Critical Appreciation of "The Waste Land" by T.S. Eliot

Introduction:

The Waste Land is the most important and the greatest achievement of T.S. Eliot. It symbolizes the modern civilization which is compared to a ‘Waste Land”. The poem contains 433 lines. It also contains five parts namely “The Burial of the Dead”, “A Game of Chess”, “The Fire Sermon”, “Death by Water” and “What the Thunder Said”

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 the poems there is a painful consciousness of the sickness and the fever and the fret of contemporary civilization. However, 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.

One of the important themes of the poem is ‘a vision of dissolution and spiritual drought’. This spiritual drought arises from the degeneration, vulgarization and commercialization of sex. Eliot’s study of fertility myths of different people had convinced him that sex-act is the source of life and vitality, when it is exercised for the sake of procreation and when it is an expression of love. But when it is exercised for the sake of momentary pleasure or momentary benefit, it becomes a source of degeneration and corruption.

Another important theme of the poem is sexual perversion among the middle-class people. This is seen in the mechanical relationship of the typist and the clerk. The typist gives herself to the clerk with a sense of total indifference and apathy. There is neither repulsion nor any pleasure and this absence of feeling is a measure of the sterility of the age. According to Cleanth Brooks, the theme of The Waste Land is “life-in-death”. It suggests the living death of the inhabitants of the waste land.

Structure of the Poem:

The structure of The Waste Land is not progressive but it is said to be circular. The story does not move forward to a definite goal. Only certain them are analysed and discussed and the poet turns them round and round till the last ounce of meaning has been extracted. The structure of poem is built up of contrasts. The ironically dramatic incidents are the series of scenes from modern life set against the memories of the myths. But these two are constantly ‘melt into’ one another and form the whole. Repetition of images is the means of carrying on the symbolism from section to section producing a ‘music of idea’. For example the image of the rocky desert is brought in again and again.

The Mythical background:

The Waste Land has been often criticized as a series of poems. However, Eliot has used a number of devices to impart unity to his material. One such method is the use of myths in the poem. Eliot himself acknowledges that he was influenced by the mythical anthropological works such as Jessie Weston’s From Ritual to Romance and James Frazer’s The Golden Bough. Weston’s book supplied him with the legend of the Grail and the Fisher King and from Golden Bough he took, Attis, Adonis, and Osiris.

 Symbolism in the Poem:

Symbolism is one of the important features of The Waste Land. Eliot takes recourse to both conventional symbols and personal ones. He generally draws his symbols form myths and religions. Spring stands for re-birth, winter for death, rain for spiritual fertility, drought for spiritual dryness. Fishing symbolizes spiritual re-birth and rejuvenation. Water symbolizes destruction as well as transformation and purification. Rocks without grass or roots symbolize spiritual desolation. Fire symbolizes lust and passion which are destructive, but ambivalently it also symbolizes both death and rejuvenation.

But very often  Eliot’s symbols are complex and incomprehensible. The title of the second part “A Game of Chess” symbolizes the sex intrigue and counter intrigue which have resulted in stalemate in family life in the contemporary waste land. The uselessness and emptiness of modern life is also symbolized by ‘the rat’s alley where dead men lost their bones’; ‘breaking rock’; ‘the London bridge falling down’; ‘the earth cracking and splitting’ – all symbolize the spiritual, social and political disintegration of the post-war Europe.

Phelomela and her song are symbols of spiritual rejuvenation. The typist turning on the gramophone after her seduction with automatic hands, symbolizes the indifference of men and women in all sexual values. Tiresias himself is a complex symbols; a symbol of human conscience, and the spokesman of humanity.

Use of poetic devices:

The Waste Land can be considered as Eliot’s literary workshop where all the tools of his craft are on display. The first of these devices is the underlying symbolism of the poem. Eliot makes frequent use of new words, strange instances and subtle allusions in this poem. The allusions recall memories from Dante, Jacobean drama, Buddhism, mythology, anthropology and the Indian Upanishads effectively convey the sense of the barrenness and decay of the chaotic civilization.

One is struck by the vigour and beauty of much of the details, the ironic pictures of modern manners, the superb mingling of satiric vulgarity and sensuous delicacy, variety of imagery and rhythm. Repetition of images is another of the devices used in the poem. The images - rocky desert, water, the crowds of people, once again add strength to the central theme of the poem, ‘spiritual sterility in modern life and the poet’s hope for a rejuvenation of spiritual life’.

Conclusion:

Eliot thus from his sense of rejection of modern man’s spiritually sterile life to a hopeful future in which man with may begin his spiritual career again with “Datta” – Charity; “Dayadhvam” – compassion; and “Damyata” – self control. In this ‘self’ annihilated state, God give us the mental peace which leads to enlightenment – “Shantih, shantih, shantih.”