Name : Makwana Vijay K.
Sem : 3
Roll no. : 34
Email Id : vijaykm7777@gmail.com
Enrollment no. : 2069108420180035
Submitted to : Department of English MKBU
Topic : Major Themes of The West Land.
About author :
Thomas Stearns Eliot was born in 26 September 1888 in St. Louis, Missouri, in the United States, to a prominent Boston Brahmin family. He was an essayist, publisher, playwright, literary and social critic, and "one of the 20th century's major poets". He moved to England in 1914 at the age of 25, settling, working, and marrying there. He became a British subject in 1927 at the age of 39, renouncing his American passport. He dies In 4 January 1965,
The Waste Land is a long poem by T. S. Eliot, widely regarded as one of the most important poems of the 20th century and a central work of modernist poetry, Published in 1922. It is a poem written in the epic mold. He used to complex symbols and imagery adds richness and variety to the texture of the poem. It is full with allusions to myth, ritual, religion, history-both past and present. These things make the poem itself a virtual “waste land”. We can see a wide range of socio-cultural, religious and secular experiences common to both an individual life and the collective life of western society. It is a truly remarkable poem that broke new ground in English poetry.
~: Major Themes :~
Love :~
Love is the centre theme of The West Land. There are some references regarding the theme love in this poem. The first part of the poem “the burial of the dead”, in this part we can see some reference to Tristan und Isolde. The second part of the poem is “The Game of chess”. In this part there is a reference to Cleopatra and to the story of Tereus and Philomela suggest that love in the poem “the waste land”. It is often destructive. The characters Tristan and Cleopatra die while Tereus rapes Philomela and even the love for the hyacinth girl leads the poet to see and know “nothing”. The corelative love of life is found in this poem. When the poet writes regarding “hyacinth girl” and being so in love that he didn't know if he was live or dead. He was speechless. He was silence. This is an intense love that I interpret this to be more for the love of life than for love of the girl. The interest in the girl simply allows him to see the beauty of life.
Joe even tries to commit suicide at one point, but he still seems to lack a real fear of death. However, Joe is the only one who being to love his life. Joe finds his love for life though his love, his freedom, and his that Joe comes to the realization that he has purposely ruined the life of one of his “brothers”. During the time of T.S. Eliot the people too young to come to terms with any real fear of death those people living during this time they did fear and thus their love for life was enriched. “Brothers three” never really found that fear of death they never found that true correlating love of life either.
Death :~
The death is the major theme of The West Land. There are 4 sections and the two of them first is “The burial of the Dead” and Second is “Death by Water” refer specifically to this theme ‘Death’. There is complicate matter like death can mean life as in other words by dying a human being can the way for new lives.
The poet asks his friend and the same way Christ, redeemed humanity and there by give a new life. The doubtful part of the poem is between life and death allusions. Especially in the limbo-like vision of the men flowing across London Bridge and through the modern city.
Life-in-death :~
The theme of the poem is the moral, spiritual and emotional barrenness of the modern world. This theme is like the living death of the modern Waste Landers(people). In this poem man has lost of vitality of spiritual and vitality of emotional. The life in modern waste land is a life-in-death, it's also called living death.
According to Eliot’s philosophy, Human being must act do either evil as good and it is better to do evil than do nothing. Modern man has lost his sense of good and evil, and this keeps him from being alive. In the modern land the people are dead. They just exist like dead things. They work as machine. They are to be compared to such dead things as a stick, a gutter, a pipe and many other things. A life of complete inactivity is listlessness and apathy. That is way winter is welcome to them and April is the crudest of months.
Sem : 3
Roll no. : 34
Email Id : vijaykm7777@gmail.com
Enrollment no. : 2069108420180035
Submitted to : Department of English MKBU
Topic : Major Themes of The West Land.
About author :
Thomas Stearns Eliot was born in 26 September 1888 in St. Louis, Missouri, in the United States, to a prominent Boston Brahmin family. He was an essayist, publisher, playwright, literary and social critic, and "one of the 20th century's major poets". He moved to England in 1914 at the age of 25, settling, working, and marrying there. He became a British subject in 1927 at the age of 39, renouncing his American passport. He dies In 4 January 1965,
The Waste Land is a long poem by T. S. Eliot, widely regarded as one of the most important poems of the 20th century and a central work of modernist poetry, Published in 1922. It is a poem written in the epic mold. He used to complex symbols and imagery adds richness and variety to the texture of the poem. It is full with allusions to myth, ritual, religion, history-both past and present. These things make the poem itself a virtual “waste land”. We can see a wide range of socio-cultural, religious and secular experiences common to both an individual life and the collective life of western society. It is a truly remarkable poem that broke new ground in English poetry.
~: Major Themes :~
Love :~
Love is the centre theme of The West Land. There are some references regarding the theme love in this poem. The first part of the poem “the burial of the dead”, in this part we can see some reference to Tristan und Isolde. The second part of the poem is “The Game of chess”. In this part there is a reference to Cleopatra and to the story of Tereus and Philomela suggest that love in the poem “the waste land”. It is often destructive. The characters Tristan and Cleopatra die while Tereus rapes Philomela and even the love for the hyacinth girl leads the poet to see and know “nothing”. The corelative love of life is found in this poem. When the poet writes regarding “hyacinth girl” and being so in love that he didn't know if he was live or dead. He was speechless. He was silence. This is an intense love that I interpret this to be more for the love of life than for love of the girl. The interest in the girl simply allows him to see the beauty of life.
Joe even tries to commit suicide at one point, but he still seems to lack a real fear of death. However, Joe is the only one who being to love his life. Joe finds his love for life though his love, his freedom, and his that Joe comes to the realization that he has purposely ruined the life of one of his “brothers”. During the time of T.S. Eliot the people too young to come to terms with any real fear of death those people living during this time they did fear and thus their love for life was enriched. “Brothers three” never really found that fear of death they never found that true correlating love of life either.
Death :~
The death is the major theme of The West Land. There are 4 sections and the two of them first is “The burial of the Dead” and Second is “Death by Water” refer specifically to this theme ‘Death’. There is complicate matter like death can mean life as in other words by dying a human being can the way for new lives.
The poet asks his friend and the same way Christ, redeemed humanity and there by give a new life. The doubtful part of the poem is between life and death allusions. Especially in the limbo-like vision of the men flowing across London Bridge and through the modern city.
Life-in-death :~
The theme of the poem is the moral, spiritual and emotional barrenness of the modern world. This theme is like the living death of the modern Waste Landers(people). In this poem man has lost of vitality of spiritual and vitality of emotional. The life in modern waste land is a life-in-death, it's also called living death.
According to Eliot’s philosophy, Human being must act do either evil as good and it is better to do evil than do nothing. Modern man has lost his sense of good and evil, and this keeps him from being alive. In the modern land the people are dead. They just exist like dead things. They work as machine. They are to be compared to such dead things as a stick, a gutter, a pipe and many other things. A life of complete inactivity is listlessness and apathy. That is way winter is welcome to them and April is the crudest of months.
Rebirth :~
In "The West Land" we see some images of the Christ along with the many other religious metaphors, rebirth and resurrection as central themes. The waste land lays fallow and the fisher king is power less. The new beginning is that they need something. That's why we can take help of water, for one water can bring about that rebirth but it can also break and destroy. The poet turns the waste land in heaven with the climatic exchange with the skies:~ “Datta, Dayadhvam, and Damyata.” The poet’s sight is essentially of a world that is neither dying nor living. Hence the strength of grail can restore life and wipe. Eliot also refers frequently to baptisms and to rivers in either moral and spiritual or physical ways.
Sexual perversion (Lust) :~
Lust is the major theme of The West Land. There is the most famous episode in the poem” the waste land”. It involves a female typist’s sexual relation with a “carbuncular” man. In this poem Eliot represents the scene as something similar to a rape. This chance sexual encounter carries with it mythology of the violated Philomela, the blind man Tiresias who lived for a time as a woman. There is sexuality goes throughout the poem “the waste land”. It takes the center stage as a cause of calamity in the part “the fire sermon”. Here in this poem the poet acts as a lawyer “a moment’s surrender” as a part of existence in “what the thunder said”. There are 7 deadly sins in Christianity and lust may be a sin.
Sex may be too easy and two flourishing in Eliot’s London. There the action still is sex that produces life, that restores sex and lust. In needed is sex that is not sterile. Spiritual sterility is the central motif of all these myths of the past. Besides this there is an emphasis the sanctity of sex. There is decay and spiritual degeneracy when ever the sexual function is pervert. The purpose of the sexual function is procereation and it is sanctified only in marriage. When the sexual act is separated from procreation, there is spiritual degeneracy. In modern society there is perversion of sex and hence its degeneracy. Hence in Eliot’s poetry man is often linked to animals. Sexual sins, perversion of sex, have always led to degeneration and decay. Sexual violence has always been there. Philomela was raped and her tongue was severed so that she may not reveal the crime. Reference to Elizabeth and Leicester in the song of the daughters of the Thames shows that sex relationship in the past also has been equally futile and meaningless.
I give one example of Indian movie : The Lust Stories, is also shown 4 stories of sexuality based thing. FIrst story is about Teacher's lust for his student and movie aslo shows lustness, blackmailing and courage for archive his love. Second story is about lust of man and his servant, it's also shows the lustness of man satisfaction. Third story is about woman's desire and satisfaction. Forth story is also about women's lonliness and lust by his husband's friend.
Gender roles :~
According to Eliot’s life’s course gender roles and sexuality became increasingly flexible. Eliot reflects those changes in his work. In the repressive Victorian era of the 19th centaury, women were confines to the domestic spheres sexuality, was not discussed or publicly explored. People felt both increasingly alienated from one another and empowered to break social mores. Eliot simultaneously lauded the end of the Victorian era and expressed concern about the freedoms inherent in the modern age. The poem’s central character, Tiresias is a hermaphrodite. With him Eliot creates a character that embodies wholeness, represented by the two genders coming together in one body.
Conclusion :~
The West Land is showIng the moral and myth of Elliot's creative think. This all themes are make it's best work. but It is difficult to understand. But they are very helpful to understand the whole poem very easily. There are some important aspects remain in themes so themes can be important to study any other texts.
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