the wasteland
T.S. Eliot wrote "The Waste Land" using a different type of poetry style and organization than was typical at the time. It follows the flow of its own themes, jumping from time to time and place to place as quickly as a thought comes and goes. Eliot uses opposites juxtaposed with each other without transfer to emphasize his themes. The poem is a mythic experience of kings, queens, and heroes. Eliot also uses this poem as an ironic quest of modern day people. The setting and the cast of "The Waste Land" exist within the mind of the poem's speaker. The poem is structured around the way the themes move in the speakers mind. "The Waste Land" is Eliot's commentary on the state of the society that he lived in. Eliot depicts a world that is in a state of confusion and turmoil with little or no hope for recovery. Eliot uses the myth of the Fisher King to represent his society that is decaying morally and socially. The Fisher King is a fertility myth that is paralleled by many other myths and stories throughout "The Waste Land." In this myth a great kingdom is rendered desolate when a curse is placed upon the king by a wound of some sort. A great hero must complete a challenge and prove his worth so that the Fisher King may
The emptiness before the rebirth is echoed in the other patterns of the poems symbols. The first World War was entirety an act of anger, hatred, and the passion of man's senses. This wound is symbolic of the loss of his vitality and ability to create. In the myth the castle is never found easily and help is needed to find it. The fifth section, "What the Thunder Said," is taken from the second Brahman passage of the three cardinal virtues. In many myths the king is coupled with the land, here represented as society, and its fate is intertwined with his. Eliot is saying that he is not mad and the poem is a product of Eliot's experience. This is the approach we should take to find the redemption of society. There is no sign of hope here in "The Waste Land," there is only the pain and decay of society and its values. These emotions lead to the sorrow and misery caused by war. The nightingale's song in this section parallels the juxtaposition of pure and improper love with the combination of its pure song, twit twit twit, and it's perverted song, jug jug jug. " Here Eliot quotes John Webster's play The White Devil where one brother is burying the body of his brother whom he killed. In Christian beliefs there is living water referred to by Christ as a symbol for salvation. From the beginning there are examples of pure love but they are counterbalanced by the improper loves. The depression that is felt in this section is echoed in the depression of society.
Common topics in this essay:
Fisher King,
Waste Land,
Fire Sermon,
Tereus Greek,
World War,
Thunder Brahman,
Death Water,
Game Chess,
fisher king,
War Thames,
Land Eliot,
waste land,
improper love,
world war,
section titled,
king myth,
loss vitality,
lost father,
fire sermon,
fisher king myth,
fisher king lost,
nightingale's song,
fisher king myths,
waste land eliot,
king fisher king,
|
Acceptance Essays
