Themes, Motifs & Symbols---- T.S.

Eliot: Waste Land Themes The Damaged Psyche of Humanity Like many modernist writers, Eliot wanted his poetry to express the fragile psychological state of humanity in the twentieth century. The passing of Victorian ideals and the trauma of World War I challenged cultural notions of masculine identity, causing artists to question the romantic literary ideal of a isionary!poet capa"le of changing the world through erse. #odernist writers wanted to capture their transformed world, which they percei ed as fractured, alienated, and denigrated. Europe lost an entire generation of young men to the horrors of the so!called $reat War, causing a general crisis of masculinity as sur i ors struggled to find their place in a radically altered society. %s for England, the aftershocks of World War I directly contri"uted to the dissolution of the &ritish Empire. Eliot saw society as paraly'ed and wounded, and he imagined that culture was crum"ling and dissol ing. (The Lo e )ong of *. %lfred +rufrock, -./.01 demonstrates this sense of indecisi e paralysis as the titular spea e! wonders whether he should eat a piece of fruit, make a radical change, or if he has the fortitude to keep li ing. 2umanity3s collecti ely damaged psyche pre ented people from communicating with one another, an idea that Eliot explored in many works, including (% $ame of 4hess, -the second part of The Waste Land1 and (The 2ollow #en., The Po"e! of #ite!a!y Histo!y Eliot maintained great re erence for myth and the Western literary canon, and he packed his work full of allusions, quotations, footnotes, and scholarly e$egeses. In (The Tradition and the Indi idual Talent,, an essay first pu"lished in ././, Eliot praises the literary tradition and states that the "est writers are those who write with a sense of continuity with those writers who came "efore, as if all of literature constituted a stream in which each new writer must enter and swim. 5nly the ery "est new work will su"tly shift the stream3s current and thus impro e the literary tradition. Eliot also argued that the literary past must "e integrated into contemporary poetry. &ut the poet must guard against excessi e academic knowledge and distill only the most essential "its of the past into a poem, there"y enlightening readers. The Waste Land 6uxtaposes fragments of arious elements of literary and mythic traditions with scenes and sounds from modern life. The effect of this poetic collage is "oth a reinterpretation of canonical texts and a historical context for his examination of society and humanity. The %hanging &atu!e of 'ende! (oles 5 er the course of Eliot3s life, gender roles and sexuality "ecame increasingly flexi"le, and Eliot reflected those changes in his work. In the repressi e )icto!ian e!a of the nineteenth century, women were confined to the domestic sphere, sexuality was not discussed or pu"licly explored, and a puritanical atmosphere dictated most social interactions. 7ueen Victoria3s death in ./8. helped usher in a new era of excess and forthrightness, now called the Edwardian %ge, which lasted until ./.8. World War I, from ./.9 to ./.:, further transformed society, as people felt "oth increasingly alienated from one another and empowered to "reak social mores. English women "egan agitating in earnest for the right to ote in ./.:, and the flappers of the *a'' %ge "egan smoking and drinking alcohol in pu"lic. Women were allowed to attend school, and women who could afford it continued their education at

those uni ersities that "egan accepting women in the early twentieth century. #odernist writers created gay and les"ian characters and re!imagined masculinity and femininity as characteristics people could assume or shrug off rather than as a"solute identities dictated "y society. Eliot simultaneously lauded the end of the Victorian era and expressed concern a"out the freedoms inherent in the modern age. (The Lo e )ong of *. %lfred +rufrock, reflects the feelings of emasculation experienced "y many men as they returned home from World War I to find women empowered "y their new role as wage earners. +rufrock, una"le to make a decision, watches women wander in and out of a room, (talking of #ichelangelo, -.91, and elsewhere admires their downy, "are arms. % disdain for unchecked sexuality appears in "oth ()weeney %mong the ;ightingales, -./.:1 and The Waste Land. The latter portrays rape, prostitution, a con ersation a"out a"ortion, and other incidences of nonreproducti e sexuality. ;e ertheless, the poem3s central character, Tiresias, is a hermaphrodite<and his powers of prophesy and transformation are, in some sense, due to his male and female genitalia. With Tiresias, Eliot creates a character that em"odies wholeness, represented "y the two genders coming together in one "ody. Motifs *!agmentation Eliot used fragmentation in his poetry "oth to demonstrate the chaotic state of modern existence and to 6uxtapose literary texts against one another. In Eliot3s iew, humanity3s psyche had "een shattered "y World War I and "y the collapse of the &ritish Empire. 4ollaging "its and pieces of dialogue, images, scholarly ideas, foreign words, formal styles, and tones within one poetic work was a way for Eliot to represent humanity3s damaged psyche and the modern world, with its "arrage of sensory perceptions. 4ritics read the following line from The Waste Land as a statement of Eliot3s poetic pro6ect= (These fragments I ha e shored against my ruins, -9>.1. +ractically e ery line in The Waste Land echoes an academic work or canonical literary text, and many lines also ha e long footnotes written "y Eliot as an attempt to explain his references and to encourage his readers to educate themsel es "y del ing deeper into his sources. These echoes and references are fragments themsel es, since Eliot includes only parts, rather than whole texts from the canon. ?sing these fragments, Eliot tries to highlight recurrent themes and images in the literary tradition, as well as to place his ideas a"out the contemporary state of humanity along the spectrum of history. Mythic and (eligious (itual Eliot3s tremendous knowledge of myth, religious ritual, academic works, and key "ooks in the literary tradition informs e ery aspect of his poetry. 2e filled his poems with references to "oth the o"scure and the well known, there"y teaching his readers as he writes. In his notes to The Waste Land, Eliot explains the crucial role played "y religious sym"ols and myths. 2e drew hea ily from ancient fertility rituals, in which the fertility of the land was linked to the health of the @isher Aing, a wounded figure who could "e healed through the sacrifice of an effigy. The @isher Aing is, in turn, linked to the 2oly $rail legends, in which a knight quests to find the grail, the only o"6ect capa"le of healing the land. ?ltimately, ritual fails as the tool for healing the wasteland, e en as Eliot presents alternati e religious possi"ilities, including 2indu chants, &uddhist speeches, and pagan ceremonies. Later poems take their images almost

exclusi ely from 4hristianity, such as the echoes of the Lord3s +rayer in (The 2ollow #en, and the retelling of the story of the wise men in (*ourney of the #agi, -./B01. +nfe!tility Eliot en isioned the modern world as a wasteland, in which neither the land nor the people could concei e. In The Waste Land, arious characters are sexually frustrated or dysfunctional, una"le to cope with either reproducti e or nonreproducti e sexuality= the @isher Aing represents damaged sexuality -according to myth, his impotence causes the land to wither and dry up1, Tiresias represents confused or am"iguous sexuality, and the women chattering in (% $ame of 4hess, represent an out!of!control sexuality. World War I not only eradicated an entire generation of young men in Europe "ut also ruined the land. Trench warfare and chemical weapons, the two primary methods "y which the war was fought, decimated plant life, lea ing "ehind detritus and carnage. In (The 2ollow #en,, the speaker discusses the dead land, now filled with stone and cacti. 4orpses salute the stars with their upraised hands, stiffened from rigor mortis. Trying to process the destruction has caused the speaker3s mind to "ecome infertile= his head has "een filled with straw, and he is now una"le to think properly, to percei e accurately, or to concei e of images or thoughts. Symbols ,ate! In Eliot3s poetry, water sym"oli'es "oth life and death. Eliot3s characters wait for water to quench their thirst, watch ri ers o erflow their "anks, cry for rain to quench the dry earth, and pass "y fetid pools of standing water. %lthough water has the regenerati e possi"ility of restoring life and fertility, it can also lead to drowning and death, as in the case of +hle"as the sailor from The Waste Land. Traditionally, water can imply "aptism, 4hristianity, and the figure of *esus 4hrist, and Eliot draws upon these traditional meanings= water cleanses, water pro ides solace, and water "rings relief elsewhere in The Waste Land and in (Little $idding,, the fourth part of Four Quartets. +rufrock hears the seducti e calls of mermaids as he walks along the shore in (The Lo e )ong of *. %lfred +rufrock,, "ut, like 5dysseus in 2omer3s Odyssey -ca. :88 ".c.e.1, he reali'es that a malicious intent lies "ehind the sweet oices= the poem concludes (we drown, -.>.1. Eliot thus cautions us to "eware of simple solutions or cures, for what looks innocuous might turn out to "e ery dangerous. The *ishe! -ing The @isher Aing is the central character in The Waste Land. While writing his long poem, Eliot drew on From Ritual to Romance, a ./B8 "ook a"out the legend of the 2oly $rail "y #iss *essie L. Weston, for many of his sym"ols and images. Weston3s "ook examined the connections "etween ancient fertility rites and 4hristianity, including following the e olution of the @isher Aing into early representations of *esus 4hrist as a fish. Traditionally, the impotence or death of the @isher Aing "rought unhappiness and famine. Eliot saw the @isher Aing as sym"olic of humanity, ro""ed of its sexual potency in the modern world and connected to the meaninglessness of ur"an existence. &ut the @isher Aing also stands in for 4hrist and other religious figures associated with di ine resurrection and re"irth. The speaker of (What the Thunder )aid, fishes from the "anks of the Thames toward the end of the poem as the thunder sounds 2indu chants into the air. Eliot3s scene echoes the scene in the &i"le in which 4hrist performs one of his

miracles= 4hrist manages to feed his multitude of followers "y the )ea of $alilee with 6ust a small amount of fish. Music and Singing Like most modernist writers, Eliot was interested in the di ide "etween high and low culture, which he sym"oli'ed using music. 2e "elie ed that high culture, including art, opera, and drama, was in decline while popular culture was on the rise. In The Waste Land, Eliot "lended high culture with low culture "y 6uxtaposing lyrics from an opera "y Cichard Wagner with songs from pu"s, %merican ragtime, and %ustralian troops. Eliot splices nursery rhymes with phrases from the Lord3s +rayer in (The 2ollow #en,, and (The Lo e )ong of *. %lfred +rufrock, is, as the title, implies a song, with arious lines repeated as refrains. That poem ends with the song of mermaids luring humans to their deaths "y drowning<a scene that echoes 5dysseus3s interactions with the )irens in the Odyssey. #usic thus "ecomes another way in which Eliot collages and references "ooks from past literary traditions. Elsewhere Eliot uses lyrics as a kind of chorus, seconding and echoing the action of the poem, much as the chorus functions in $reek tragedies.