This blog deals with several assigned questions by Dr. Dilip Barad regarding T.S. Eliot’s poem The Wasteland, contradiction of Eliot with between Nietzsche and Freud and Indian thoughts in the poem.
THE WASTELAND
Let us discuss the summary of The Wasteland in brief.
The poem The Wasteland poem was published in T.S. Eliot in 1922. It is the most important work of modernist poetry. The poem is divided into five sections.
The five parts of The Waste Land are entitled:
- The Burial of the Dead
- A Game of Chess
- The Fire Sermon
- Death by Water
- What the Thunder Said
The Burial of the Dead:
The title refers to fertility and the burial service. It however brings out the spiritual death of citizens of wasteland. The citizens of the wasteland don't want to get disturbed from their routine of modern life. The idea of spiritual regeneration is painful to them, the value system of the citizens is different from the value system of the traditional one. April is generally the symbol of spring and rebirth while winter is a symbol of decay of death but for waste landers April is bad and cruel because it reminds them of The Spiritual decay and makes them think of regeneration and they enjoy winter because they can enjoy it.
A Game of Chess:
A Game of Chess is used by Middleton in the play entitled ‘Women beware Women’ where this game is played to hide the seduction of a young girl by a noble man. The first scene is about drawing room of a fashionable lady who is interested is sexual relations. And it also shares the story of Philomel, the raped girl who was transformed into Nightingale - is a symbol of purification through sufferings but in modern times, love has degenerated into lust and there is no hope of regeneration.
The Fire Sermon:
The title Fire Sermon is borrowed from the sermon of Lord Buddha where he said that the world is on fire, "burning with the fire of hatred, with the fire of infatuation, with birth, old age and death, sorrow, lamentation and misery, grief and despair". Which gives us the idea of spiritual degradation.
Death by Water:
this section-Death by Water says- water is a means of purification and re-birth. There are two metaphors/ stories in this section one from Shakespeare The Tempest and the other from the ancient Egyptian myth of the god of fertility. The death of Phlebas, the Greek sailor, is an example of people who devote themselves to worldly pursuits. Their youth and strength ultimately will be consumed by death.
What the Thunder said:
Reading the title, it indicated through thunder that it declares the liberation of society from spiritual barrenness. The first example is of the mythical journey of the knight to Chapel Perilous in the time of the Fisher King who was successful in removing the curse from his land. The second is the Biblical journey of Christ's disciples to Emmaus when they were accompanied by Christ in disguise and who disclosed his identity to confirm the truth of his resurrection.
Thus, Wasteland is a poem about brokenness and loss. The key theme of the poem in sexual perversion and spiritual degradation.
What are your views on the following image after reading 'The Waste Land'? Do you think that Eliot is regressive as compared to Nietzsche's views? or Has Eliot achieved universality of thought by recalling mytho-historical answers to the contemporary malaise?
Nietzsche claimed the exemplary human being must craft his/her own identity through self-realization and do so without relying on anything transcending that life—such as God or a soul; which is considered to be the progressive and forward looking. While Eliot in the waste land uses the myths, stories and identities from the past with an idea of mistake not being repeated whether in present or at. Elliot is trying to give a universal idea, using the myths of varied culture Eliot has tried to bring universality which inspires society to move on the path of peace.
Nietzsche believed in the idea about ‘God is dead’ and every man has to develop his own powers, will power and self esteem to be a ‘superhuman’, he is finding a solution for the present in future. While Eliot gave references of various spiritualities, myths, religions etc., he is not trying asking or driving us to believe in god but is trying to show the real world. With the reference of myths he is presenting scenarios of the present. He is trying to find the solution of the present and future in the past.
Nietzsche and Eliot both has different ideas about bringing peace and togetherness in society but I personally disagree with Eliot’s idea being ‘regressive and backward’ as it is thinking about present and future with strong foundation of Upanishad, Buddhism and Christianity which have been practiced since years.
For example Eliot discuss very prominent contemporary issues like-
1) sexual perversion - Rape
2) loss of spirituality
3) Depression - mental illness
4) war - political issues
Prior to the speech, Gustaf Hellström of the Swedish Academy made these remarks:
What are your views regarding these comments? Is it true that giving free vent to the repressed 'primitive instinct' leads us to a happy and satisfied life? Or do you agree with Eliot's view that 'salvation of man lies in the preservation of the cultural tradition'?
Freud has talked about the ‘primitive instincts’ which give rise to individuality. if one person works according to his wishes and own personal pleasures may be harmful and worrisome to others and if others are working according to their wishes and for their pleasure may be harmful or make us uncomfortable. As Matthew Arnold also said in his essay ‘Culture and Anarchy’:-
“Doing as one likes may bring chaos in the society”
While Eliot is talking about the preservation of cultural tradition. Culture is a network which connects the society and everyone gets ready to work, to live their life according to the culture which provides togetherness to the society.
Sudeep talks about the progress of individuals while Elliot talks about the progress of the universe. Thus, I personally agree with Eliot’s view that ‘salvation of man's lies in the preservation of cultural tradition.’
Write about allusions to the Indian thoughts in 'The Waste Land'. (Where, How and Why are the Indian thoughts referred?)
Eliot in the Wasteland has brought the various cultures and spirituality together and brought universality in the poem to solve the European problem in spiritual degradation and sexual perversion. Eliot has brought few Indian spiritual thoughts from Upanishads and Buddhism also to fertilize their barren land.
As we discussed the poem is divided in five sections. In the very second section of ‘Fire sermon’ comes the reference of ‘sermon’ which is the idea of buddha. The Buddha's sermon which talks about the four Noble truths in A sacred book of Buddhism named Adittapariyaya sutta. They are the truth of suffering, the truth of the cause of suffering, the truth of the end of suffering, and the truth of the path that leads to the end of suffering. Fire is used as a metaphor. Which reflects sexual perversion in the world.
Secondly in the fifth section ‘What the Thunder Said’ takes the reference of ‘Ganga’ river. And also the Title ‘What the Thunder Said’ is from Upanishad, Prajapati spoke in thunder ‘akashwani’ to his devotees and pointed out the way of salvation.
And through reference of ‘Ganga’, ‘Himavat’ in this part. Eliot refers to Wisdom of India for spiritual salvation of modern humanity.
Eliot uses the three “Da” taken from “Brihadaranyaka Upanishad".
Datta – giver; Dayadhvam – compassion; Damyata – self-control
The first ‘Da’ is a message by Prajapati for the Humans to be ‘Datta’ - be a giver, have charity not only charity but give oneself for a noble cause.
The second ‘Da’ is a message for the Demons - ‘Dayathvam’- have compassion, sympathize and come out of your isolation and live into others.
And the third ‘Da’ is a message for the Gods - ‘Damyata’ - to have self-control, self-restraint over one’s passions and desires.
And the Poem ends with “Shantih… shantih… shantih” an ambiguous note, with the triple repetition of the Sanskrit word 'Shantih', which Eliot translates as 'the peace which passeth understanding'. Which is repeatedly used in Indian culture after every mantra or shloka for the inner and outer peace.
Is it possible to read 'The Waste Land' as a Pandemic Poem?
In the literature we find that Spanish flu or any other pandemic is rarely recorded. We can read that through the literature only if we get any autobiographical context of a writer or that period. if we see the west land is published in 1922 between World War I and World War 2. It is similar to the period of the Spanish flu which spread widely.
We find autobiographical context of Eliot with pandemic flu, Eliot and his wife caught the virus in Dec 1918 in the second wave of the pandemic. Many critics are dealing with the idea of the war fragments though we may say that, in the part of the poem Eliot has portrayed the same thing by post-pandemic consciousness, according to Elizabeth Outka.
We see that the poem is written in fragmented form, it seems like a collage picture which we can read as Eliot might be suffering from fever, infected by a pandemic and is not able to write his thoughts clearly in the poem. He might be having a delirious state of mind.
In the beginning lines we can find a kind of negative atmosphere like all the bodies are suffering from the acute illnesses. ‘Feverish hallucination’ speaks about the symptoms of the feverish body. “ Burning burning burning burning” these lines may show the bodily pain of one’s own or the body of infected are burning in fever
Many such references are obtained while reading the Wasteland poem. We can read this poem from a pandemic lens as we have recently faced a corona pandemic and still the world is not completely cured.
Give link of the Google Sheet with tabular information on Myths, Allusions, Languages, Animals/birds, colors etc
I hope this blog is useful to you thanks for visiting.
[words- 1740]
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