The Wasteland

T.S. Eliot’s ―The Wasteland‖- Death by Water

The main theme is "modern life as a waste land." Eliot supports the theme by showing what was wrong with society in the early twentieth century. These shortcomings include lack of faith, lack of communication, fear of both life and death, corruption of the life-water symbol, and corruption of sex. There are two kinds of people in the modern waste land, according to Eliot. These are seen in the crowd that flows over London Bridge (62-65). He states, "I had not thought death had undone so many." This is a reference to Dante's description of the people in Limbo. They were the dead who were neither bad nor good, just secularized. This is one category of people in the waste land (Williamson 133). The other is given by another reference to Dante: "Sighs, short and infrequent, were exhaled." This is descriptive of people in the first level of hell, those who were born before Christ. They have no knowledge of salvation and cannot be saved (according to Dante.) The reference shows that there are also people in the twentieth century who have no faith (Brooks 13). Eliot illustrates the lack of faith at several points. In lines 301-302, one of the Thames daughters states, "I can connect / Nothing with nothing." Because she has no faith, there are no connections and no meaning in her life (Wheelwright 97). There are several references in the poem to "hooded hordes walking in a ring." Madame Sosostris sees them, and the protagonist meets them as he journeys to the Perilous Chapel. The hooded hordes are hooded because they cannot see the hooded figure, the "third that always walks beside you," who represents Christ (Brooks 26). They are walking in a ring, with no sense of purpose or direction, because they have no faith (Williamson 149). A traditional symbol of life is water, since human life is believed to have come from the water through the evolution of fish. Many religions, including the vegetation cults, held water as sacred and lifegiving. Unfortunately, the people in the waste land have lost this ancient belief, according to Eliot. They have corrupted the life symbol and made it into something to be feared instead of revered. For example, the Phoenician sailor dies by drowning. Water certainly does not represent life to him! The clairvoyant Madame Sosostris advises the protagonist, "Fear death by water." Since he does not have faith (as illustrated above), water means death to him. He cannot live in it (Williamson 125). He also states "By the waters of Leman I sat down and wept..." (182). Leman means "lust." The protagonist indicates here that the prevalence of unbridled lust has disturbed him. Water has been corrupted - it now represents the death that results from the lack of self control. It no longer stands for life (Williamson 139). Another instance of this is Eliot's quote from an Australian song, "O the moon shone bright on Mrs. Porter / and on her daughter / They wash their feet in soda water" (199-201). In the legends of the Fisher King a footwashing ceremony preceded the restoration of the king. These lines tell us that ordinary water can no longer be used in footwashing - its symbolism has been lost (Brooks 20).

Two of the poem’s sections -- ―The Burial of the Dead‖ and ―Death by Water‖ --refer specifically to this theme. What complicates matters is that death can mean life; in other words, by dying, a being can pave the way for new lives. Eliot asks his friend Stetson: ―That corpse you planted last year in your garden, / Has it begun to sprout? Will it bloom this year?‖ Similarly, Christ, by ―dying,‖ redeemed humanity and thereby gave new life. The ambiguous passage between life and death finds an echo in the

frequent allusions to Dante, particularly in the Limbo-like vision of the men flowing across London Bridge and through the modern city. The fourth part of T.S. Eliot’s ―The Wasteland‖ stands out from the rest of the sections. It is the shortest section of the whole poem. This part of the poem talks about death. Death, symbolized by water, is uncaring and destructive, but not it a cruel way. Death, ―like a current under the sea,‖ is natural. It does as it will and it judges impersonally. While the water is Death, it is not portrayed maliciously. Just as a current could not be judged to be cruel, neither can Death. Eliot doesn’t even portray it as something tragic, but a release of worldly cares. Phlebas has forgotten ―the cry of the gulls, and the deep sea swell/ and the profit and loss.‖ The sea is ―picking at his bones‖ but Phlebas doesn’t care because he is in a place that is past caring. I think Eliot is trying to explain how inevitable it is that people die, and the death that is portrayed here is finite. The narrator even addresses the ―Gentile‖ and the ―Jew‖ telling them than no one is exempt from death. There is no hint of a resurrection in this section. The only footnote in this section reinforces this notion. It says, ―this section has been interpreted as signifying death by water without resurrection.‖ However, it continues with ―or as symbolizing the sacrificial death that precedes rebirth.‖ But, I don’t see how Phlebas’ death could be seen as sacrificial, since he most likely died by accidental drowning. Also, this part of the poem doesn’t hint at rebirth. The image of the ―whirlpool,‖ emphasizes the cyclical nature of both water and death. The body of Phlebas is being dragged in to deeper waters, which will destroy his body and anything that resembled life. In context with the rest of the ―The Wasteland,‖ water as death is reinforced. Madame Sosostris, in the poem’s first section, picks out the card of the Phoenician Sailor and tells the narrator to ―fear death by water‖ (l.55). Her fears are confirmed in the fourth section. The death that happens here is finite. However, water also represents life in ―The Wasteland.‖ Water is essential for life and the fifth section of the poem reflects it. The narrator is thirsty and wants water but all around him is just rock. He spends a lot of time on the fact that there is ―no water, but only rock‖ (l. 331). While water can be destructive and can mean death, no water can also mean death. It is needed; one cannot do without it.

The Waste Land is much concerned with life, death and the tentative possibility of resurrection. the dead land the dead tree gives no shelter I was neither Living nor dead Where the dead men lost their bones the lowest of the dead Phlebas the Phoenician, a fortnight dead

He who was living is now dead Dead mountain mouth of carious teeth

A key symbol of life and fertility in The Waste Land. no sound of water Fear death by water The hot water at ten the waters of Leman They wash their feet in soda water A repulsive image mixing vulgarity and cheap modern decadence, deliberately draining the word of its biblical resonance.An ironic reference to the washing of Christ's feet can perhaps be detected. 'This music crept by me upon the waters' Here is no water there is no water

T.S. Eliot’s The Wasteland creates the ultimate paradox. In a poem of wastefulness, lifelessness, and decay, the appearance of life is highly visible. The title unifies the five parts of the poem and does nothing to disguise its purpose—to criticize an industrialized society. Eliot contrasts decay with the constant appearance of water. ―But sound of water over a rock/Where the hermit-thrush sings in the pine trees/Drip drop drip drop drop drop drop.‖ His use of sound and imagery work together to create a chaotic atmosphere. Water will save these people if they can only obtain it. It is everywhere, but it is always out of reach. The Wasteland would be less powerful had Eliot only focused on the negative aspects of a society. By intercepting signs of life, we see a greater contrast. He also uses dialogue as a means of transmitting his voice into the voices of the characters. Water is typically seen as a sign of life. In the Bible, for example, we see constant references to water as a form of cleansing or renewal. Life on Earth could not survive without it. Throughout the poem, a society’s need for cleansing becomes evident, and we question whether rain finally comes at the end. He uses dialogue as a means of transmitting his voice into the voices of the characters. What’s important is the fact that the characters he presents are waiting for it. If they were not aware of the presence of water, we might think that there is no hope for them. Instead, they thrive for it. They seek for the water that is not available. ―But red sullen faces sneer and snarl/From doors of mudcracked houses/If there were water/And no rock/If there were rock/And also water/And water/A spring/A pool among the rock.‖ This passage creates the image of a sullen people. They stand on their doorsteps waiting for a

storm. They are desperate for anything that might bring them out of this drought. They are deprived of a deeper meaning to life, of a society not grown out of industry. Part IV is the shortest of the five parts. "Death by Water" describes how the body of the drowned Phoenician merchant sailor slowly decomposes after he is drowned at sea. He seems to have been concerned only with material prosperity in life - "the profit and the loss." At the end of his life, he has apparently achieved nothing. This brief lyric suggests ironically that water can be a destructive force as it brings death by drowning. This suggestion is extended into the next part of the poem where the absence of the life-giving force of water causes man to suffer both physical dehydration and a spiritual drought. As Miss Weston has shown, the Tarot Pack of Cards was originally used to determine the event of the highest importance to the people, the rising of the waters. Just as fire burns and purifies so does water drown and purify. Whatever the specific meaning of the symbols, the general function of the section, ―Death by Water‖, is readily apparent. The section forms a contrast with ―The Fire Sermon‖, which precedes it – a contrast between the symbolism of fire and that of water. Also rapidly apparent is its force as a symbol of surrender and relief through surrender. Some specific connections can be made, however. The drowned Phoenician sailor recalls the drowned god of the fertility cults. Miss Weston tells that every year at Alexandria an effigy of the head of the god was thrown into the water as a symbol of the death of the powers of nature, and that this head was carried by currents to Bylobs where it was taken out of the water and exhibited as a symbol of the reborn god.

The Waste Land is built on a major contrast – the contrast between two kinds of life and two kinds of death. Life devoid of meaning is death; sacrifice, even the sacrificial death, may be life-giving, an awakening to life. The poem deals to a great extent with this paradox, and with a number of variations on it. The theme is stated in the quotation that prefaces the poem. The Sibyl says, ―I wish to die.‖ The statement of the Sibyl has several interpretations. For one thing, she is saying what the people who inhabit the waste land are saying. The first section of ―The Burial of the Dead‖ develops the theme of the attractiveness of death, or of the difficulty in rousing oneself from the death in life in which the people of the waste land live. Men are afraid to live in reality. April, the month of rebirth, is not the most joyful season but the cruelest. Winter at least ―kept us warm‖ in forgetful snow. History, Eliot suggests, is a repeating cycle. When he calls to Stetson, the Punic War stands in for World War I; this substitution is crucial because it is shocking. At the time Eliot wrote "The Waste Land," the First World War was definitively a first - the "Great War" for those who had witnessed it. There had been none to compare with it in history. The predominant sensibility was one of profound change; the

world had been turned upside down and now, with the rapid progress of technology, the movements of societies, and the radical upheavals in the arts, sciences, and philosophy, the history of mankind had reached a turning point. Eliot revises this thesis, arguing that the more things change the more they stay the same. He links a sordid affair between a typist and a young man to Sophocles via the figure of Tiresias; he replaces a line from Marvell’s ―To His Coy Mistress‖ with ―the sound of horns and motors‖; he invokes Dante upon the modern-day London Bridge, bustling with commuter traffic; he notices the Ionian columns of a bar on Lower Thames Street teeming with fishermen. The ancient nestles against the medieval, rubs shoulders with the Renaissance, and crosses paths with the centuries to follow. History becomes a blur. Eliot’s poem is like a street in Rome or Athens; one layer of history upon another upon another.

Eliot’s original title for The Waste Land was ―He do the Police in Different Voices.‖ The line, another quotation, comes from Dickens’s Our Mutual Friend (1864-65), and describes the foundling Sloppy’s skills as a reader of the newspaper—imitating the voices of the police in the crime reports. The Waste Land is composed of many voices, not always distinguishable from one another.