“the waste land” by t.s. eliot adela, erica and hilda

“The Waste Land”by T.S. Eliot

Adela, Erica and Hilda

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Synopsis 433 lines20th CenturyMeditation on the state of Western civilizationmixes descriptions of contemporary life with literary allusions and quotations, religious symbolism, and references to ancient and medieval cultures and mythologies, vegetation and fertility rites

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Eastern religions and philosophiesemphasize themes of barrenness and desolation and portrays a dying societythe ending suggests hope of redemption through concepts and images grounded on the synthesis of Christian and Eastern (Hindu/Buddhist) spirituality

Synopsis

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Language & Form Modernist poetry. Irregular verse, at times free, at times reminiscent of the blank verse of Eliot’s playsThe poem was reduced to half the length of earlier drafts at Ezra Pound's suggestionComplex scholarly annotations to explain the many quotations and obscure allusionsFive sections and features multiple voices and a deliberate attempt at creating a sense of fragmentation, discontinuity, and decay.

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Structure

EpigraphEpigraphFive sectionsFive sections

The Burial of the Dead The Burial of the Dead

A Game of Chess A Game of Chess

The Fire Sermon The Fire Sermon

Death by Water Death by Water

What the Thunder SaidWhat the Thunder Said

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"Nam Sibyllam quidem Cumis ego ipse oculis meis vidi in ampulla pendere, et cum illi pueri dicerent: ; respondebat illa: ."

For Ezra Pound il miglior fabbro.

Epigraph

Quotes Petronius's Satyricon (first century C.E.) “For once I myself saw with my own eyes the Sibyl at Cumae hanging in a cage, and when the boys said to her ‘Sibyl, what do you want?’ she replied, ‘I want to die.’”

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I. The Burial of the Dead (1/2)

Four poemsLine 1-18Marie recalls her sledding and claims that she is German, not Russian. The woman mixes a meditation on the seasons with remarks on the barren state of her current existence.

Line 19-42A prophetic, apocalyptic invitation to journey into a desert waste, where the speaker will show the reader “something different from either/ Your shadow at morning striding behind you/ Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you;/ [He] will show you fear in a handful of dust.“

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I. The Burial of the Dead (2/2)

Four poemsLine 43-59It describes an imaginative tarot reading, in which some of the cards Eliot includes in the reading are not part of an actual tarot deck.

Line 60-76The speaker walks through a London populated by ghosts of the dead. He confronts a figure with whom he once fought in a battle. The speaker asks the ghostly figure, Stetson, about the fate of a corpse planted in his garden.

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II. A Game of Chess This section focuses on two opposing scenes: high society and the lower classes.Two poems

Line 77-138A wealthy, highly groomed woman surrounded by exquisite furnishings.

Line 139-172 In a London barroom, where two women discuss a third woman.

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III. The Fire Sermon (1/3)

Taken from a sermon given by Buddha in which he encourages his followers to give up earthly passion and seek freedom from earthly things. Four poems

Line 173-206Line 207-214Line 215-265Line 266-311

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III. The Fire Sermon (2/3)

The section opens with a desolate riverside scene: Rats and garbage surround. The speaker, who is fishing and “musing on the king my brother's wreck.” The speaker is then propositioned by Mr. Eugenides, the one-eyed merchant of Madame Sosostris's tarot pack.

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III. The Fire Sermon (3/3)The speaker then proclaims himself to be Tiresias, a figure from classical mythology who has both male and female features and is blind but can “see” into the future.Tiresias/the speaker observes a young typist, at home for tea, who awaits her lover, a dull and slightly arrogant clerk. The woman allows the clerk to have his way with her, and he leaves victorious.Tiresias, who has “foresuffered all,” watches the whole thing. After her lover's departure, the typist thinks only that she's glad the encounter is done and over.

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IV. Death by Water

The shortest section of the poem.Describes a man, Phlebas the Phoenician, who has died by drowning.In death he has forgotten his worldly cares as the creatures of the sea have picked his body apart.

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V. What the Thunder Said (1/2)One poem: line 322-423

Builds to an apocalyptic climax, as suffering people become "hooded hordes swarming" and the "unreal" cities of Jerusalem, Athens, Alexandria, Vienna, and London are destroyed, rebuilt, and destroyed again.The scene then shifts to the Ganges, half a world away from Europe, where thunder rumbles.

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V. What the Thunder Said (2/2)

Finale: line 424-434Ends with a series of disparate fragments from a children's song, from Dante, and from Elizabethan drama, leading up to a final chant of “Shantih shantih shantih.”

Theme

source

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I. The Burial of the Dead

Theme Inhabitants in the Waste

Land live a hopeless life. People can usually obtain salvation (rebirth) from the burial of the dead, but inhabitants in the Waste Land are afraid of rebirth.

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II. A Game of Chess

Theme The community's

impotence and degradation, sex and spirit, is conveyed.

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III. The Fire Sermon

Theme Eliot uses St. Augustine

and Buddha’s thoughts to teach man to keep away from decay.

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IV. Death by Water

Theme There will be no revival or

resurrection after the Phoenician’s death. Misunderstanding of greed and values have buried human beings deeper as a whole into the whirlpool.

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V. What the Thunder Said

ThemeThe thunder said human beings could be saved through three verbs--give, sympathize, and control.

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Analysis (1/2)Eliot uses

A modern myth that world moving toward crisis and chaosMultiple narrators: to see from different anglesDramatic monologue: to convey the characters’ stream of unconsciousness and psychological condition.Fragmentation: fragmentation of modern life, lack of integration in the modern experience

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Allusion to plays, and myths:To compare and contrast the present and the pastTo produce the dramatic irony

(Myths exists in fertility rites and a universal subconscious. Eliot uses myths to produce sympathy. )Biblical references:

severed from the system of belief that gave them coherence and meaning.

Analysis (2/2)

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Techniques in TextDramatic monologue (L8—18, L25—30) Allusions to the Bible (L20), plays (The Tempest, The

Devil’s Law Case), and myths (The Fisher King, Inferno)Fragmentary forms—Ex. broken image (L22)(L428-30)Symbols of water, hyacinth, the Tarot pack of cards, the drowned Phoenician Sailor, the Hanged God. Compare and Contrast---Mylae War is compared to the World War I.Quotations—Paradise Lost9 (IV, 140), The Devil’s Law Case (III,ii,162), The White Devil (V,6, 203-205),

Confession… pun—jug (L103)

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Epigraphto express the subjectSibyl in the Satyricon (myth) , a woman with prophetic power and long life, grows old, but cannot die. She is yearning to die. The Sibyl's condition suggests Eliot lives in a culture that has decayed and withered but will not end.

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Quotation And Interpretation

L1-7 APRIL is the cruelest month, APRIL is the cruelest month,

breeding …Winter kept us warm, breeding …Winter kept us warm, covering …covering …

(The Waste Land opens with a compare to Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. April is not the painful month for pilgrimages and storytelling.)L30

I will show you fear in a handful of I will show you fear in a handful of dust. dust.

(How dry and fearful the Waste Land it is. )

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L55 The Hanged Man. Fear death The Hanged Man. Fear death

by water.by water. (The death and rebirth of a god –

Rebirth comes after the death. And water suggests spiritual renewal.)

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L99-103 The change of Philomel, by the The change of Philomel, by the

barbarous king…'Jug Jug' to dirty ears.barbarous king…'Jug Jug' to dirty ears. (People only can hear the sex and violence

in the myth but not appreciate a myth.) L126

'Are you alive, or not? Is there nothing 'Are you alive, or not? Is there nothing in your head?'in your head?'

(Inhabitants in the Waste Land are without thoughts—spiritual dryness.)


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L48 Those are pearls that were his Those are pearls that were his

eyes. Look!eyes. Look!L257

‘‘This music crept by me upon the This music crept by me upon the waters’ waters’

(Quoted from Shakespeare’s The Tempest— sea-change is the symbol of refreshment and purification. And the Waste Land is a place that is lack of water.)


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L329 We who were living are now We who were living are now dying dying

(People have no belief. Religion doesn't exist for People have no belief. Religion doesn't exist for

them.)them.) L423-25 I sat upon the shore …Shall I I sat upon the shore …Shall I

at least set my lands in order?at least set my lands in order? (In the myth of the Fisher King, the king is

impotent and the land is barren; society waits for salvation in the person of a knight (looking for the Holy Grail) who will come and ask the right question and bring the much-needed rain.)


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Study Questions 1.1. What is the function of the What is the function of the

epigraphepigraph in the beginning to in the beginning to the poem?the poem?

2.2. Is the downward motion Is the downward motion significant in the first section?significant in the first section?

3.3. What does the thunder say? What does the thunder say? What is happening to the What is happening to the waste land? waste land?

4.4. What is the "Waste Land" What is the "Waste Land" Eliot describes?Eliot describes?

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5.5. Why T.S. Eliot chose the “A Why T.S. Eliot chose the “A Game of Chess” as the title of Game of Chess” as the title of the second part of the work? the second part of the work? What’s the connection of this What’s the connection of this section with previous one?section with previous one?

6.6. What the representative What the representative meaning of “water” in the meaning of “water” in the fourth part of the work?fourth part of the work?

Study Questions

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References“Dr. Fidel Fajardo-Acosta's World Literature Website.” 1 Dec. 2005

<http://fajardo-acosta.com/worldlit/eliot/waste_land.htm>. Eliot, Thomas Stearns. "The Waste Land." The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Ed. M.H. Abrams. 7th ed. Vol. 2. New York: Norton, 2000. 2368-83.Modernist Poetry in English. 4 Dec. 2005 <http://www.answers.com/topic/modernist-poetry-in-english>.Parker, Rickard A. Exploring The Waste Land. 29 Sep. 2002. 5 Dec. 2005 <http://world.std.com/~raparker/exploring/ thewasteland/explore.html>.SparkNotes: Eliot’s Poetry. 1 Dec. 2005 <http://www.sparknotes.com/poetry/eliot/index.html>.“The Waste Land.” 1 Dec. 2005 <http://www.geocities.com/ Athens/Olympus/5599/literature/wasteland.html>.“The Waste Land Interpretation.” 5 Dec. 2005 <http://www.tqnyc.org/NYC040522/Poetryindexbyjosefina/was telandindex.htm>.

“the waste land” by t.s. eliot adela, erica and hilda

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