Bianca-Daniela Mitrofan, anul II, 2B, gr8

The Waste Land

T.S. Eliot
~handout~
Eliots original title for The Waste Land was He do the Police in Different Voices. The line, another quotation, comes from Dickenss Our Mutual Friend and describes Sloppys skills as a reader of the newspaper, him imitating the voices of the police in the crime reports. The Waste Land is also composed of many voices, not always distinguishable from one another. The main theme is modern life as a waste land. There are two kinds of people in the modern waste land, according to Eliot. Death by Water describes how the body of the drowned Phoenician merchant sailor slowly decomposes after he is drowned at sea. Death, symbolized by water, is uncaring and destructive, but not it a cruel way. Death, like a current under the sea, is natural. The Waste Land creates a paradox. Eliot contrasts decay with the constant appearance of water. But sound of water over a rock/Where the hermit-thrush sings in the pine trees/Drip drop drip drop drop drop drop. The Waste Land is built on a major contrast the contrast between two kinds of life and two kinds of death. The Waste Land is much concerned with life, death and the tentative possibility of resurrection. the dead land the dead tree gives no shelter I was neither Living nor dead Where the dead men lost their bones the lowest of the dead Phlebas the Phoenician, a fortnight dead He who was living is now dead Dead mountain mouth of carious teeth Water is a symbol of life and fertility in The Waste Land: no sound of water Fear death by water The hot water at ten the waters of Leman They wash their feet in soda water