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  • Essay / Analysis of the Theme of God in TS Eliot's Poetry

    Among the layers and fragmented voices of TS Eliot's The Waste Land, there is a distinct cry for humanity to accept the comfort of a greater level of intelligence - God. This is greatly reinforced in the pitiful howl of the Hollow Men. References to religion and different cultures are a constant theme in Eliot's work, but the idea of ​​God comes from Eliot's internal murmurings, born of his self-doubt which eventually surfaces to attract the reader towards the underlying necessity of believing in God. It should be clarified that Eliot's private torments and emotional turbulence appear in The Waste Land and The Hollow Men, a testament to the fact that the poet was indeed unsure of his own personal beliefs before their appearance in his work, which acted as a forum for him to express his opinions. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get the original essayThe Waste Land leads to the dramatic conclusion that must be accepted, regardless of the logical reasoning and routine of “broken seals by the skinny lawyer”, “the horrible audacity of a moment of capitulation”. In this moment of abandonment, Eliot leads the reader to understand that at a time when the literary world was refuting God and religion, it was once again acceptable to place blind faith in such a belief. Eliot's use of language and form is essential in shaping his ideas, allowing him to integrate the concept of God into his poetry. To assess his success in achieving this goal, it must be recognized that Eliot's personal relationship with Englishness was not established until after the publication of The Waste Land and The Hollow Men. These two poems present Eliot not as an indoctrinating preacher, but rather as a man troubled by personal tragedy, ultimately seeking a solution to his problems. He indeed succeeds in bringing out humanity's need for God, arguing that in an industrial and increasingly unfaithful world, God has played a fundamental role in ensuring that we exist not as "blind", " hollow men,” but with direction and purpose. The historical and literary period in which Eliot wrote his poetry is of central importance. Contextually, the world was emerging from the Great War – a war of aimless devastation and brutality, while a post-war depression strangled economic recovery. However, from a more individual reading of Eliot's life, in the early 1920s he was going through a phase of serious health problems, as well as serious problems within his marriage to Vivienne Haigh-Wood. The negative context of post-war society led Eliot to make numerous references to both the human condition and death in The Waste Land, all the more important since Eliot's values ​​are created from of the degenerate environment in which he found himself residing. humanity's need for God is manifested in Eliot's personal need for emotional comfort. The negative imagery of burying the dead is poignant because it reflects what initially appears to be a lack of faith in God or religion in Eliot's mind. His "heap of broken images" includes lilacs growing "on the dead earth", the "unreal city" [London] "under the brown fog of a winter dawn", and an army of the dead marching on the bridge of London, according to Eliot, "so many people, I had not thought that death had destroyed so many." Indeed, the influence of the war on Eliot is crucial to understanding his disillusionment and, like the mood of a ravaged Europe, a collective shock at the cruelty that took place. This isreinforced later in A Game of Chess, when the speaking voice moans, "I think we're in the rat's ally / where the dead have lost their bones." This reference to the harsh nature of trench warfare during World War I illustrates Eliot's awareness that society had yet to recover from the consequences of war. As Rickwood comments, "Mr. Eliot knew how to... explore and create palpable the most intimate distresses of a generation. This is certainly true when considering Eliot's success in tapping into the post-war psyche. The negative and war-related topics in The Waste Land illustrate that Eliot displays the miserable side of society, prompting the reader to seek an answer to the problems – answers that soon appear in Eliot's ramblings. Among the negative images and verses of the first two In The Waste Land books, there are in fact references not directly to God, but to Jesus. Eliot applies his technique of allusion – the technique by which he assumes that the reader has a basic knowledge of what he, the poet, is referring to, in order to convey his idea. Lines 48 and 125 refer to Shakespeare's The Tempest: "(Those were pearls that were his eyes. Look!)" and "Those were pearls that were his eyes." These lines have connotations with the resurrection, because in the Shakespearean play, the character Arial, a half-nymph, prophesies the resurrection after the supposed death of Alonso, Prince Ferdinand's father - who does not realize that he is actually alive. It is worth noting, however, that the connection is indeed tenuous, as Richards claims: “The truth is that much of the best poetry is necessarily ambiguous in its immediate effect. » A stronger and more substantial connection with Jesus is established in Book V, What Said Thunder. Referring to the Gospel of Luke, chapter 24, the speaking voice asks: "Who is the third who always walks by your side?" The character is described as “sliding wrapped in a brown, hooded coat. » James E. Miller, Jr. believes that there is a personal element in the text: "It can be assumed that Vivienne Eliot learned early in her marriage that she was, in some obscure sense, in competition with someone one whose presence was more felt than seen.” It seems that this presence is indeed Jesus Christ. Christ and the Church seemed to lose value to many in the 1920s and 1930s. In the Western world, there was a move away from the decadence of yesteryear, which placed the highest importance on religion, in favor of booming commerce of capitalism, oriented towards finance. Ezra Pound's 1923 poem, "Ballad of the Goodly Fere," attempted to make Jesus more relevant. The poet's colloquial language and basic structure allow Pound to successfully characterize Jesus as a "brave man" of "men." It is certainly true that, like Pound, Eliot accepts Christianity as a liberation from the routine and monotony of the "thousand sordid images" of the "burnt ends of smoky days" (Preludes) in Britain and America of the interwar period. This is confirmed in The Waste Land, but expanded upon considerably in The Hollow Men. The Hollow Men is a critique of those who live without faith. Eliot describes their “murmur” as “silent and meaningless.” There is no anger in the poem – “empty men” simply asks: “remember us – if at all – not as lost violent souls, but only as hollow men”. Eliot calls on humanity to reject the hollow nature of atheism, where the “twilight realm of death” – hell – is “but the hope of empty men.” Two important techniques help uncover Eliot's call for humanity to accept God - the correlative.