T. S. Eliot: The Waste Land - Literature review Example

?The Waste Land – A Set of Separate Poems – A study Thomas Stern Eliot is one of the leading s in the modern movement between 1910 and 1930. The modernists demolished all received definitions of what art is. They all contrived to make it new. In the themes and style Eliot has been termed as a difficult poet. Eliot himself touched upon the question of difficulty in modern poetry by stating that in a content of great variety and complexity, the modern poet can only respond with various and complex results. The Waste Land is thought to be the most significant work of T. S. Eliot and it was the most widely discussed poem for several years. Eliot has compressed into this poem the immense panorama of vainness and chaos, which is contemporary history. It is a dramatic expression of the emotional barrenness of an age devoid of real purpose, an age haunted by fears. However, it can never be treated as a whole but fragments of thoughts which together amalgamate in the protagonist Tiresias. There is so much complexity and disorganization about the poem that it has been said that it is a set of separate poems. It is true that each movement can to some extent be regarded a poem in itself. It lacks unity but it is an organic whole and its full significance can be understood only if it is viewed in this light. The structure of the poem is exceptional, but there is an underlying unity. The poem embodies the immense panorama of the infertility of the modern world and a celestial apparition of spiritual sterility in a complex manner. The five parts of the poem are interdependent and the structure of the poem can be regarded as dramatic in one sense. The five parts can be regarded as the five stages in the development of the plot of a drama. Even though there is no regular development of the plot, we have the exposition, rising action, crisis (in Part iii), falling action and resolution .The technique might be regarded as that of the music of ideas. The central themes are stated in the first movement, especially the empty routine of life, the barrenness of the land, for example “for you know only A heap of broken images, where the sun beats And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief …” and the sterile burning of passion , for example ” you gave me hyacinths first a year ago “They called me the hyacinth girl Yet when we came back, late, from the hyacinth garden , your arms full and your hair wet , I could not Speak and my yes failed, I was neither …..” These themes are developed with variations in the second and third parts. The first section points that modern life is one of sexual hostility, and seduction becomes a sinister part of life of love and sex and death of the partly loving men and women. Eliot’s notes refer to a scene in which a young wife whose husband is away on a journey is seduced by the duke while her native mother who is supposed to be protecting her is entertained by a procuress in a game of chess in which the moves ambiguously refer to the seductions happening offstage. Thus “jug” “jug” is associated with the seduction and rape of Philomel. “The rats’ alley” and the wind under the door speak of death in life and the gloomy state of affairs in waste land. “Hurry up please it’s time,” which signifies that it is high time that the waste land woke to the cruel actualities of life. The third part is the central important and climatic part of the poem. It opens with a reference note to the autumn, which is the forerunner of the winter – the death of the year. The “twit twit twit” again highlights the seduction of Philomel. But towards the end, we can read the calling for “burning” which is preparation for positive attitude towards life. Part IV is short and slow – a kind of pause before the impressive culmination in the fifth part. If fire is the symbol of destruction, purification water is also the same. In fact water is the traditional symbol of purification regeneration and sexual procreation. The five movements are held together by Tiresias in whom all the characters merge. The Grail legend and the fertility myth of death and rebirth underlie the whole poem. Recurring reference to these give the poem a kind of unity. The basic symbols like Philomel and the Ariel song are throughout the poem. The land described in the fifth part reminds us of the first movement. The characters mentioned in the first part appear later in the poem. Each situation brings to our mind the other situation in other parts by parallelism and by contrast. The method of simple parallelism is found in the comparison of the waste land – Ezekiel’s valley of dry bones, the waste lands in the myths, and the modern city of London etc. Parallelism and real contrast are seen in the waste land. The journey dealt in the first section of the poem is contrasted with the crowds flowing over the London Bridge. In the third part the Elizabeth and the Thames daughters are paralleled. The fire symbol in the third movement is followed by the water symbol in the fourth movement. According to F. R. Leavis, the poem exhibits no progression. At the end, as all the readers expect, nothing happens. The thunder brings no rain to restore the barren land. But some readers may interpret the “Shanthih, shanthih, shanthih” as the hope of rain . So the protagonist is waiting for such a revival. We cannot find an organic unity of an ordinary narrative dramatic poem. The poem never ends where it started. The most significant part of the poem is the exploration of the waste land. The rain remains a potential which may be realized. Eliot explores the waste land occupied by Lil, the neurotic rich lady, Thames daughters, the typist etc. The Waste Land is Dante’s Limbo and Ezekiel’s valley of “Dry Bones.” Phlebas suggests the possibility of spiritual rebirth. This is indicated in the other parts of the poem by the reference to Philomel and the Death in Tempest. In the final movement self-sacrifice, self-control and kindness are emphasized as the only way of spiritual revival. The Waste Land is a “heap of broken images “which are united in the various sections only by the protagonist Tiresias. Even with Tiresias many readers fail to see the connections. The “rich disorganization” (Leavis) some extent is relieved by the presence of the protagonist. He is a merging of all other characters. The poet is trying to project through the protagonist Tiresias a series of illusory characters such as the Phoenician sailor and the typist and the crowd. So it remains as a vision without plot or character. Through the cinematic technique Eliot adopts here by adding images upon images, he tries to create an “inclusive consciousness” pointing to the waste land conditions of spiritual barrenness which is a mixture of lovelessness, rootlessness, homelessness and sexlessness. The series of images produce these effects and the repetition of these images is the means of carrying on the symbolism from section to section. But each image evokes a different emotion and produces different line of thought. Definitely The Waste Land is a series of poems stacked together. The diverse mosaic of images, the principles of contrast, the parallelisms, use of quotations, introduction of the echoes from the past and conscious use of diction constitute the right ways of highlighting the despondency in the waste land. Read More