In his seminal poem “The Wasteland,” TS Eliot vividly externalizes what he perceives as a very internal death of pandemic proportions. Drawing on a vast catalog of religion, classical writings, music and art, the work depicts an entire Western culture virtually dead spiritually in the aftermath of the First World War. Some are aware of their death, but many are not, moving numbly through a world. without real resonance or meaning. The gloomy diagnosis presented by Eliot is nevertheless countered by an underlying but pervasive optimism that an internal rebirth is possible. However, this optimism, often buried deep within the labyrinth-like text, comes with the promise that such resurrection will rely on a grueling emotional, intellectual and spiritual journey. There is certainly hope, but before that hope can be fully realized, the most barren and arid landscapes of an individual's spiritual death must be experienced and conquered. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essayEliot chooses to preface his poem with a Latin quotation from Satyricon about the prophetess Sibyl who was blessed with eternal life but condemned to permanent old age. Translated, the brief passage reads: “For once I myself saw with my own eyes the Sibyl of Cumae hanging in a cage, and when the boys said to her: “Sybyl, what do you want ? she replied, “I want to die.” » » And so begins the guided tour through spiritual death to eventual resurrection. For Eliot, the promise of an eternal life in misery is the greatest condemnation to endure and is an integral part of "The Wasteland's" theme. There comes a time when the only way to escape a situation is to die. There is no way to retreat or otherwise triumph. Spiritually, an individual's connection to meaning and purpose has been severed and, unable to receive the nourishment necessary to enable spiritual life and progression, they must simply start again. This concept is further reinforced by Eliot's allusions to the Fisher King and various rites of fertility and vegetation in the notes that accompany the poem. According to the myth of the Fisher King, the king is maimed and only through his physical strengthening and healing can his land return to prosperity. Likewise, it is only through sacrifice that one can escape spiritual death. It is this death that occupies most of the first segment of "The Wasteland", entitled "The Burial of the Dead". Spring traditionally brings feelings of happiness. Flowers are reborn from the ground and the climate begins to warm, all set to a higher level. score improvised by an orchestra of birds. However, there is nothing joyful about the spring depicted by Eliot. April is the cruelest month, bringing lilacs out of the dead earth, mixing memory and desire, stirring the dull roots with spring rain (lines 1-4). There is no more life. Spring still happens as it always does, but the elation it usually generates is tempered by the lack of dynamism in post-World War I Europe. People want to be happy, but the dark and dismal portrayal just isn't there. contrasts immediately with the happier memories of a countess, evoking sledging during her stay with the Archduke. The reference to an archduke may be an allusion to Francis Ferdinand, whose assassination triggered the outbreak of the First World War. Suchallusion would thus create firmness. link between Europe before and after the First World War. After establishing the loss of happiness and energy, Eliot deepens his description of spiritual death while also incorporating the first of many references to Christianity, which is an essential part of the poem. . In addition to the reference to Ezekiel in line 8, there is a distinct reference to the Messiah: "There is a shadow under this red rock/Enter under the shadow of this red rock" (25-26). The lines may refer to Isaiah 32:1-2 which says: “Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall rule in judgment. And man will be like a refuge from the wind and a shelter from the storm; rivers of water in a dry place, like the shadow of a great rock in a weary land. Once again we have the reference to the lack of water, to a dry and burning world. Eliot uses very specific symbolism throughout “The Wasteland”; drought must be equated with death, water with birth. Such symbolism can be carried into the dynamics of Christianity that Eliot weaves into the poem's narrative, providing what must be a common thread throughout the work. In addition to the resurrection of Christ, there is also the concept of baptism in water, introducing yet another allusion to death and rebirth. In Eliot's description of the young girl Hyacinth, "Your arms full and your hair wet, I could not/Speak, and my eyes gave way, I was neither alive nor dead, and knew nothing" ( 38-40), there is a distinct air of impropriety and utter disillusionment. Things are not as they should be. Experiences that should be pure and life-affirming are instead corrupted and pitiful. This disillusionment is further reinforced by the episode of the visit to the clairvoyant Madame Sosostris. At first glance, the Sosostris section appears to be nothing more than a tarot card predicting the future, including death by water. The fear of death, however, is disconcerting. For the majority of the work, death is presented as a necessary step on the path to rebirth. Yet here Sosostris warns: "What I am forbidden to see. I cannot find/The Hanged Man. Fear death by water"(54-55. It is through a careful analysis of the passage that the true nature of Madame Sosostris can be revealed. Lines 43-45 read: "Madame Sosostris, famous clairvoyant/Has nevertheless had a bad cold/Is known to be the wisest woman in Europe." does he mention that she had a bad cold? no bearing on what one would presume to be her more permanent state as a medium? The name Sosostris is actually a pun on the name Madame Sesostris in? the novel Chrome Yellow by Aldous Huxley In chapter 27 of the novel, a fair is organized and Mr. Scogen volunteers to pose as a clairvoyant, Madame Sesostris. Sesostris is a fraud who perpetuates people's worst fears in catastrophic style: he had a terrifying way of shaking his head, frowning, and clicking. with his tongue looking at the lines. Sometimes he murmured, as if to himself: “Terrible, terrible! » or “God preserve us!” » by sketching the sign of the cross while pronouncing these words. Customers who entered laughing suddenly became serious; they began to take the witch seriously. She was a woman of formidable appearance; could it be, was it possible that there was something to this sort of thing after all? (Chrome Yellow, chapter 27) In light of the allusion, it is logical to conclude that the reason Madame Sosostris's "bad cold" is mentioned is because it is not a cold at all, just the deep voice we couldexpect from a man dressed as a woman. Sosostris, like Sesostris, is a fraud and his predictions are misleading. As such, his warning regarding death by water is seen as a kind of red herring: a diversion from the path one must follow to escape the spiritual death that consumes them and be reborn. That she is nevertheless considered "the wisest woman in Europe", despite the total deception, is a critique of the collective atmosphere of deception and false ways that Eliot saw as an overall threat to culture Western. The “Unreal City” segment of “The Burial of the Dead” provides some of the most striking and evocative images. We are presented with the image of London under a thick brown fog. The tone is ominous even before we know that what seems at first glance to be a very realistic scene is in fact a horrifying, nightmarish vision, the brown fog in fact, a sea of ​​​​the dead floating above: An unreal city. Under the brown fog of a winter dawn, A crowd flocked to London Bridge, so numerous, I would not have believed that death had destroyed so many. Sighs, short and infrequent, were exhaled. (60-64)The description is the externalization of internal death. The last quoted line, concerning the “sighs, short and infrequent,” further addresses the response of the dead to their condition. According to Eliot's notes, the line refers to Canto IV of Dante's Inferno in which those who were good but pagan and who died before the ministry of Christ were condemned to an eternity in limbo. Comprised of many of the world's greatest thinkers, the group is forced to accept their fate, the only discontent expressed in their short, infrequent sighs. In the same way, Eliot suggests, those who are spiritually dead also accept their fate---with only occasional sighs of dismay. Any hope of rebirth or triumph is dashed by what has become a pervasive apathy. The alarming nature of the section is extended by the conversation that concludes “The Burial of the Dead”; "The corpse you planted last year in your garden/Has it started to sprout? Will it flower this year?/Or has the sudden frost disturbed its bed?"(71- 73). The lines refer to the fragility of necessary death. With spring comes rebirth, but it takes little to disrupt the state required for resurrection. Another reference is made to the risk of a dog digging up the corpse (74) --- essentially, waking the dead before they are fully prepared for the promised rebirth. Finally, in one of the most striking lines of the poem thus far, the protagonist essentially lashes out at the reader with the direct statement: "You! hypocritical reader! --- my fellow man, -- my brother!" (76). Translated from French, the line reads "You! Hypocritical reader! My portrait, my brother!" Suddenly, the reader goes from a passive observer to an active participant, forced to confront their own personal spiritual death. The victims of death are no longer just anonymous faces in a vast sea of ​​people, but rather take on a much more personal and individual identity: that of the reader. “What the Thunder Said,” the final segment of “The Waste Land,” concludes the poem’s arduous journey. The opening stanza is a clear allusion to the suffering of Jesus Christ in the garden of Gethsemane and his crucifixion: After the glow of the red torches on the sweating faces After the icy silence in the gardens After the agony in the stony places The cries and cries Prison and palace and reverberation Of the thunder of spring on distant mountains He who lived is now dead (322-28) Opening this segment of the poem with an allusion also..