The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot (Theme)

 

The Waste Land

by T.S. Eliot

(Theme) 

The Waste Land like Matthew Arnold’s Scholar Gipsy offers a criticism of life in the sense of an interpretation of its problems. In both there is a painful consciousness of the sickness and the fever and the fret of contemporary civilization but The Waste Land goes beyond a mere diagnosis of the spiritual distempers of the age; it is a lament over man’s fallen nature, a prophecy and a promise. Unlike Arnold, who suggests a cure of escape from the feverish contact of modern life Eliot vaguely hints at the possibility of rebirth. Obviously, there is no assurance of this redemption, but there is at least the awareness that it is the only way out.

The conclusion of the poems gives no assurance of any sort but the basic symbol used in the poem is one of restoration into life though after hazardous quests, The legend of the Holy Grail which originated in fertility cult tells how a questing knight saved the Waste Land from drought and barrenness, occasioned by the old age of the ruler, known as the Fisher King. The Knight must restore the latter’s youth by riding to the Chapel Perilous and there questioning the Lance and the Grail, symbols of the male and female principles. Eliot’s poem is an allegorical application of this story to modern society and religion. Our civilization is the Waste Land; we can obtain youth and life giving rain only by journeying far, questioning our condition and earning a hard lesson. To enforce his premise, Eliot uses symbols drawn from kindred myths and religions. In the process what ironic pictures of modern manners, what superb mingling of satiric vulgarity and sensuous delicacy, what prophetic earnestness, and what variety of imagery and rhythm are revealed.

The best way to read the poem is to regard it as a “Phantasmagoria of futility, a series of trains of thought in the mind of a social observer.” Such an observer is introduced in the person of Tiresias, the seer, who having been both man and woman, suggests the characteristics of all humanity.

Part I, entitled, ‘The Burial of the Dead,’ emphasizes the inevitable dissolution which must precede new life, and begins with a lament over the loss of fertility in what should be a spring season and illustrates this by reproducing typical chatter of cosmopolitan idlers, passing thence to symbols of our barrenness. The decay of love in the modern world is then suggested. The section ends with a vision of London as an unreal city, in a nightmare of memories. In the lines,

“That corpse you planted last year in your garden

Has it begun to sprout? Will it bloom this year?”

the connection with the fertility cult is established.

In Part II, ‘A Game of Chess,’ the title of while recalls the dramatic irony of Binaca and the fatal power of woman, he cleverly draws us to two types of modern women in contrasted literary styles. After picture of a luxurious boudoir which rivals Keats, he gives the petulant conversation of its occupant and her eternal question:

What shall we do tomorrow?

What shall we ever do!

In the next quest the tone of disgust deepens. The sordidness of urban pleasure suggests the flames of lust, hatred and infatuation in which mankind is burning. Just as the poet has introduced into the boudoir, touches of Cleopatra and Dido, so now he recalls the river of Spenser’s Prothalamion and with equally devastating irony; goes on to parody Goldsmith’s “When lovely woman stoops to folly” in order to contrast the cynicism of the modern girl with the eighteenth century sentimental ideal. Similarly, he uses Wagner’s ‘Rhein-old” melodies; and a picture of Queen Elizabeth flirting, with Leicester in her barge, to emphasize the permanence of human sensuality and the degradation to which it has now fallen. With intense agony of soul, he finally alludes to the repentance of Saint Augustine and to the teaching of the Buddha.

After a short section, emphasizing the brevity of sensual life, the several themes are recapitulated in Part V and the way of escape vaguely hinted at. Our sterility is again asserted:

“Here is no water but only rock,

Rock and no water and the sandy road

The road winding above among the mountains

Which are mountains of rock without water.”

In this desert, we suffer illusions; where two walk, there goes a shadowy third. There are murmurs and lamentations. When we reach the Chapel Perilous, it seems empty but as we doubt betraying Christ, and the cock crows twice, God gives a sign by thunder bringing rain. Self-surrender, Sympathy, Self-control—these three are the ways to salvation.

The poet speaks of setting his own house in order though London Bridge is falling down. He must pass through the fire of purification. He is haunted by images of desolation and a shower of literary allusions shows him slipping into frenzy. But like a charm of healing rain, he repeats the message of the thunder and ends with the blessing “Shantih, Shantih, Shantih”.

It may be pointed out that in The Waste Land,’ Eliot’s attitude was more negative than positive, analytic rather than synthetic. He was more aware of the facts of the disintegration than of the universal cyst in which the disintegration took place. Poetically, it was cry in the dark, a longing for imaginative stability, for participation in an unknown ultimate order.