T.S.
Eliot's 'The Waste Land' is a very hard piece of poetry to enter as a
student of poetry. The
many citations and references are a daunting prospect to attempt to
decipher and create a coherent story from. It would require a “small
library” to actually recreate the scope of reference that Eliot
draws upon to create his fragmentary and dystopian 'Waste Land'
(North in Eliot x). I would argue that it is not necessary to trace
all of the references to their original sources, since other measures
are used to tell the actual story of 'The Waste Land' and that these
are completely in the vein of conventional storytelling and poetic
discourse, so while the poem might require or allows for an
individual interpretation of the internal story, it exists strictly
inside the confines of tradition while, apparently, breaking away
from it. I intend to show how it follows a classical schema for
storytelling and how the different elements are arranged in a manner
that actually aids the open-minded reader into a stronger
understanding, while still retaining the text as the centre of
attention.
Building a Narrative
The
first line of 'The Waste Land' attempts to alienate the reader and
the obvious reference to Chaucer's opening in 'The Canterbury Tales'
are already a massive distortion. April is not bringing its
shoures
soote
(Chaucer ll.1) in any positive manner here, but rather bringing
Lilacs back from the wonderful dead land that was kept warm by Winter
(Eliot ll. 1-7). From the very beginning, the reader is lead into
Eliot's 'Waste Land' and the speaker does not grant any reprieve from
the disheartening accounts or the repurposed quotes from a myriad of
sources. The flirtation that we find between the 'Hyacinth girl' and
the speaker in lines 35-41 dies off almost immediately and shows that
the state of the world is truly undead and not living or dead
(Eliot). Madame Sosostris is then introduced to give us a glimpse of
Phlebas who will be central to the story further on in the poem
(Eliot ll. 43-49). In this way, we are given a magical foreshadowing
that we do not yet know how to understand, except as an emblem of
water. Phlebas purpose is to give the reader an introduction in how
the world is perceived by the speaker in the poem and give credence
to an interpretation that water is not a bringer of life. In this
part of the poem, we are introduced to the major characters of the
poem and this serves as a quite conventional introduction, where the
action is revealed, but we have only encountered the insurmountable
obstacle that the protagonist must face.
Water Is Unlife
The
imagery of 'The Waste Land' is at once confusing and coherent. The
paradox seems to be a natural response, when something so bleak and
sterile as the antebellum London needs to be described. The
flirtation that we find between the 'Hyacinth girl' and the speaker
in lines 35-41 dies off almost immediately and shows that the state
of the world is, truly, undead. Water is almost omnipresent in the
poem and the citation from Tristan
and Isolde in
line 42 where the ocean is empty and desolate makes us understand the
sea as part of the waste land that is everywhere. The revelation that
the waste land is all-encompassing makes for a very dark reading of
the poem as the connecting element in the poem is water. If water is
not a symbol of life, as it, so very clearly, is not in 'A Game of
Chess', then what does it represent? I would argue that water
functions as a perversion of life and is a representation of death.
In 'Death by Water', we are introduced to Phlebas the drowned sailor.
He has been dead for a fortnight and is not coming back. His bones
have been picked clean and he has no recollection of either 'gulls,
and the deep sea' (Eliot ll. 313). He was already introduced in the
tarot deck but his significance was not clear then. Phlebas dies of
drowning but Eliot does not let Phlebas stay dead. Instead, he passes
'the stages of his age and youth' (ll. 317) in a mockery of death and
the sterility and aridness of the landscape is mirrored in the sea,
since it is still 'Oed
und leer'
(ll. 42). This passage is part of the Grail myth and functions as a
means of resurrecting the land and to bring prosperity and fertility
back to the “kingdom”. The middle parts of the poem deepen and
explain the plot and we can find a glimmer of hope that will set
things right.
What the Thunder Actually Says
The
overt images of Arthurian legend are strewn liberally across the
pages with the mentions of the Fisher King and Tristan and Isolde.
The reason that the Grail myth is so important in 'The Waste Land' is
that it is a way out of the suffering and gives hope of redemption. I
do not find that Eliot actually intends to give absolution to the
society that he describes and it all boils down to a few select
references given at dispersed intervals in the final lines of the
poem. The normal reading of 'The Waste Land' is that the poem ends on
a positive note, and there is hope for civilization even though it is
doomed if we continue with Western religion and culture. The hope is
found in the Upanishad
or Eastern mysticism as the thunder brings the rain. However, as
stated earlier I do not find that the rain is a bringer of life. In
line 393-394, 'a damp gust/ Bringing rain' comes to the waste land,
but the process is not one that suddenly turns the barren land into a
living, breathing organism (Eliot). On the contrary, the very next
line says that the 'Ganga was sunken' and that we are still waiting
for the rain. Most of the other river references have been to the
Thames and it is significant that Eliot turns to the Ganges instead.
This shift marks the turning away from Western philology. We find a
boat mentioned by the thunder in lines 418-422 and it is sailed by an
expert (Eliot). The sea is described as calm, but the thunder is
coming and although the sailor is proficient he is most likely
entering a storm. Could this sailor be Phlebas in a period before
drowning? If so, the bleakness found in 'Death by Water' is even
darker than we first assumed. The very next line, the speaker is
sitting on the shore and is fishing (Eliot 424). We have still not
have any confirmation that life has returned and the drowned sailor
is still echoing through the pages. 'Shall I at least set my lands in
order?' functions as a focal point for the poem in the final lines of
it, yet they also state that everything has not been set right (Eliot
425). The question mark is of utmost importance, since it only
heightens the perception that the speaker has a choice in the matter,
and he is capable of turning his back on civilization. The final
citation that I will introduce is found in line 430, where the
speaker states that 'These fragments I have shored against my ruins'
(Eliot). If Eliot had intended to end the poem on an upbeat note,
then it seems odd that this line is present in the poem. There is no
apparent solution to the speakers situation and the very quotes from
the multitude of sources have ended their life in the speaker's
wasted mind and world. The implications to the storytelling are not
reminiscent of tragedy or comedy, since the unfulfilled nature of my
reading, leaves the speaker in his waste land, but I will argue that
this very ending can be read into the fragmented nature of the poem.
Ending Civilization
Eliot follows a set schema for the storytelling in 'The Waste Land'
and while it is extraordinary, it is still bound within this schema
to provide a coherent story. I have attempted to highlight that 'The
Burial of the Dead' works as an introduction, where the themes are
presented, as well as the characters that have importance. We do not
find out who the drowned Phonecian is in this part, but we recognise
him, when he is reintroduced in 'Death by Water' and Phlebas serves
as a reminder of how water has been perverted from our normal
perception of it, as life-giving. Then, I continued with this view of
how water's symbolism has been changed and showed that the thunder in
'What the Thunder Said' can be understood as an impotent hero, where
the speaker is the final arbiter in how the world can be restored. I
will grant that this reading does not fully account for all of the
readings, where Eastern spirituality can replace Western religions,
but the final quote serves to remind us that water can be fatal to a
mortal and the fragments that have shored on the speaker's ruins
offer little respite for the reader or the speaker.
References
Chaucer,
Geoffrey. The
Canterbury Tales.
Internet Medieval Source Book. 1996.
Eliot,
T.S. The
Wasteland.
Ed: Michael North. London: Norton, 2001. Print
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