u00a0 of her\u00a0 vision of \u2018crowds\u00a0 \u00a0of\u00a0people, walking around in a ring\u2019. This is probably an allusion to circles of hell in Dante\u2019s <em>Inferno<\/em>. The imaginary session ends with amentionof the horoscope of another imaginary client, Mrs Equitone.<\/p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">Final episode is a dreamlike walk through London. It is the modern waste land and described as the \u2018Unreal City\u2019 (Baudelaire\u2019s Paris) and \u2018the brown fog of a winter\u2019s dawn\u2019 (Dickens\u2019\u00a0London).An aimless wandering crowd is portrayed, each man walking \u2018fixed his eyes before his feet\u2019 and exhaling \u2018short and infrequent\u2019 sighs. The poet-narrator meets a former acquaintance, Stetson with whom he had fought in the battle of Mylae. He asks Stetson weird questions, whether the corpse \u2018planted\u2019 in the garden has survived the frost and sprouted and bloomed. He advises to keep away the Dog from digging it up (adapted from Webster\u2019s <em>The White Devil<\/em>), so that what is buried would eventually sprout and bloom, symbolising spiritual\/moral rebirth. Section ends with a quote from Baudelaire. The reader is addressed as a hypocrite and also a brother, to sustain the miserable mood of the poem.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"no-indent\"><strong>A Game of Chess<\/strong><\/p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<div>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">The suitable title is taken from a Jacobean play, <em>Women Beware Women <\/em>by Thomas Middleton. In this play a young wife is seduced by a Duke, while her naive mother-in-law is playing a game of chess. Title alludes to the depressing state of sexual relationships in the modern waste land. Two episodes in this section expose contrasting images of women belonging to high and low classes in society.<\/p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">First episode opens with a graphic description of the home of a rich woman. With jewels \u2018from satin cases poured in rich profusion\u2019 and \u2018strange synthetic perfumes\u2019 she awaits her lover amidst luxurious surroundings. Eliot parodies lines from Shakespeare\u2019s <em>Antony and Cleopatra <\/em>to show that Cleopatra and the rich woman are similar in their passion. But the modern woman lacks emotional intensity. She is also compared to Dido, Queen of Carthage who gives a grand banquet to her unfaithful lover Aeneas. To highlight the predicament of the rich woman, Eliot also compares her to Philomel, acharacter from Ovid\u2019s <em>Metamorphoses<\/em>. Philomel was raped by her brother-in-law, \u2018the barbarous king\u2019 Tereus. He cut off her tongue to prevent her from telling her sister. But Philomel manages to tell her sister who takes revenge by killing her son and feeding him to the king. The gods transform\u00a0<span style=\"font-size: 1em\">the sisters into birds to save them from Tereus. Philomel becomes a nightingale and symbolises violence against women, still widespread in modern society. Problems are still faced by women in modern waste land as represented in line,\u2018And still she cried, and still the world pursues\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">Episode ends with a conversation between a man and the rich woman who has brushed her hair \u2018spread out in fiery points\u2019. The man suddenly starts to sing \u2018O OOO that Shakespeherian Rag\u2019, a popular jazz song of 1912. The ironical verses \u2018It\u2019s so elegant \/ So intelligent\u2019 indicate\u00a0 how even\u00a0 classic\u00a0 songs\u00a0 are cheapened in\u00a0 the\u00a0 modern\u00a0 \u00a0age. Woman\u2019s\u00a0words reveal her insecurity and anxietyin spite of leading a comfortable life. She requests the\u00a0man to talk to her and share his thoughts as she longs for a more meaningful and loving bond.<\/p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">Broken dialogues indicate an obviouslack of communication. Eliot liberally quotes from Webster, Lawrence and Shakespeare to emphasise how society\u2019s moral and spiritual decadencedestroyshuman relationships. The reference to the game of chess signifies that modern life is a game people play to win with cunning and manipulative moves.<\/p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">In the second episode, scene abruptly shifts to a bar in London. We listen to a conversation amongpeople from working class section of society. Two women, Lou and May discuss their friend Lil, with a man named Bill. They criticise Lil for not being ashamed and making herself \u2018smart\u2019 enough to receive her husband Albert who is in the army. Albert who is returning home after four years naturally \u2018wants a good time\u2019 with his wife. The women feel obliged to advise thirty-one year old Lil not to \u2018look so antique\u2019 otherwise \u2018if Albert makes off, it won\u2019t be for lack of telling\u2019. Their talk reveals that relationships in lower class society are also meaningless and mechanical. Meanwhile in the background the bar keeper keeps shouting \u2018HURRY UP PLEASE ITS TIME\u2019. Eliot uses this refrain again and again to show\u00a0that it is time people started changing their attitudes to life in order to be saved. Section ends with the narrator wishing \u2018Goodnight\u2019 reminding us of Ophelia bidding farewell in Shakespeare\u2019s <em>Hamlet<\/em>. It is relevant that like Cleopatra and Dido who committed suicides, Ophelia undergoes \u2018death by water\u2019. Lil is compared with the rich lady, interestingly both women face similar problems in spite of their class differences and contrasting lifestyles.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"no-indent\"><strong>The Fire Sermon<\/strong><\/p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<div>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">Eliot presents his important and subtle observations of the modern waste land, in this longest and most complex section. Title alludes to Buddha\u2019s <em>Fire Sermon <\/em>which urges men to give up their attachment to worldly desires symbolised by fire. Title also echoes Saint Augustine\u2019s words, thus representing a synthesis of both Eastern and Western philosophy. The opening stanzas known as the \u2018river song\u2019 paint a murky picture of the River Thames during autumn season. Having lost its sheltering canopy of leaves the \u2018river\u2019s tent is broken\u2019 and resembles a waste land. The reference to the departed nymphs signifies that \u2018Sweet Thames\u2019 has lost its splendour. The famous refrain from Spenser\u2019s <em>Prothalamion <\/em>highlights the sad condition of the Thames abandoned by everyone including \u2018the loitering heirs of City directors\u2019. Lines have also been adapted from the Bible and Andrew Marvell\u2019s \u2018To His Coy Mistress\u2019 to lament the death of spirituality. The narrator fishing in the once-glorious river, now reduced to a \u2018dull canal\u2019, represents the Fisher King. The sight of a slimy-bellied rat symbolises the\u00a0<span style=\"font-size: 1em;text-align: initial\">rapid decay prevalent in modern society. The Fisher King\u2019s castle becomes a mere \u2018gashouse\u2019 in the waste land.<\/span><\/p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">Eliot also alludes to incidents from Shakespeare\u2019s <em>The Tempest <\/em>where Prospero magically causes a shipwreck to take revenge on his brother. The \u2018sound of horns and motors\u2019 is combined with an allusion to John Day\u2019s <em>Parliament of Bees<\/em>. In this play the sounds of horns and hunting bring Actaeon to where Diana is bathing. Similarly Sweeney, the modern-day Actaeon is brought to Mrs. Porter, the present-day Diana. The reference to \u2018wash their feet in soda water\u2019 alludes to the healing ritual of the Fisher King. The ritual to lift the curse of sterility is accompanied by children singing. The lines in French are translated as \u2018Oh those children\u2019s voices singing in the dome\u2019. The constant reference to \u2018bones\u2019 in this section signify modern man\u2019s dark obsession with death.<\/p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">The allusion to Philomel is repeated before the scene moves on to the \u2018Unreal City under the brown fog of winter\u2019. Eliot presents Mr. Eugenides of Smyrna, who is probably the one-eyed merchant mentioned by Madame Sosostris in The Burial of the Dead. According to Weston\u2019s book, Smyrna merchants were the main carriers of the Grail legend. Mr. Eugenides invites the narrator to join him for lunch at Cannon Street Hotel and a weekend at the Metropole. Both places were notorious during Eliot\u2019s time as secret meeting places for homosexuals. Mr Eugenides thus represents the new cult of sterility overshadowing the modern waste land.<\/p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">The typist episode provides the perfect setting to introduce the main protagonist of the waste land, Tiresias. Although he is a blind prophet, Eliot affirms that what Tiresias sees is the substance of the poem. Cursed by Goddess Hera to be a woman, he throbs \u2018between two lives\u2019. Pictured as an \u2018old man with wrinkled female breasts\u2019, Tiresias is the representative of\u00a0<span style=\"font-size: 1em\">the decadent culture of the modern age. Tiresias narrates the affair of a young typist with \u2018the young man carbuncular\u2019. The \u2018bored and tired\u2019 typist lives alone in an untidy apartment and dines on \u2018food in tins\u2019. She does her domestic chores mechanically as she awaits the \u2018expected guest\u2019. Her lover, also insignificant like her, is a \u2018small house agent\u2019s clerk\u2019. His \u2018one bold stare\u2019 reveals his bold intention, which is to \u2018assault\u2019 the young woman. Athough she doesn\u2019t desire him, she does not resist his advances and submits indifferently. Tiresias laments that there is no room for love in a modern relationship; it is purely physical in nature. Eliot quotes from Oliver Goldsmith\u2019s <\/span><em style=\"font-size: 1em\">The Vicar of Wakefield<\/em><span style=\"font-size: 1em\">, \u2018when lovely woman stoops to folly\u2019 to show the disintegration of traditional values.The typist hardly notices her \u2018departed lover\u2019. She is glad when the sexual act is over and casually puts a record on the gramaphone.<\/span><\/p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">Tiresias walks along the Strand and Queen Victoria\u2019s street with the sound of music ringing in his ears. He sometimes hears the \u2018pleasant whining of a mandoline\u2019 beside a public bar in Lower Thames Street. It comes from the Magnus Martyr, a church, an \u2018inexplicable splendour of Ionian white and gold\u2019. Significantly it is the place where the fishermen lounge at noon. The \u2018clatter and a chatter from within\u2019 the walls of this splendid church indicate how simple and uneducated fishermen lead meaningful lives. Two songs are included here. The first depicts the sad state of the modern Thames which \u2018sweats oil and tar\u2019 symbolising moral pollution. This description is a continuation of the opening stanzas of The Fire Sermon. The lines parody a song from Wagner\u2019s opera <em>Ring Cycle <\/em>which describe women singing glories of the river Rhine. The chorus \u2018Weialalaleia\u2019 reflects the beauty of the Rhine.<\/p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">The next song brings back Elizabethan images of the lovely Thames portrayed in <em>Prothalamion<\/em>. It picturises Queen Elizabeth I and Earl of Leicester rowing on the Thames, discussing marriage plans. Their relationship is contrasted with the affair of the typist and the\u00a0<span style=\"text-align: justify;font-size: 1em\">clerk. Both may be considered similar as they did not have a happy ending. Eliot tries to point out that modern affairs deliberately exhibit an absolute lack of emotion unlike traditional relationships. The scene shifts to the speaker lying \u2018supine on the floor of a narrow canoe\u2019. There is a description of a gloomy tour through London. The lines \u2018My feet are at Moorgate, and my heart under my feet\u2019 may be a reference to Elizabeth. The queen decides not to marry Leicester for the sake of her kingdom. Though it made Leicester weep and promise a \u2018new start\u2019, she had no choice.<\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">The concluding stanza is narrated on Margate Sands (mouth of river Thames). The word \u2018nothing\u2019 is repeated signifying the emptiness of modern life. The line \u2018To Carthage then I came\u2019 refers to St. Augustine\u2019s <em>Confessions <\/em>which narrate the saint\u2019s transformation from a man of the world to a man of God. Images of \u2018burning\u2019 allude to Buddha\u2019s <em>Fire Sermon <\/em>which encourages burning all kinds of worldly pleasures. Eliot stated that he had brought together representatives of eastern and western asceticism deliberately in this section.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"no-indent\"><strong>Death by Water<\/strong><\/p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<div>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">The\u00a0 shortest\u00a0 section\u00a0 of\u00a0 this\u00a0 poem\u00a0 describes\u00a0 the\u00a0 death\u00a0 of\u00a0 Phlebas\u00a0 the\u00a0 Phoenician.\u00a0 He is mentioned by Madame Sosostris in \u2018The Burial of the Dead\u2019 as the drowned Phoenician sailor. This section reminds us of her warning, \u2018Fear death by water\u2019. Her prophecy comes true. The literal meaning of this section refers to the physical death of Phlebas, from where there is no return to life. His body has decayed and the sea current has \u2018picked his bones\u2019. \u00a0He\u00a0<span style=\"text-align: initial;font-size: 1em\">cannot be brought back to life again. From a religious perspective, death by water indicates baptism and spiritual rebirth.<\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">The phrase \u2018you who turn the wheel and look to windward\u2019 refers to people inhabiting the waste land. Modern people live selfish and meaningless lives on their own terms, with no concern for others. They are indifferent to and devoid of any good emotion. Eliot\u2019s advises them to repent and be spiritually reborn. Otherwise they will be doomed to the same fate as Phlebas, irrespective of whether they are \u2018Gentile or Jew\u2019.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"no-indent\"><strong>What the Thunder Said<\/strong><\/p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<div>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">This \u00a0final \u00a0and \u00a0most \u00a0complex \u00a0section \u00a0begins \u00a0with \u00a0violent \u00a0images \u00a0alluding \u00a0to \u00a0Christ\u2019s crucifixion.\u00a0 Poet\u00a0 gives\u00a0 brief\u00a0 glimpses\u00a0 of\u00a0 events\u00a0 before\u00a0 His\u00a0 resurrection.\u00a0 The\u00a0 garden \u00a0of Gethsemane where Christ was arrested, trial before Pilate, \u2018the agony in stony places\u2019; all end with \u2018He who was living is now dead\u2019. The images of spiritual death are continued in \u2018mountains of rock without water\u2019, \u2018feet are in the sand\u2019 and \u2018dry sterile thunder without rain\u2019. The nightmare is worsened by the song of the hermit-thrush \u2018drip drop ... but there is no water\u2019.<\/p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">The scene moves on to the Legend of Emmaus. Christ appears to two men from Emmaus, but they fail to recognise him. To them, as to the rest of the world, He is just \u2018the third\u2019 person\u00a0<span style=\"text-align: justify;font-size: 1em\">\u2018gliding wrapt in a brown mantle, hooded\u2019. The next scene presents horrifying images of \u2018murmur of maternal lamentation\u2019 and \u2018hooded hordes swarming over endless plains\u2019. They symbolise a decaying and dying Europe in the grip of communism, pointing out the fate of modern waste land. Falling towers refer to powerful and \u2018Unreal\u2019 cities like Jerusalem, Athens, Alexandria, Vienna and London which are destroyed. More nightmarish images of decaying civilizations come up \u2013 \u2018bats with baby faces in violet light\u2019, \u2018blackened wall\u2019, \u2018empty cisterns and exhausted wells\u2019, \u2018decayed hole\u2019 and so on. Cleanth Brooks say that violet colour symbolises repentance. The empty chapel among the tumbled graves refers to the Chapel Perilous in the Grail legend. It is purposely filled with horrors to prevent the Holy <\/span><span style=\"text-align: justify;font-size: 1em\">Grail from being stolen. The image of the cock on the rooftop is significant. Its \u2018Co corico co corico\u2019 has the power to chase away evil forces. After the cock crows, there is a flash of lightning and \u2018a damp gust bringing rain\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">The scene again shifts all the way to the \u2018sunken\u2019 Ganga. Weston remarks that fertility rites are mentioned in early Sanskrit legends. When devas, asuras and men asked Prajapathi how to live well, he answered <em>Da <\/em>(the sound of thunder). Prajapathi then asked them to interpret <em>Da<\/em>. Men replied <em>Datta <\/em>\u2013 \u2018give\u2019; asuras replied <em>Dayadhvam <\/em>\u2013 \u2018sympathise\u2019 and devas replied <em>Damyata<\/em>- \u2018control\u2019. Eliot wanted to connect the Upanishads with these human qualities (Aiken, 1968). Tiresias asks humanity to give and surrender as it is more important than preserving memories and honouring obituaries. Instead of being compassionate, each one is in his selfish egoistic prison, suffering from loneliness like Shakespeare\u2019s Coriolanus. Tiresias finally remarks that man lacks self-control which leads to chaos and unhappiness. The image of the Fisher King collecting fragments from ruins with hopes to rebuild reappears in the end. The reference to mad Heironymo reveals the anger and frustration of the poet at the collapse of Western culture. However the poet concludes optimistically chanting <em>Shantih shantih shantih.<\/em><\/p>\r\n<p class=\"no-indent\"><strong>Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><em>The Waste Land <\/em>can be seen as a mosaic of images depicting man\u2019s journeys from birth \u2013 from past to present to future - culminating in his death. The images produce a totality of effect in the end leading to a better understanding of the poem. According to I.A. Richards \u201c<em>The Waste Land <\/em>is a music of ideas, the ideas like the musicians phrases are not arranged that they may tell us something, but that their effects in us combine into a coherent whole of feelings and attitudes\u201d (<em>Principles of Literary Criticism<\/em>).<\/p>\r\n\r\n<table>\r\n<tbody>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td><strong>you can view video on T. S. Eliot: The Wasteland<\/strong><\/td>\r\n<td><a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/4I4mlzb_JQw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img class=\"alignnone wp-image-120\" src=\"http:\/\/epgpbooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/download.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"36\" height=\"36\" \/><\/a><\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<\/tbody>\r\n<\/table>\r\n<strong>Reference<\/strong>\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>Aiken,Conrad. \u2018An Anatomy of Melacholy\u2019 in Dyson ed. <em>T.S.Eliot: The Waste Land (Case Book)<\/em>.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>London: Macmillan, 1968.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Brooks, Cleanth. <em>Modern Poetry and Tradition<\/em>. New York: OUP, 1939. Coote, S. <em>T. S. Eliot, The Waste Land. <\/em>London: Penguin, 1985.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Craig, D. \u2018The Defeatism of <em>The Waste Land<\/em>\u2019 in C. B Cox and A. P. Hinchliffe (eds) <em>T. S. Eliot<\/em>: <em>The Waste Land. <\/em>London: Macmillan Press, 1968.<\/li>\r\n \t<li style=\"text-align: justify\">Dwivedi, A.N. <em>T.S.Eliot: A Critical Study<\/em>. New Delhi: Atlantic Publishers and Distributors, 2002. Gardner, Helen. <em>The Art of T.S. Eliot<\/em>. London: Faber and Faber, 1949.<\/li>\r\n \t<li style=\"text-align: justify\">---. <em>The Waste Land<\/em>. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1972.<\/li>\r\n \t<li style=\"text-align: justify\">Miller, James. E. <em>T. S. Eliot's Personal Waste Land: Exorcism of the Demons<\/em>. USA: Pennsylvania Univ Press, 1977.<\/li>\r\n \t<li style=\"text-align: justify\">Richards, I.A. <em style=\"text-align: initial;font-size: 1em\">Principle of Literary Criticism <\/em><span style=\"text-align: initial;font-size: 1em\">(first pub. 1924). London: Routledge, 2002.<\/span><\/li>\r\n \t<li style=\"text-align: justify\">Rosenthal, M.L. <em style=\"text-align: initial;font-size: 1em\">The Modern Poets: A Critical Introduction<\/em><span style=\"text-align: initial;font-size: 1em\">. USA: OUP, 1960.<\/span><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>","rendered":"<div><span style=\"float: right\"><a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/4I4mlzb_JQw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/epgpbooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/download.png\" alt=\"epgp books\" width=\"51\" height=\"51\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<\/span><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"no-indent\"><strong>Introduction<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">Thomas Stearns Eliot (1888-1965) was an eminent poet, literary critic and dramatist of the twentieth century. Eliot was one of the representative writers of the Modern age in English literature, roughly the period between 1890 and 1950.Other famous modernist authors include James Joyce, D. H Lawrence, Virginia Woolf and Ezra Pound. In 1948, Eliot was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Major influences in Eliot\u2019s poetic career:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Metaphysical poetry<\/li>\n<li>Arthur Symons\u2019 <em>The Symbolist Movement in Literature<\/em><\/li>\n<li>Ezra Pound, the American poet and critic who shaped Eliot\u2019s evolution as a poet.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"no-indent\"><strong>Common features of his poems:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>realistic, though depressing portrayal of contemporary society<\/li>\n<li>intellectual and rational verses<\/li>\n<li>tones of bitterness, pessimism, irony, satire and paradox<\/li>\n<li>reveal the poet\u2019s disappointment with modern life in general<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"no-indent\"><strong>Important works:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify\">\u00a0Poems-<em>The Love Song of Alfred J. Prufrock <\/em>(1915),<em>The Waste Land <\/em>(1922),<em>Four Quartets <\/em>(1945)<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify\">Criticism- <em>Tradition and Individual Talent <\/em>(1919), <em>The Function of Criticism <\/em>((1923)<\/li>\n<li>Play- <em>Murder in the Cathedral <\/em>(1935)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p><strong>Learning Outcome<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>To gain a general awareness of early twentieth century society<\/li>\n<li>To identify different modernist poetry techniques<\/li>\n<li>To appreciate the use of myths to convey meanings effectively<\/li>\n<li>To evaluate the language, form and content of the poem aesthetically<\/li>\n<li>To analyse the universal relevance of the poem today<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"no-indent\"><strong>Characteristic features of modernist literature.<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify\">breaking away from conventional rules of narration and rhyme,<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify\">application of techniques such as stream-of-consciousness narration and free verse.<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify\">common literary topics &#8211; alienation, despair, meaninglessness of life<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify\">strong reactions against current religio-socio-political issues<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify\">focus on spiritual and moral degradation of man.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><em>The Waste Land<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><em>The Waste Land <\/em>is considered a masterpiece in Modernist English Literature. Eliot depended on a variety of sources while composing this poem.<\/p>\n<p class=\"no-indent\"><strong>Sources<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">Eliot was influenced mainly by the following two books, which narrate legends of many lands, from ancient Egypt to the England of King Arthur.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Jessie Weston\u2019s <em>From Ritual to Romance<\/em><\/li>\n<li>Sir James Frazier\u2019s <em>The Golden Bough<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">Other main sources include The Bible, The Hindu <em>Upanishads <\/em>and Buddha\u2019s <em>Fire Sermon<\/em>. Eliot also quotes profusely from authors like Geoffrey Chaucer, William Shakespeare, Edmund Spenser, Aldous Huxley, Andrew Marvell, Walt Whitman and even Baudelaire, Ovid and Homer.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u00a0Read on the internet about the important myths\/legendsusedin <em>The WasteLand<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div>\n<ol>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify\">\u00a0Legend of the Fisher King: The impotent Fisher King made his kingdom an infertile \u201cwaste land\u201d. Weston and Fraziernarrate ancient stories of healing the Fisher King to make the land fertile again. Eliot brilliantly adapts the legend of the Fisher King\u2019s wasteland to illustrate the deteriorating condition of modern society.<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify\">\u00a0Grail Legend: The Holy Grail is believed to be the cup in which the blood of Jesus Christ was collected, and has healing powers.The young knight Percival was one of King Arthur\u2019s legendary Knights of the Round Table.During his quest of the Holy Grail, he stays in the castle of the Fisher King.<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify\">Legend of Oedipus: The King of Thebes, Oedipus, unknowingly killed his father and married his mother invoking the wrath of the gods. When he knew the truth he became blind and the land became infertile.<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"text-align: initial;font-size: 1em\">Legend of Tiresias: The legendary soothsayer of Thebes, Tiresias was gifted with prophecy and immortality. According to legends Tiresias was punished by Goddess Hera who changed him into a woman. He wasalso struck blind by Goddess Athena because he saw her bathing naked. Eliot uses Tiresias as a narrator because he has enjoyed both manhood and womanhood.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"text-align: initial;font-size: 1em\">Emmaus: The wasteland referred to in The Bible, in the book of Ecclesiastes. God commands the prophet Ezekiel to warn the people to stop engaging in evil activities.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><strong>Narrative style<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>modernist technique of fragmentary narration<\/li>\n<li>verses which seem to lack continuity.<\/li>\n<li>disconnected episodes<\/li>\n<li>mostly monologues, but it also has many narrators.<\/li>\n<li>excellent use of \u2018cinematic technique\u2019 \u2013jumping from one scene to the other, juxtaposing image upon image in rapid succession.<\/li>\n<li>inter textual references<\/li>\n<li>use of many languages including Latin, Greek, German and Sanskrit.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Eliot\u2019s narrative style has a great impact on the readers who understand the poem by successfully connecting the disconnected verses.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><em>The Waste Land<\/em>is dedicated to Ezra Pound, <em>ilmigliorfabbro <\/em>which means \u2018the better craftsman\u2019, as a mark of gratitude to Pound\u2019s efforts. Published in 1922, four years after the I World War the poem begins on a pessimistic note with an epigraph in Latin and Greek, taken from <em>Satyricon <\/em>by Petronius Arbiter:<\/p>\n<div class=\"textbox shaded\">\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><em>For I saw with mine own eyes,<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><em>celebrated Sibyl of Cumae, hanging in a <\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><em>jar And when the boys called out to her:<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><em>\u2018What do you want?\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><em> She replied:<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><em>\u2018I wish to die\u2019.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">According to mythology Sibyl was granted immortality by Apollo, but she forgot to ask for eternal youth. Hence her body withered away till only her voice was left and she was eventually kept in a jar (http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Cumaean_Sibyl). The epigraph points out that, like Sibyl, men and women living in the modern waste land fear life and are haunted by the wish to die. This pessimism is reflected throughout the poem, which consistsof five sections.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The Burial of the Dead<\/li>\n<li>A Game of Chess<\/li>\n<li>The Fire Sermon<\/li>\n<li>Death by Water<\/li>\n<li>What the Thunder Said<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Now let us take a look at each section in detail.<\/p>\n<p class=\"no-indent\"><strong>The Burial of the Dead<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">This section deals with the theme of the glorious past contrasted with the gloomy present.Title is an extract from the Anglican funeral service. Poem begins on a harsh note with \u2018April is the cruellest month\u2019. Theopening line echoes Chaucer\u2019s <em>Prologue to the Canterbury Tales<\/em>. Why do you thinkSpringis described as an unhappy season? The bright and joyful Spring breathes life into the dead earth which is buried during winter. But images used \u2018dead land\u2019 and \u2018dull roots\u2019 signifyunwillingness to be revived and reborn. Modern people strangely prefer the gloomy Winter thatcovers Earth \u2018in forgetful snow\u2019, itsbitter cold\u00a0and numbness enable people to stop thinking about the fertile past.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">The four narrators narrate different episodes. First episode moves to and fro, between Marie\u2019s past and present. Her nostalgic childhood recollections and fun times with cousins playing on the snow are juxtaposed with the present sombre images of having coffee in the park with friends.Marie who claims to be a pure German and not a Russian, is supposed to beCountess Marie Larisch who wrote her autobiography \u2018My Past\u2019(1916). Marie\u2019s memories end in a meditative mode, \u2018I read, much of the night, and go south in the winter\u2019 signifying her current\u00a0unproductive existence.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">Second episode is narrated in a frightening prophetic voice against the background of barren images. Certain linesare taken fromThe Bible,where prophets like Ezekiel, Isaiah and Jeremiah warn Israelites to reject their evil ways. The prophet-narrator persuades man to take shelter \u2018under the shadow of this red rock\u2019. Here red rock symbolises the church (Rosenthal 1960). References denote the spiritual degradation in post-war society. Prophet warns nonbelievers, \u2018I will show you fear in a handful of dust\u2019. The scene suddenly shifts to image\u00a0<span style=\"text-align: initial;font-size: 1em\">of a sailor waiting for the \u2018hyacinth girl\u2019. Hyacinth is a symbol of fertility in ancient Greece. Eliot introduces a happy quote from Richard Wagner\u2019s opera <\/span><em style=\"text-align: initial;font-size: 1em\">Tristan and Isolde<\/em><span style=\"text-align: initial;font-size: 1em\">, based on a medieval love tragedy. Asin the story, section ends on a tragic note, indicating the lack of love and meaningful relationships in the modern age.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">Third\u00a0 episode\u00a0\u00a0 shows\u00a0 an\u00a0 imaginative\u00a0 Tarot\u00a0 card\u00a0 reading\u00a0 session.\u00a0\u00a0 Madame\u00a0 Sosostris,\u00a0 \u00a0a character inspired by Huxley\u2019s <em>Crome Yellow<\/em>, is a dishonest fortune teller \u2018with a wicked pack of cards\u2019. She selects the narrator\u2019s card, the drowned Phoenician Sailor and cautions him to \u2018Fear death by water\u2019. Other cards show Belladonna (Madonna in Christianity), man\u00a0with three staves, the Wheel of Fortune, the one-eyed merchant and The Hanged Man. All\u00a0these\u00a0 images\u00a0 have\u00a0 various\u00a0 symbolic\u00a0 significances. She\u00a0 talks\u00a0 of her\u00a0 vision of \u2018crowds\u00a0 \u00a0of\u00a0people, walking around in a ring\u2019. This is probably an allusion to circles of hell in Dante\u2019s <em>Inferno<\/em>. The imaginary session ends with amentionof the horoscope of another imaginary client, Mrs Equitone.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">Final episode is a dreamlike walk through London. It is the modern waste land and described as the \u2018Unreal City\u2019 (Baudelaire\u2019s Paris) and \u2018the brown fog of a winter\u2019s dawn\u2019 (Dickens\u2019\u00a0London).An aimless wandering crowd is portrayed, each man walking \u2018fixed his eyes before his feet\u2019 and exhaling \u2018short and infrequent\u2019 sighs. The poet-narrator meets a former acquaintance, Stetson with whom he had fought in the battle of Mylae. He asks Stetson weird questions, whether the corpse \u2018planted\u2019 in the garden has survived the frost and sprouted and bloomed. He advises to keep away the Dog from digging it up (adapted from Webster\u2019s <em>The White Devil<\/em>), so that what is buried would eventually sprout and bloom, symbolising spiritual\/moral rebirth. Section ends with a quote from Baudelaire. The reader is addressed as a hypocrite and also a brother, to sustain the miserable mood of the poem.<\/p>\n<p class=\"no-indent\"><strong>A Game of Chess<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">The suitable title is taken from a Jacobean play, <em>Women Beware Women <\/em>by Thomas Middleton. In this play a young wife is seduced by a Duke, while her naive mother-in-law is playing a game of chess. Title alludes to the depressing state of sexual relationships in the modern waste land. Two episodes in this section expose contrasting images of women belonging to high and low classes in society.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">First episode opens with a graphic description of the home of a rich woman. With jewels \u2018from satin cases poured in rich profusion\u2019 and \u2018strange synthetic perfumes\u2019 she awaits her lover amidst luxurious surroundings. Eliot parodies lines from Shakespeare\u2019s <em>Antony and Cleopatra <\/em>to show that Cleopatra and the rich woman are similar in their passion. But the modern woman lacks emotional intensity. She is also compared to Dido, Queen of Carthage who gives a grand banquet to her unfaithful lover Aeneas. To highlight the predicament of the rich woman, Eliot also compares her to Philomel, acharacter from Ovid\u2019s <em>Metamorphoses<\/em>. Philomel was raped by her brother-in-law, \u2018the barbarous king\u2019 Tereus. He cut off her tongue to prevent her from telling her sister. But Philomel manages to tell her sister who takes revenge by killing her son and feeding him to the king. The gods transform\u00a0<span style=\"font-size: 1em\">the sisters into birds to save them from Tereus. Philomel becomes a nightingale and symbolises violence against women, still widespread in modern society. Problems are still faced by women in modern waste land as represented in line,\u2018And still she cried, and still the world pursues\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">Episode ends with a conversation between a man and the rich woman who has brushed her hair \u2018spread out in fiery points\u2019. The man suddenly starts to sing \u2018O OOO that Shakespeherian Rag\u2019, a popular jazz song of 1912. The ironical verses \u2018It\u2019s so elegant \/ So intelligent\u2019 indicate\u00a0 how even\u00a0 classic\u00a0 songs\u00a0 are cheapened in\u00a0 the\u00a0 modern\u00a0 \u00a0age. Woman\u2019s\u00a0words reveal her insecurity and anxietyin spite of leading a comfortable life. She requests the\u00a0man to talk to her and share his thoughts as she longs for a more meaningful and loving bond.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">Broken dialogues indicate an obviouslack of communication. Eliot liberally quotes from Webster, Lawrence and Shakespeare to emphasise how society\u2019s moral and spiritual decadencedestroyshuman relationships. The reference to the game of chess signifies that modern life is a game people play to win with cunning and manipulative moves.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">In the second episode, scene abruptly shifts to a bar in London. We listen to a conversation amongpeople from working class section of society. Two women, Lou and May discuss their friend Lil, with a man named Bill. They criticise Lil for not being ashamed and making herself \u2018smart\u2019 enough to receive her husband Albert who is in the army. Albert who is returning home after four years naturally \u2018wants a good time\u2019 with his wife. The women feel obliged to advise thirty-one year old Lil not to \u2018look so antique\u2019 otherwise \u2018if Albert makes off, it won\u2019t be for lack of telling\u2019. Their talk reveals that relationships in lower class society are also meaningless and mechanical. Meanwhile in the background the bar keeper keeps shouting \u2018HURRY UP PLEASE ITS TIME\u2019. Eliot uses this refrain again and again to show\u00a0that it is time people started changing their attitudes to life in order to be saved. Section ends with the narrator wishing \u2018Goodnight\u2019 reminding us of Ophelia bidding farewell in Shakespeare\u2019s <em>Hamlet<\/em>. It is relevant that like Cleopatra and Dido who committed suicides, Ophelia undergoes \u2018death by water\u2019. Lil is compared with the rich lady, interestingly both women face similar problems in spite of their class differences and contrasting lifestyles.<\/p>\n<p class=\"no-indent\"><strong>The Fire Sermon<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">Eliot presents his important and subtle observations of the modern waste land, in this longest and most complex section. Title alludes to Buddha\u2019s <em>Fire Sermon <\/em>which urges men to give up their attachment to worldly desires symbolised by fire. Title also echoes Saint Augustine\u2019s words, thus representing a synthesis of both Eastern and Western philosophy. The opening stanzas known as the \u2018river song\u2019 paint a murky picture of the River Thames during autumn season. Having lost its sheltering canopy of leaves the \u2018river\u2019s tent is broken\u2019 and resembles a waste land. The reference to the departed nymphs signifies that \u2018Sweet Thames\u2019 has lost its splendour. The famous refrain from Spenser\u2019s <em>Prothalamion <\/em>highlights the sad condition of the Thames abandoned by everyone including \u2018the loitering heirs of City directors\u2019. Lines have also been adapted from the Bible and Andrew Marvell\u2019s \u2018To His Coy Mistress\u2019 to lament the death of spirituality. The narrator fishing in the once-glorious river, now reduced to a \u2018dull canal\u2019, represents the Fisher King. The sight of a slimy-bellied rat symbolises the\u00a0<span style=\"font-size: 1em;text-align: initial\">rapid decay prevalent in modern society. The Fisher King\u2019s castle becomes a mere \u2018gashouse\u2019 in the waste land.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">Eliot also alludes to incidents from Shakespeare\u2019s <em>The Tempest <\/em>where Prospero magically causes a shipwreck to take revenge on his brother. The \u2018sound of horns and motors\u2019 is combined with an allusion to John Day\u2019s <em>Parliament of Bees<\/em>. In this play the sounds of horns and hunting bring Actaeon to where Diana is bathing. Similarly Sweeney, the modern-day Actaeon is brought to Mrs. Porter, the present-day Diana. The reference to \u2018wash their feet in soda water\u2019 alludes to the healing ritual of the Fisher King. The ritual to lift the curse of sterility is accompanied by children singing. The lines in French are translated as \u2018Oh those children\u2019s voices singing in the dome\u2019. The constant reference to \u2018bones\u2019 in this section signify modern man\u2019s dark obsession with death.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">The allusion to Philomel is repeated before the scene moves on to the \u2018Unreal City under the brown fog of winter\u2019. Eliot presents Mr. Eugenides of Smyrna, who is probably the one-eyed merchant mentioned by Madame Sosostris in The Burial of the Dead. According to Weston\u2019s book, Smyrna merchants were the main carriers of the Grail legend. Mr. Eugenides invites the narrator to join him for lunch at Cannon Street Hotel and a weekend at the Metropole. Both places were notorious during Eliot\u2019s time as secret meeting places for homosexuals. Mr Eugenides thus represents the new cult of sterility overshadowing the modern waste land.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">The typist episode provides the perfect setting to introduce the main protagonist of the waste land, Tiresias. Although he is a blind prophet, Eliot affirms that what Tiresias sees is the substance of the poem. Cursed by Goddess Hera to be a woman, he throbs \u2018between two lives\u2019. Pictured as an \u2018old man with wrinkled female breasts\u2019, Tiresias is the representative of\u00a0<span style=\"font-size: 1em\">the decadent culture of the modern age. Tiresias narrates the affair of a young typist with \u2018the young man carbuncular\u2019. The \u2018bored and tired\u2019 typist lives alone in an untidy apartment and dines on \u2018food in tins\u2019. She does her domestic chores mechanically as she awaits the \u2018expected guest\u2019. Her lover, also insignificant like her, is a \u2018small house agent\u2019s clerk\u2019. His \u2018one bold stare\u2019 reveals his bold intention, which is to \u2018assault\u2019 the young woman. Athough she doesn\u2019t desire him, she does not resist his advances and submits indifferently. Tiresias laments that there is no room for love in a modern relationship; it is purely physical in nature. Eliot quotes from Oliver Goldsmith\u2019s <\/span><em style=\"font-size: 1em\">The Vicar of Wakefield<\/em><span style=\"font-size: 1em\">, \u2018when lovely woman stoops to folly\u2019 to show the disintegration of traditional values.The typist hardly notices her \u2018departed lover\u2019. She is glad when the sexual act is over and casually puts a record on the gramaphone.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">Tiresias walks along the Strand and Queen Victoria\u2019s street with the sound of music ringing in his ears. He sometimes hears the \u2018pleasant whining of a mandoline\u2019 beside a public bar in Lower Thames Street. It comes from the Magnus Martyr, a church, an \u2018inexplicable splendour of Ionian white and gold\u2019. Significantly it is the place where the fishermen lounge at noon. The \u2018clatter and a chatter from within\u2019 the walls of this splendid church indicate how simple and uneducated fishermen lead meaningful lives. Two songs are included here. The first depicts the sad state of the modern Thames which \u2018sweats oil and tar\u2019 symbolising moral pollution. This description is a continuation of the opening stanzas of The Fire Sermon. The lines parody a song from Wagner\u2019s opera <em>Ring Cycle <\/em>which describe women singing glories of the river Rhine. The chorus \u2018Weialalaleia\u2019 reflects the beauty of the Rhine.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">The next song brings back Elizabethan images of the lovely Thames portrayed in <em>Prothalamion<\/em>. It picturises Queen Elizabeth I and Earl of Leicester rowing on the Thames, discussing marriage plans. Their relationship is contrasted with the affair of the typist and the\u00a0<span style=\"text-align: justify;font-size: 1em\">clerk. Both may be considered similar as they did not have a happy ending. Eliot tries to point out that modern affairs deliberately exhibit an absolute lack of emotion unlike traditional relationships. The scene shifts to the speaker lying \u2018supine on the floor of a narrow canoe\u2019. There is a description of a gloomy tour through London. The lines \u2018My feet are at Moorgate, and my heart under my feet\u2019 may be a reference to Elizabeth. The queen decides not to marry Leicester for the sake of her kingdom. Though it made Leicester weep and promise a \u2018new start\u2019, she had no choice.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">The concluding stanza is narrated on Margate Sands (mouth of river Thames). The word \u2018nothing\u2019 is repeated signifying the emptiness of modern life. The line \u2018To Carthage then I came\u2019 refers to St. Augustine\u2019s <em>Confessions <\/em>which narrate the saint\u2019s transformation from a man of the world to a man of God. Images of \u2018burning\u2019 allude to Buddha\u2019s <em>Fire Sermon <\/em>which encourages burning all kinds of worldly pleasures. Eliot stated that he had brought together representatives of eastern and western asceticism deliberately in this section.<\/p>\n<p class=\"no-indent\"><strong>Death by Water<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">The\u00a0 shortest\u00a0 section\u00a0 of\u00a0 this\u00a0 poem\u00a0 describes\u00a0 the\u00a0 death\u00a0 of\u00a0 Phlebas\u00a0 the\u00a0 Phoenician.\u00a0 He is mentioned by Madame Sosostris in \u2018The Burial of the Dead\u2019 as the drowned Phoenician sailor. This section reminds us of her warning, \u2018Fear death by water\u2019. Her prophecy comes true. The literal meaning of this section refers to the physical death of Phlebas, from where there is no return to life. His body has decayed and the sea current has \u2018picked his bones\u2019. \u00a0He\u00a0<span style=\"text-align: initial;font-size: 1em\">cannot be brought back to life again. From a religious perspective, death by water indicates baptism and spiritual rebirth.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">The phrase \u2018you who turn the wheel and look to windward\u2019 refers to people inhabiting the waste land. Modern people live selfish and meaningless lives on their own terms, with no concern for others. They are indifferent to and devoid of any good emotion. Eliot\u2019s advises them to repent and be spiritually reborn. Otherwise they will be doomed to the same fate as Phlebas, irrespective of whether they are \u2018Gentile or Jew\u2019.<\/p>\n<p class=\"no-indent\"><strong>What the Thunder Said<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">This \u00a0final \u00a0and \u00a0most \u00a0complex \u00a0section \u00a0begins \u00a0with \u00a0violent \u00a0images \u00a0alluding \u00a0to \u00a0Christ\u2019s crucifixion.\u00a0 Poet\u00a0 gives\u00a0 brief\u00a0 glimpses\u00a0 of\u00a0 events\u00a0 before\u00a0 His\u00a0 resurrection.\u00a0 The\u00a0 garden \u00a0of Gethsemane where Christ was arrested, trial before Pilate, \u2018the agony in stony places\u2019; all end with \u2018He who was living is now dead\u2019. The images of spiritual death are continued in \u2018mountains of rock without water\u2019, \u2018feet are in the sand\u2019 and \u2018dry sterile thunder without rain\u2019. The nightmare is worsened by the song of the hermit-thrush \u2018drip drop &#8230; but there is no water\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">The scene moves on to the Legend of Emmaus. Christ appears to two men from Emmaus, but they fail to recognise him. To them, as to the rest of the world, He is just \u2018the third\u2019 person\u00a0<span style=\"text-align: justify;font-size: 1em\">\u2018gliding wrapt in a brown mantle, hooded\u2019. The next scene presents horrifying images of \u2018murmur of maternal lamentation\u2019 and \u2018hooded hordes swarming over endless plains\u2019. They symbolise a decaying and dying Europe in the grip of communism, pointing out the fate of modern waste land. Falling towers refer to powerful and \u2018Unreal\u2019 cities like Jerusalem, Athens, Alexandria, Vienna and London which are destroyed. More nightmarish images of decaying civilizations come up \u2013 \u2018bats with baby faces in violet light\u2019, \u2018blackened wall\u2019, \u2018empty cisterns and exhausted wells\u2019, \u2018decayed hole\u2019 and so on. Cleanth Brooks say that violet colour symbolises repentance. The empty chapel among the tumbled graves refers to the Chapel Perilous in the Grail legend. It is purposely filled with horrors to prevent the Holy <\/span><span style=\"text-align: justify;font-size: 1em\">Grail from being stolen. The image of the cock on the rooftop is significant. Its \u2018Co corico co corico\u2019 has the power to chase away evil forces. After the cock crows, there is a flash of lightning and \u2018a damp gust bringing rain\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">The scene again shifts all the way to the \u2018sunken\u2019 Ganga. Weston remarks that fertility rites are mentioned in early Sanskrit legends. When devas, asuras and men asked Prajapathi how to live well, he answered <em>Da <\/em>(the sound of thunder). Prajapathi then asked them to interpret <em>Da<\/em>. Men replied <em>Datta <\/em>\u2013 \u2018give\u2019; asuras replied <em>Dayadhvam <\/em>\u2013 \u2018sympathise\u2019 and devas replied <em>Damyata<\/em>&#8211; \u2018control\u2019. Eliot wanted to connect the Upanishads with these human qualities (Aiken, 1968). Tiresias asks humanity to give and surrender as it is more important than preserving memories and honouring obituaries. Instead of being compassionate, each one is in his selfish egoistic prison, suffering from loneliness like Shakespeare\u2019s Coriolanus. Tiresias finally remarks that man lacks self-control which leads to chaos and unhappiness. The image of the Fisher King collecting fragments from ruins with hopes to rebuild reappears in the end. The reference to mad Heironymo reveals the anger and frustration of the poet at the collapse of Western culture. However the poet concludes optimistically chanting <em>Shantih shantih shantih.<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"no-indent\"><strong>Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><em>The Waste Land <\/em>can be seen as a mosaic of images depicting man\u2019s journeys from birth \u2013 from past to present to future &#8211; culminating in his death. The images produce a totality of effect in the end leading to a better understanding of the poem. According to I.A. Richards \u201c<em>The Waste Land <\/em>is a music of ideas, the ideas like the musicians phrases are not arranged that they may tell us something, but that their effects in us combine into a coherent whole of feelings and attitudes\u201d (<em>Principles of Literary Criticism<\/em>).<\/p>\n<table>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td><strong>you can view video on T. S. Eliot: The Wasteland<\/strong><\/td>\n<td><a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/4I4mlzb_JQw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-120\" src=\"http:\/\/epgpbooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/download.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"36\" height=\"36\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p><strong>Reference<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Aiken,Conrad. \u2018An Anatomy of Melacholy\u2019 in Dyson ed. <em>T.S.Eliot: The Waste Land (Case Book)<\/em>.<\/li>\n<li>London: Macmillan, 1968.<\/li>\n<li>Brooks, Cleanth. <em>Modern Poetry and Tradition<\/em>. New York: OUP, 1939. Coote, S. <em>T. S. Eliot, The Waste Land. <\/em>London: Penguin, 1985.<\/li>\n<li>Craig, D. \u2018The Defeatism of <em>The Waste Land<\/em>\u2019 in C. B Cox and A. P. Hinchliffe (eds) <em>T. S. Eliot<\/em>: <em>The Waste Land. <\/em>London: Macmillan Press, 1968.<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify\">Dwivedi, A.N. <em>T.S.Eliot: A Critical Study<\/em>. New Delhi: Atlantic Publishers and Distributors, 2002. Gardner, Helen. <em>The Art of T.S. Eliot<\/em>. London: Faber and Faber, 1949.<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify\">&#8212;. <em>The Waste Land<\/em>. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1972.<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify\">Miller, James. E. <em>T. S. Eliot&#8217;s Personal Waste Land: Exorcism of the Demons<\/em>. USA: Pennsylvania Univ Press, 1977.<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify\">Richards, I.A. <em style=\"text-align: initial;font-size: 1em\">Principle of Literary Criticism <\/em><span style=\"text-align: initial;font-size: 1em\">(first pub. 1924). London: Routledge, 2002.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify\">Rosenthal, M.L. <em style=\"text-align: initial;font-size: 1em\">The Modern Poets: A Critical Introduction<\/em><span style=\"text-align: initial;font-size: 1em\">. USA: OUP, 1960.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"menu_order":21,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":["dr-sanchitha-j"],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[],"contributor":[71],"license":[],"class_list":["post-204","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry","contributor-dr-sanchitha-j"],"part":3,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/engp04\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/engp04\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/engp04\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/engp04\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/ebooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/engp04\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/204\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":206,"href":"https:\/\/ebooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/engp04\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/204\/revisions\/206"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/engp04\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/3"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/engp04\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/204\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/engp04\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/engp04\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=204"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/engp04\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=204"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/engp04\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}