Eliots Waste Land and Becketts Endgame - Book Report/Review Example

The poem is a fine example of Modernistic poetry, breaking as it did, quite unapologetically, most then-existing rules for writing-those of meter and rhyme, and it even departed from the discipline of necessarily sticking to one language. The title Waste Land is attributed by Eliot to Jessie Weston's book on the legend of the Holy Grail. The Holy Grail is the chalice in which Joseph caught the blood from Jesus' wounds; the Grail is believed to have last been with King Arthur. He (Eliot) refers to the "Fisher King" (Arthur) who is sexually wounded (in the groin) which results in his lands becoming infertile-a Waste Land. (Brooks). The allusion to the search for the Holy Grail refers to the Waste Land that modern life has become, and the (poet's) search for meaning in his life, a search which reflects the doubts which all mankind faces-a reference to the quest and restlessness and despair that they find themselves in.

Beckett's Endgame, a play in the Theatre of the Absurd genre (which is another avatar of Modernism in literature) comes across as nothing but absurd, at first reading. But beneath the absurdity, we sense the morbidity and purposelessness which it effectively conveys. The lack of any coherent plot or denouement-which is the hallmark of the plays in the Theatre of the Absurd style-points to slackness and emptiness in life. The power-plays between the visually impaired and physically immobile Hamm and his servant Clov appear pathetic yet true to life-how often we see a blustering little Hitler without any stuffing keep another person in thrall, merely because he has "the combination to the larder."(Beckett) Both Eliot's and Beckett's works grapple with Existential questions-the purpose of life itself.

But while Eliot tries to find succor in religion and philosophy, looking even to Eastern Eliot), Beckett goes to the extreme of Nihilism. Endgame is depressing and bleak. Beckett allows for no concessions. In Endgame there is no redemption to be found from the morbid, repetitive and painful routine of life, no promise of death even, no hope of afterlife or God. "The bastard! He doesn't exist!" (2491). Thus, both Eliot and Beckett, in varying degrees, deprive us of the comfort of an ontological ground for our existence by assuming it is based on unchanging values.

There is nothing stable or fixed; everything is in flux-beliefs, ethical precepts, and even Godhead. In both works, there is a dependence on the imagery of chess. In Waste Land, the chess imagery finds a place alongside allusions to various other images, while in Endgame the chess allusion predominates. In Part ii of Waste Land (A Game of Chess) Eliot shows how even a sublime emotion like love has lost its value. In fact, there is no love at all. It has been reduced to just a series of mechanical actions and responses guided by convention.

Sex has been reduced to a forced act, a series of moves, as in a game of chess. Here he refers to the story from Greek mythology, of Philomela, who was raped by her sister's husband, Tereus, who cut off her tongue so that she could not reveal this heinous act to others.