1

Siegfried Sassoon once wrote a poem complaining about a concert whose audience listened to The
Rite of Spring as if it were "by someone dead / like Brahms", instead of rioting and yelling abuse.
ndeed, most of the great works of !"th#century modernism ha$e become part of the canon.
%eople may still occasionally make disobliging remarks about %icasso, say, but we are used to TS
&liot's The (aste )and * it is assimilated, and no longer regarded as an awful warning of the
debased, degenerate way in which things are heading.
t's worth remembering +ust how radical it was. ts use of non#linear se,uence, of sudden cuts from
one thing to another, precedes by a year or two &isenstein's in$ention of montage in the cinema.
-ne of the few precedents for its techni,ue is the obscure %aris. / %oem by the minor Bloomsbury
figure 0ope 1irrlees, published by 0ogarth %ress in 12!", but there is no e$idence that &liot had
read it3 the coincidence seems ne$er to ha$e cropped up during his later close friendship with
1irrlees. t is a far more controlled piece than %aris, with a far more considered prosody in each of
its many sections and sub#sections. That is partly because The (aste )and had the ad$antage of
ha$ing been edited by &4ra %ound, who tightened it up and ga$e it much of its focus. %aris is
nonetheless worth mentioning because both 1irrlees and &liot were doing something that was in
the air. t was an attempt to find a way of doing to poetry what %icasso and Bra,ue had done with
cubism, a way of seeing things in a new way, of abandoning smoothness for truth.
(hat, then, did the first readers of The (aste )and see, knowing little of &liot as a person and
nothing of his pri$ate life5 They saw deep anguish, partly personal and partly that of the wounded
culture he had ,uarried so e6tensi$ely * "These fragments ha$e shored against my ruins" # in an
attempt to make things cohere. &$en as accomplished a critic as &dmund (ilson took se$eral
readings before accepting that &liot knew what he was doing when he pro$ided the poem with
notes that e6plained parts of its structure and system as well as elucidating some of its more
obscure references.
The (aste )and replaces the assumed single $oice of dramatic monologues like The )o$e Song of
7 /lfred %rufrock with a polyphony of many different speakers * d8class8 &uropean aristocrats, a
neurotic woman who might be &liot's first wife 9i$ienne, another distraught woman :"the hyacinth
girl";, a couple of cockneys bickering in a pub, a modern <ante wandering )ondon as if it were
)imbo :" had not thought death had undone so many";, a ragtime singer, a couple of (agnerian
tenors. The longer $ersion, cut by %ound, 9i$ienne and &liot himself, was called 0e do the %olice
in <ifferent 9oices, in reference to the small boy, Sloppy, who reads newspapers aloud to the
deni4ens of The Si6 7olly =ellowship %orters in <ickens's -ur 1utual =riend. &liot's first instinct
was to see what he was doing in that light * a small boy entertaining a pub crowd with tales of
murder.
This is a poem full of rape * we get the story of the abused and mutilated %hilomel, who became
the nightingale, and the seduced, abandoned and mad -phelia, whose "good night, sweet ladies,
good night, good night" follows on from the bickering cockneys' chatter of abortion and adultery,
and the story of the typist aggressi$ely taken by her dinner guest. t is a poem of dead fathers *
/riel's lies to =erdinand about his supposedly dead father's "sea change"3 "the king my father's
wreck" * and of other losses * the drowned %hlebas stands in for &liot's friend 9erdenal, dead at
the <ardanelles * and thus for all of the war dead. t is a poem in which polluted ri$ers, and canals
by the gasworks, are the barren landscapes undone by wrongful acts and unasked ,uestions in
/rthurian legend. (hat was old and fine has become sinister and distorted and changed3 what is
new is cheap and $ulgar and shoddy *"we are in rats' alley / where the dead men lost their bones".
t is a poem in which se6 turns to bickering to the darkest of nightmares as ,uickly as Sosostris
can turn her tarot cards.
The poem draws on and shatters into pieces the polite culture of &liot's culti$ated youth * bits of
/rthurian lore, echoes of Shakespeare and >oldsmith and -$id * as well as less con$entionally
acceptable literature * a line from Baudelaire here, of de ?er$al there. t draws on @hristianity *
the agony in the garden, the unrecognisable companion on the road to &mmaus, the allusions to St
/ugustine in spiritual crisis * and Buddhism, with the three#fold commands of the thunder in the
last section. Aet, at best, it offers little consolation3 after the seeming resolution of the commands
of the thunder's precepts, it bursts out in anguish again with a line from Byd's The Spanish
Tragedy * "0ieronymo's mad againe" :&liot will ha$e known that Byd was a notorious atheist,
one of 1arlowe's School of ?ight;. The thunder repeats, but the call to peace at the end *
"Shantih, shantih, shantih" * is perhaps the peace of e6haustion rather than acceptance. &liot is
presenting a diagnosis of his, and our, sickness, but he is not yet sure of the prescription * which is
why, perhaps, The (aste )and is so great a poem.
C This footnote was added on !! /pril !"1D
!
1odernism and @inema
n recent years, cinema has been proposed as a conte6t for the work of an increasing number of
writers who published in the period between the two (orld (ars, and whom we now regard as
modernist. The great ma+ority of the en,uiries into literary modernism's relation to cinema
undertaken during the past thirty years or so ha$e been committed, implicitly or e6plicitly, to
argument by analogy. The literary te6t, we are told, is structured like a film, in whole or in part. it
has its "close#ups," its "tracks" and "pans," its "cuts" from one "shot" to another. (riters and film#
makers were engaged, it would seem, in some kind of e6change of transferable narrati$e
techni,ues. The transferable narrati$e techni,ue which has featured most consistently in debates
about literary modernism is montage. 1ichael (ood, indeed, argues that the "principle of
montage," together with the "construction of imaginary space through the direction of the ga4e," is
",uintessentially modernist." t is a principle acti$e, for e6ample, according to an already
$oluminous scholarship, throughout the work of 7ames 7oyce. The (aste )and has recently been
described as the "modern montage poem par e6cellence" :@1, D";.
There has always been an ad$antage in thinking of the modernist te6t as though it were a film
structured by the principle of montage. )ouis 1ac?eice, for e6ample, remembered encountering
&liot's poems for the first time in 12!E, when he was in his final year in high school. "we had seen
re$iews proclaiming him a modern of the moderns and we too wanted to be 'modern.'" To
someone his age, 1ac?eice recalled, The (aste )and's literary allusions and "anthropological
symbolism" meant nothing. (hat did help was going to the mo$ies. "The cinema techni,ue of
,uick cutting, of surprise +u6tapositions, of spotting the e$eryday detail and making it significant,
this would naturally intrigue the no$elty#mad adolescent and should, like e$en the most
e6perimental films, soon become easy to grasp." 1ac?eice's recollection may be entirely faithful
to his own e6perience of The (aste )and, and sound ad$ice to boot, and yet not tell us anything at
all about how the poem came to be written as it was written. =or what the no$elty#mad adolescent
knew about film techni,ue, in 12!E, was already a world away from what the poem's author might
or might not ha$e known when he wrote it. &6perimental cinemaFa cinema of "surprise
+u6tapositions"Fonly arri$ed in Britain with the founding of the )ondon =ilm Society in 12!G.
H
Thus, the structure of The (aste )and is $astly different from con$entional, discursi$e poetry. t is
written with a kind of cinematic techni,ue of flashbacks, free4e#shots and stills. t also employs
the 7oyce an "stream of consciousness" mode used in 7oyceIs no$el Jlysses :12!";. Besides, The
(aste )and owes much to the Symbolist and magist techni,ues of contemporary /nglo#&uropean
poets such as @harles Baudelaire 7ules )aforgue, and &4ra pound. / combination of these myriad
factors gi$es to the structure of The (aste )and its "unity in di$ersity."
D
The period from which The (aste land took its shape was $ery disturbing. t was the time when
new sociological and scientific $iews, the secular interpretations of nature and history, challenged
the old Theo#centric and liberationists mo$ements, with the publication of @ommunist 1anifesto
by 1arks and &ngels. &$en <arwinIs The -rigin of Species had long before the poem started to
,uestion the @hristian $iew of creation and about >odIs &6istence. 1ore o$er (illiam 7amesI
%rinciples of %sychology and =reudIs The nterpretations of <reams with their re$olutionary
$iews made the agitation, which was growing in public mind, more distinct. The milieu that
appeared on the foreground of this period was so uncon$entional that all the traditional modes
failed to e6press it in literature. So, many e6periments were done on $arious modes of literature
both in its form and its treatment of its sub+ect under the label of K1odernismI. /nd when The
(aste )and was published as a result of these e6periments in 12!!, it produced a sense of shock, a
feeling that Kthe poetic tradition was being upturnedI:Bradbury 12L2;. But it was not abnormal as
the >erman philosopher =riedrich ?iet4sche suggested through his character of Marathustra,
K(hoe$er wants to be creati$e in good and e$il, he must first be an annihilator and destroy $aluesI
:Bradbury 12L2;.
/bout eighty years ha$e passed since T.S.&liot published The (aste )and in The
@riterion :)ondon, -ctober 12!!; and in The <ial :?ew Aork, ?o$ember 12!!; and during this
period the poem not only has become successful in establishing itself as a classic of the modern
period, but also has become Ka ma+or critical industry in recent yearsI :Sahnne 1222;. Since that
time many ha$e tried to interpret the poem on $arious grounds. This was possible because KThe
(aste )and can be interpreted in terms of different schools of critical theories such as myth
criticism, formalistic, structuralism, feminist criticism, deconstruction and ?ew 0induism
:@ultural %oetics;. But no single approach makes a complete readingI :<as !""!;.
/mong the $arious aspects of a modern poem, only two important ones namely its form
and its theme are always considered as the deciding factor while e$aluating to the poem. tIs
because the so well known $ague term KmodernismI can be applied to the piece of work which
in$ol$es Ka deliberate and radical break with some of the traditional bases K :/braham 122D; as far
as its $ery structure and forms are concerned , and secondly if the work ,uestions Kthe certainties
that had supported traditional modes of social organi4ation, religion and morality and also
traditional modes concerning the human self K :/braham 122D;.So, while +udging The (aste )and
, which is often referred as Ka poem of modern anti#clima6, of contemporary sterilityI:Bradbury
12L2;, it is helpful and also con$enient if one +udges the poem under these two aspects.
/t the first glance at The (aste )and , the first ,uestion one is compelled to rise is
Ks the poem a unified whole or is it a group of separate poems5I:7ain 122E;,
which tests our beliefs of Kpoetic unityI . /s far as &liot is concerned in this regard , he him self
was not sure of this as he had once referred The (aste )and as a K series of poemsI:+ain 122E;, but
later agreed to %oundIs persuasion that K the poem should appear as one se,uenceI:7ain 122E;./s
this confusion was there in &liot , the poet himself , what to talk of critics who want to make The
(aste )and whole transparent, K misconcei$e entirely the theme and the structure of the
poemI:Brooks 12H2;./nyway &liotIs remark that TiresiasI personage in the poem important as it
unites all the rest :%into 12N!; , resulted in K little or no attempt to deal with it OThe (aste )and P
as a unified whole, :Brooks 12H2;.
/.7.(ilks is one of those critics who threw light upon the fragmentary nature of the
poem . n his $iew the unconnected fragments of The (aste )and are assembled Kto form a
patternI :Rudra 12N2#L";.Kn a $ery general sence structure of simple and un analy4ed
+u6tapositionI :Books 12H2; of it. Kn section# of The (aste )and for instance , there is the bored
neurasthenic woman sitting in the rich room talking to man beside her 3 and then without warning ,
this scene is sharply +u6taposed with one of the completely different comple6ion in which we find
two cockney women talking in a pubI:Brooks 12H2; . /nd The (aste )and is full of such
+u6tapositions offered dramatically and sometimes e$en crashingly without comment from the
author K:Brooks 12H2;.
To use such +u6tapositions in the poem ,&liot borrowed some of newly de$eloped techni,ues from
others which include Kthe elliptical techni,ues from others which include K the elliptical techni,ues
of flash backs , cross cutting , unannounced dream se,uences and une6plained $isual analogies
K:Rudra 12N2#L";.&liotIs use of such Kmethod of e6posing OQP tangle of feeling is often
considered , presentati$e or cinematic as well as sub+ecti$eI:Rosenthal 12E";. -n such design
creation by &liot , 1.).Rosentha3l comments that Kmpressions , $oices , images , dramatic
glimpses and poses pro$ide a $aried surface , but actually they are locale with a care in a
cumulati$ely manipulated design I:Rosenthal 12E";.This techni,ue , technically termed as
K1ontageI is accompanied by presentation of K$iew *pointK in the poem , because &liot was sure
that K one cannot create a $ery large poem without introducing a more impersonal point of $iew or
splitting it up into $arious personalitiesI:7ain 122E;. /nd this also contributed to fragmentation of
the poem.
K The themes of this symphonic poem which are a series of scenes rather like film#shots fading
and dissol$ing into each other , seen from the $iewpoint of an impersonal obser$er , the
protagonist of the poem and who is identified with the impotent =isher king and also with
Tiresias , the blind prophet of >reek legendI:%into 12N!;.
RThe different $oices and point of $iew shift, merge , dissol$e , collide K:7ain 122E;,so that the
boundary between them doesnIt e6it in the poem . K/t first we are aware of someone, of a silent
partner to a con$ersation in a 1unich @af8 , of a man with a girl on a damp e$ening , of a figure in
a ladyIs room 3 but this shadow becomes a $oice that laments by the waters of )ake )eman , the
fisherman , Tiresias 3 and at the end , time and place has disappeared K:>ardener 12D2;.
&liotIs original drafts of the poem , when dissected by %ound , got the magic touch of a modern
mo$ement which was growing under the works of %ound SSSSSSSSS magism , whose main
principles were.
K 1. <irect treatment of KthingI whether sub+ecti$e or ob+ecti$e .
!. To use absolutely no word that doesnIt contribute to the presentation.
H. /s regarding rhythm. to compose in the sense of musical phrase , not in se,uence of metronome
I:Bradbury 12L2;
So, the edited $ersion of The (aste )and was condensed , unad+ecti$al ,centered on ob+ect ./s it
was constructed in the se,uence of musical phrase , it used Kfree#$erseI . KThe aim was to break
with the romantic tradition of lushness in poetry , and produce a new $erse as radical as @ubist
paintingI :7ain 122E; . 1an+u 7ain says in this regard.
K Some times The (aste )and is considered as a cubist poem which +u6taposes a $ariety of
temporal prospecti$e, languages , genres and areas of e6perienceI:7ain 122E;
/nd all this +u6taposition of this poem was made possible due to the methods of K@ollage , the
assemblage techni,ue practiced by @ubist painters , contemporary with &liot such as %icassoI
:Tamplin !""H;.
Those who interpreted the poem as a K1usical %oemI, found in it the Kthemes and motifs flowing
together and recur with a powerful emotional impact, but with no regular or predictable structural
elementsI :7ain 122E;, to which ./.Richards has referred as Ka music of ideasI and has said that K
they may tell us something , but that this effect in us may combine into a coherent whole of
feeling and attitude :<rew 122H;. (hy &liot used such a frame work is clear from what he writes
in The music of %oetry.
K know that a poem or a passage in a poem , may tend to reali4e itself first as a particular rhythm
before it reaches the e6pression in words $, and that this rhythm may bring to birth the idea and
the image3 and do not belie$e that this is an e6perience peculiar to myselfI:<rew 122H;.
(hether as a K music of ideasI or as K cubist paintingI or e$en as a mar$el of 1ontage techni,ue ,
what makes The (ate )and distincti$e among other works of such category of modern period lies
in the way &liot selected and applied the ob+ects , images , e6periences to the core of the poem .
This is in fact his retrospection ,uality which he e6plains as .
K the mind of any poet would be magneti4ed in its own way ,to select automatically in his reading
:from picture papersand cheap no$els indeeded as well as serious books , and least likely from the
works of an abstract nature, though e$en these are aliment for some poetic minds ; the material
FFF# an image 3 a phrase , a word FFF which may be used to him later . /nd this selection
probably runs through the whole of his sensiti$e life . There might be the e6pression of a child of
ten , a small boy peering through sea#water in a rock pool and finding a sea#anemore ,for the first
time . the simple e6perience :not so simple , for an e6ceptional child as it looks ; mighty lie
dormant in his mind for twenty year , and reappear transformed in some $erse conte6t charged
with great imaginati$e pressureI:&liot 12D2;.
/nd these K ob+ects with imaginati$e pressureI are in fact the I-b+ecti$e @orrelati$eI without
which , according to &liot , K no emotion can be e6pressed accurately in art I :Rosenthal 12E";, and
which are in fact K a set of ob+ects , a situation, a chain of e$ents which shall be the formula of that
particular emotion 3 such that, when the e6ternal facts , which must terminate in sensory
e6perience are gi$en , the emotion is immediately e$okedI:Rosenthal 12E";. n fact these were
presumed to ha$e the same effect on the mind as similar figures in painting. The importance of
these for &liot was such that he e$en gi$es credit to ShakespeareIs inability to find e6act
K-b+ecti$e @orrelati$eI for the failure in 0amlet. 0e used these ob+ecti$e e,ui$alents in The (aste
)and, to create the sense of /ctual condition of modern times, but he used them as symbols like
that of Baudelaire and -ther symbolists of his time, but in a peculiar manner. This peculiarity is in
@onrad /ikenIs words.
KOQP the poem is not, in any formal sense, coherent. (e cannot feel that all the symbolisms belong
,uite ine$itably where they ha$e been put3 OQPI :/iken 12EL;
/gain we can not feel that the relation between the more symbolic parts and the less is always as
definite as it should be .=or instance in the poem , there is the words <atta, <ayadha$am ,
<amyata and Shanti which according to /iken, Rsay a good deal less for us than K>i$e .
sympathi4e . control I or K %eace I II. But &liotIs answer on his such peculiar use of symbol is that K
he wants them not merely to mean those particular things, but also to mean them in a particular
way I:/iken 12EL;,and in this case it meant for connecting Jpanishads with these three human
,ualities .
So here comes into play, &liotIs use of Knterte6tualityI, the method in which he referred to $arious
te6ts and literary works of different language and sub+ects across the globe.
&liotIs use of allusions K is related to his theory of tradition as to his e6ploration of the relationship
of the past and present I:HE;. 1oreo$er &liot used the allusions as ./.Richards e6plains, as Ka
de$ice for compression, for the poem is e,ui$alent in content to an epic I without which Ktwel$e
books would ha$e been needed I:7ain 122E;.
/fter analy4ing the first aspect, we may find in us the anguish that &liot wrote The (aste )and
+ust to e6hibit the a$ailable literary de$ices of his time. But 9. / .Shanne answers to this.
K the mind of any poet would be magneti4ed in its own way ,to select automatically in his reading
:from picture papersand cheap no$els indeeded as well as serious books , and least likely from the
works of an abstract nature, though e$en these are aliment for some poetic minds ; the material
FFF# an image 3 a phrase , a word FFF which may be used to him later . /nd this selection
probably runs through the whole of his sensiti$e life . There might be the e6pression of a child of
ten , a small boy peering through sea#water in a rock pool and finding a sea#anemore ,for the first
time . the simple e6perience :not so simple , for an e6ceptional child as it looks ; mighty lie
dormant in his mind for twenty year , and reappear transformed in some $erse conte6t charged
with great imaginati$e pressureI:&liot 12D2;.
/nd these K ob+ects with imaginati$e pressureI are in fact the I-b+ecti$e @orrelati$eI without
which , according to &liot , K no emotion can be e6pressed accurately in art I :Rosenthal 12E";, and
which are in fact K a set of ob+ects , a situation, a chain of e$ents which shall be the formula of that
particular emotion 3 such that, when the e6ternal facts , which must terminate in sensory
e6perience are gi$en , the emotion is immediately e$okedI:Rosenthal 12E";. n fact these were
presumed to ha$e the same effect on the mind as similar figures in painting. The importance of
these for &liot was such that he e$en gi$es credit to ShakespeareIs inability to find e6act
K-b+ecti$e @orrelati$eI for the failure in 0amlet. 0e used these ob+ecti$e e,ui$alents in The (aste
)and, to create the sense of /ctual condition of modern times, but he used them as symbols like
that of Baudelaire and -ther symbolists of his time, but in a peculiar manner. This peculiarity is in
@onrad /ikenIs words.
KOQP the poem is not, in any formal sense, coherent. (e cannot feel that all the symbolisms belong
,uite ine$itably where they ha$e been put3 OQPI :/iken 12EL;
/gain we can not feel that the relation between the more symbolic parts and the less is always as
definite as it should be .=or instance in the poem , there is the words <atta, <ayadha$am ,
<amyata and Shanti which according to /iken, Rsay a good deal less for us than K>i$e .
sympathi4e . control I or K %eace I II. But &liotIs answer on his such peculiar use of symbol is that K
he wants them not merely to mean those particular things, but also to mean them in a particular
way I:/iken 12EL;,and in this case it meant for connecting Jpanishads with these three human
,ualities .
So here comes into play, &liotIs use of Knterte6tualityI, the method in which he referred to $arious
te6ts and literary works of different language and sub+ects across the globe.
&liotIs use of allusions K is related to his theory of tradition as to his e6ploration of the relationship
of the past and present I. 1oreo$er &liot used the allusions as ./.Richards e6plains, as Ka de$ice
for compression, for the poem is e,ui$alent in content to an epic I without which Ktwel$e books
would ha$e been needed I:7ain 122E;.
/fter analy4ing the first aspect, we may find in us the anguish that &liot wrote The (aste )and
+ust to e6hibit the a$ailable literary de$ices of his time. But 9. / .Shanne answers to this.
K n composing The (aste )and , &liot not merely drew upon a number of past masters and
contemporaries, but also tried to borrow ideas and methods from different literary genres and from
$ariety of fine arts 3 from music , painting , the theatre , the drama , the no$el and e$en films . But
the composition of The (aste )and has not been go$erned by the desire to demonstrate the use of
these de$ices . -n the contrary it is clear that &liotIs use of all these de$ices is sub+ected to the
prime necessity of e6ploring the basic theme and articulating his $ision of a waste land I:Sahanne
1222;.
?ow this leads us to the second aspect on whose ground we will now analy4e the poemIs $alidity
to be called a modern poem and of course this aspect is concerned with the theme and how it
represents the contemporary modern world . K The first world war in its later phases opened the
eyes of the poets like Sassoon , -wen , Rosenberg , who suddenly saw the modern world in all its
naked horrors unmasked by the impact of the war , and were shocked into the creation of $ital
poetryI:%into 12N!;. But K&liot was not I, as %rof. % .B. 1ohanty puts it, Kbothered about
physicality of war nor e$en bothered about economical impacts of warI :1ohanty !""H;. n fact
&liot thought that K it was necessary to find e6pression for a new sort of sensibility arising out of
conditions that were wholly different from those of agricultural , class dominated society from
which the old traditions of &nglish poetry had sprung I:%into 12N!;. The result was that people
found The (aste )and as Kunpleasant I and this was because The (aste )and and the other poems
of &liot was burn out of the society which was in %intoIs words K in a state of progressi$e
degradation I :%into 12N!;./nd this degradation was only due to the fact that K man looses his
essence of humanity K :1ohanty !""H;, when a war is fought . &liot did what @onrad +ust started
to e6pose in his no$els like Secret /gent , where he has not K merely reported the hideousness of
the scene I:%into 12N!;., but tried to find which is a poetIs function to find e6act words for this
purpose . &liot was a mar$el at this 3 for instance he e$en ,uoted the e6act lines of his first wife
FF
T K1y ner$es are bad to#night , Aes , bad .Stay with me R
FF# so as to e6press the reality at the point where the manIs personal condition acts as a mirror
to the e6isting situation of the society .So , what is the theme of The (aste )and 5 -f course it is
more comple6 than referring to the K horror I which &liot had once decided to borrow from
@onradIs phrases FF K 0orror U 0orrorU I FF* from The 0eart of <arkness , as K the ,uotation
would ha$e emphasi4ed the theme of self scrutiny in the poem I :7ain 122E;.
n the new K &pigraph I, Sibyl is saying . K want to die I, which was selected by %ound to e6press
what is more appropriate to the condition of modern man FF# K life in death condition I. t is the
death and rebirth on the skeleton of which the poem is built , and this is e6pressed with the help of
$egetation myths and anthropology .
K n the $olumes to which &liot refers in his notes /donis , /ttis , -siris , =ra4er describes the
myths and rites associated with /donis OQP , /ttis and -siris who for the people of &gypt and
(estern /sia , represented the yearly decay and re$i$al of life , which they

personified as a god who annually died and rose again from the dead I:7ain 122E;.
/nd this is appropriately applicable to modern manIs condition as his e$ery action is mechani4ed.
The modern men ha$e become more like a KMamboiI of the %hantom comics, who are like the
li$ing#dead, mo$ing o$er the )ondon bridge as if in a mechanical process.
RJnreal @ity
Jnder the brown fog of a winter dawn
/ crowed flowed o$er )ondon Bridge, so many,
had not thought death had not undone so manyT
The city has become unreal , lifeless , with the li$ing#dead crowd, who donIt understand what they
are doing 3 they donIt ha$e the time to stop and think either . The modern man has lost his sense of
thinking.
R(hat are you thinking of5 (hat thinking5
(hat5
ne$er know what you are thinking. ThinkI R
/nd e$en when one gets a chance to think he finds himself FF*
ROQP in RatIs alley
(here dead men lost their bonesT
1an has lost e$erything, e$en the e6istence of true humanity is lost by loosing K lo$e and faith
which makes us humanI:1ohanty !""H;,like the dead skeleton lost their last pieces of bones .
The fear of death which is promised to be shown in K a handful of dust T , pre$ails all through the
poem , symboli4ing metaphysical death of human spirit . The impotency of =isher Bing becomes
impotency of mankind to gi$e K rebirth I to the human emotions , feelings which are lost .
Symboli4ing this the women at pub talk about the birth control pills .
K The cockney woman narrates )ilIs life history especially her marriage and her use of the pill ,
which has resulted in her emaciation . The key symbol, according to >ro$er Smith, is pro$ided by
the act of abortion which epitomi4es the womanIs life e6perience OQP. )il, in spite of her fi$e
children or because of them, is seeker after sterility, an in$ersion of ancient * fertility rites and
processes I:Sahanne 1222;.
/nd suddenly the $oice asks.
R(hat you get married for if you donIt want childrenT
FF# which represents the futility of mechani4ed , impotent e6istent of humankind .
R0JRRA J% %)&/S& TS T1&
0JRRA J% %)&/S& TS T1&T

, but nothing happens symboli4ing the same fact that man has reached the dead#end.
/nd the solution is tried to be achie$ed through lo$e and religion . /s >ro$er Smith e6plains, the
first initiation was lo$e , which failed and then the attempt of second initiation through
religion:Smith 12ND;. The first initiation failed because in the modern ci$ili4ation the lo$e has also
become mechani4ed. The typist girl tries to e6perience the classic passionate emotions of the
hyacinth girl who
R@ame back, late from the hyacinth garden,
(ith arms full and hair wetT
Typist girl also returns late when
R0er drying combinations touched by the
SunIs last raysT
But
RShe is bored and tiredT
She e6periences in the name lo$e what Tiressias sees and fore#suffers as.
R0e assaults her at once 3
&6ploring hands encounter no defence3
0is $anity re,uires no response.
/nd makes a welcome of indifferenceT
This is the lo$e in modern manIs definition which makes the girl glad only when it is o$er .
R(ell now thatIs done. and Km glad itIs o$erT
The lo$e episode fails not because of &liotIs inability who as K it is often argued is incapable of
depicting lo$e in his poetryI:<as 1222;, but because &liot was from the $ery beginning was in
doubt at the $alidity of lo$eIs capacity to pro$ide a solution in the world where Ke$erything e6ists ,
nothing has $alue .So in the first part of the poem , there is among the Kstony rubbish I, the Red
Rock with the in$itation.
R:@ome in under the shadow of this red rock;,T
which
1.).Rosenthal belie$es as Kultimately a symbol of church I :Rosenthal 12E";.But more prominent
references appear at the end , when lo$e has already become a failure .
RThere is always another one walking beside youT
/nd this KoneI is the @hristian spiritual guide 7esus. But &liot is not satisfied 3
in search of solution , with the @hristianity of the west , he mo$es o$er to the Jpanishads and
finds the eastern mode of finding path to escape from the spiritual degradation in three K </ Is .
R<atta, <aydh$am, <amyataT
i.e. to gi$e, sympathi4e and control.
But &liot as a complete modernist ne$er wrote anything which would be far from reality. /s he
knew it would be much long before modern man utili4es these solutions if at all these are utili4ed.
So, he uses irony . The cloud spreads o$er the sky of the waste land representing the fact that the
possible solution is in sight, but it ne$er rains e$en a single drop ./nd thatIs again reference to
what &liot tried to portray in the pub#scene with the warning
R0JRRA J% %)&/S& T S T1&T
/fter listening to this second aspect of The (aste )and , i. e. its ,uality of being a social criti,ue ,
many may wish to argue that this aspect is an imaginati$e one created +ust to pro$e the poemIs
$alidity as a modern one , with citing &liotIs words .
R(hen wrote a poem called The (aste )and, some of the more appro$ing critics said that had
e6pressed the Kdisillusionment of a generationI which is nonsense. may ha$e e6pressed for them
their own illusion of being disillusioned OQP R:Bradbury 12L2;.
/nd to this should say that e$ery poem is first generated inside the mind and heart of the poet
which is then e6tended to the e6ternal world. /mong all the poetry written, the one that becomes
successful is in 1alcolm BradburyIs words , K through an act of separation and angularity and it
was this way that &liot became the masterful modern poet I:Bradbury 12L2;.
n the end , must conclude that though no amount of criticism can e$er do +ustice to any piece of
work , it is clear from our analysis of the poem The (aste )and , which %ound came to call us K
the +ustification of the Rmo$ement T of our modern e6periment since 12"" I :Bradbury 12L2; , is
the poem without which Kmodern poetry could not ha$e been the same I :Bradbury 12L2;.
D
The (aste )and confronts its reader with a multitude of $oicesFcalm $oices and agitated $oices3
formal $oices and collo,uial $oices3 $oices speaking in >erman, in =rench, in talian, )atin,
>reek, e$en Sanskrit3 $oices with different accents3 the $oices of works of art both high and low.
So why are there so many $oices in The (aste )and5 (hat is significant about the poem's $ocal
cacophony5
The Vuestion of >enre. / 1ulti#$oiced %oem5
(hen we think of poetry, we normally think of lyric poemsFshort utterances by a single speaker,
speaking as R,T pouring out his or her heart in solitude, and taking $ery little notice of anyone
else. <ialogue, discussion, casts of charactersFwe usually think of these as belonging in no$els
and plays, not poems.
ndeed, critics ha$e been thinking along these lines for centuries. Since %lato and /ristotle, they
ha$e di$ided literature into three main genres. lyric :where only one person speaks;, narrati$e
:where a narrator controls the proceedings, but also ,uotes the language of his or her characters;,
and drama :where there is no narrator, only many $oices, each speaking for itself;.
This tripartite di$ision of genres remained $ery much ali$e in the modernist period. Stephen
<edalus, the hero of 7ames 7oyceIs %ortrait of the /rtist of a Aoung 1an :121D#1G;, describes the
same three kinds of art. Rpurely personalT lyric, half#personal narrati$e, and purely impersonal
drama. 0e pri$ileges the last, praising the way that in drama, RThe artist, like the >od of creation,
remains within or behind or beyond or abo$e his handiwork, in$isible, refined out of e6istence,
indifferent, paring his fingernails.T %oetry, by contrast, is condemned as primiti$e and simplistic,
because composed of only one $oice.
/nother modernist literary critic, the Russian 1ikhail Bakhtin, presented similar but e$en simpler
picture of the generic uni$erse. he di$ided it into poetry, which was single#$oiced or Rmonologic,T
and the no$el, which was multi#$oiced or Rheteroglossic.T There was for Bakhtin no ,uestion that
poetry could be multi#$oiced. RThe poet,T he wrote, Rmust assume a complete single#personed
hegemony o$er his own language, he must assume e,ual responsibility for each one of its aspects
and subordinate them to his own, and only his own, intentionsT :R<iscourse in the ?o$el,T !2N;.
The fact is that The (aste )and eludes any simple categori4ation according to its genre.
<epending on how you read it, it might be a lyric :a sort of nightmare $iewed from the perspecti$e
of a single speaker;, or a narrati$e :a collection of ,uotations presented by a narrator;, or a drama
:a collection of $oices, with no o$erarching consciousness holding them together.; /nd regardless
of which way you see it, its generic comple6ity is such that you must acknowledge that someone
else might see it differently.
&liot and <rama
-ne of the reasons that The (aste )and doesn't fit neatly into any of the traditional categories of
genreFlyric, narrati$e, or dramaFis that its author was deeply uncomfortable with ha$ing his
work pigeonholed, or with being himself pigeonholed.
&liot is best remembered today for his poemsFparticularly for RThe )o$e Song of 7. /lfred
%rufrockT :121D; and for The (aste )and :which, as weI$e already seen, is not e6actly Ra poemT;.
But &liot had a long career, and both these works are from the early part. )ater in his career,
beginning in the mid#12H"s, &liot wrote many plays, including 1urder in the @athedral :12HG;
and The @ocktail %arty :12DE;, which won a Tony /ward. :n 12H2, &liot published a book of light
$erse, -ld %ossumIs Book of %ractical @ats, which became the basis of /ndrew )loyd (eberIs
musical @ats. This is probably more famous than The (aste )and, though few people associate it
with &liot.;
)ong before he began writing plays, howe$er, &liot was planning his escape from poetry. n his
12!" essay RThe %ossibility of a %oetic <rama,T &liot wrote that Rthe ma+ority, perhaps, certainly
a large number, of poets hanker for the stageT :E";. &liot was undoubtedly among them. 0e was
particularly fascinated not by RhighT drama, howe$er, but by music hall, a British form of popular
entertainment similar to /merican $aude$ille. 0e spoke of his desire to adapt music hall forms in
se$eral essays of the early 12!"s. most notably, in RThe %ossibility of a %oetic <rama,T RThe
Romantic &nglishmanT :both 12!"; and R1arie )loydT :12!!;, dedicated to a recently deceased
star of the music hall.
/t the time he was completing The (aste )and, then, dramatic forms were $ery much on &liotIs
mind. /nd immediately after completing The (aste )and, he began a hybrid work combining
poetry and music hall, whe he intially called (anna >o 0ome, Baby. n a letter written to a fellow
poet, Richard /ldington, on ?o$ember 1Gth, 12!!Fonly a month after the first appearance of the
poem in the JB, and the same month that it appeared in the Jnited StatesF&liot said, R/s for The
(aste )and, that is a thing of the past so far as am concerned and am now feeling toward a new
form and styleT :)etters of T. S. &liot, G2E;. &liot ne$er completed (anna >o 0ome, Baby, but he
later published some fragments under the less e6citing title, Sweeney /gonistes. Some ten years
later, he began his career as a playwright in earnest.
/s the critic <a$id @hinit4 writes, R&liot was preparing in the 12!"s to rechannel his creati$e
energies from the writing of poems to the writing of poetic dramaT :1"N;. But his increasing
interest in dramatic forms and music hall are clearly $isible in The (aste )and itself. /n
especially neat e6ample comes in the passage where one of the $oices cites the 121! popular song
RThe Shakespearean Rag.T This is a good demonstration of the poemIs drama#like $ocal
comple6ity :one $oice ,uoting another;, and also pro$ides an apt image of what the poem is doing
more generally, through the image of the RragT or Rragtime songT. Some critics speculate that the
name RragT comes from the method in which ragtime songs were composed, piecing together
scraps of other songs and styles. &ric Sigg argues that The (aste )and does something $ery
similar. it is itself, he argues, Ra kind of rag, a rhythmical wea$ing of literary and musical scraps
from many hands into a single compositionT :!1;. &liotIs working title, 0e <o the %olice in
<ifferent 9oices, certainly supports this reading.
(hy So 1any 9oices5
But the ,uestions remain. why was &liot so interested in dramatic forms5 (hy did he want to
introduce so many $oices into The (aste )and5
t may ha$e had something to do with the ,uestion of RimpersonalityT discussed abo$e. 7ust as
Stephen <edalus praised dramatic artists for remo$ing themsel$es from their works and lea$ing
only a tangle of competing $oices, &liot was attracted to the idea of remo$ing himselfFhis lyrical
RTFfrom his poems. n his essay RTradition and the ndi$idual TalentT :121L;, published four
years after the first appearance of 7oyceIs %ortrait, &liot wrote, RThe progress of an artist is a
continual self#sacrifice, a continual e6tinction of personalityT :D";. (hile &liot's stri$ing for
RimpersonalityT is often seen as a kind of aloofnessFa desire to remo$e oneself from life, to bury
one's head in the sandFit makes more sense to see it here as a strategy for a$oiding selfishness
and one#sidedness. )ater in RTradition and the ndi$idual Talent,T &liot describes RThe poetIs
mindT as Ra receptacle for sei4ing and storing up numberless feelings, phrases, images, which
remain there until all the particles which can unite to form a new compound are present togetherT
:D1;. The (aste )and seems to take this a step further. it takes Rnumberless feelings, phrases,
imagesT but presents them in their own $oices, without trying to RuniteT them into a single $oice.
)ike Stephen <edalusIs dramatist, it lets its $oices speak for themsel$es.
&liot ga$e many other reasons for wishing to write in dramatic forms. The most important of them
was the desire to reach and engage a wider audience than he could with poetry. n The Jse of
%oetry and the Jse of @riticism :12HH;Fwritten +ust before &liot completed his first play, The
RockF&liot wrote, Rthe poet naturally prefers to write for as large and miscellaneous an audience
as possibleT :H1;. RThe ideal medium for poetry,T he added, Rand the most direct means of social
KusefulnessI for poetry, is the theatreT :1G!#H;. <rama didnIt +ust reach wide audiences, but also
engaged them in a kind of collaboration. n his 12!! essay R1arie )loyd,T &liot praised the way
that the audience member at a music hall performance Rwas himself performing part of the actTF
was Rengaged in that collaboration of the audience with the artist which is necessary in all art and
most ob$iously in dramatic artT :1ND;. n The Jse of %oetry and the Jse of @riticism, &liot
returned again to the music hall, writing that the playwright Rcould at least ha$e the satisfaction of
ha$ing a part to play in society as worthy as that of the music#hall comedianT :1GD;.
@ritics ha$e pro$ided numberless reasons for the poly$ocalityFthe many#$oicednessFof The
(aste )and. These e6planations ha$e ranged from the abstract to the eminently practical. 7ewel
Spears Brooker sees it as part of &liotIs philosophical ob+ection to black#and#white, right#and#
wrong ways of thinking, and to the idea that there can be a single, absolute truth. Rn The (aste
)and,T she writes, &liotIs Rrefusal of omniscience admits multiple $oices and incorporates +arring
angles, each present and each transcended in the poem as a whole.T This is, she says, proof of
&liotIs Rresistance to binary thinkingT :GH;. The author 7eanette (interson, in her commentary in
the (aste )and i%ad app, pro$ides a more grounded e6planation, attributing it to &liotIs interest in
technology. (interson says that reading the (aste )andFwith its multilayered, o$erlapping
$oicesFis like ha$ing a con$ersation in a crowded room, surrounded by other con$ersations, and
also hearing radio playing in the background, which is itself being tuned in and out of different
stations, each with its own way of thinking and speaking. RtIs the beginning of us being in a $ery
noisy world,T (interson says, Rwhere there are always at least si6 con$ersations happening, and
youIre ea$esdropping on them. This is new because itIs the modern world, and the technology
isnIt there before. /nd we hear that in The (aste )and.T
t is this noisiness, this multilayered#ness, this many#$oicedness that we in$ite you to e6plore in
0e <o the %olice in <ifferent 9oices. (e see our site as a $enue for facilitating the sort of
collaboration &liot sought with his audience and his readersFas a tool for interacting with, toying
with, messing with, reshaping, &liotIs most famous work. n a truly &liotic spirit, we in$ite you to
reach your own conclusions.
D
The following letter published in a recent issue of /cumen was a response to an article by (illiam
-6ley. t seems to me and others that "The (aste )and" uses /rt0ouse cinematic techni,ues #
cross#cutting, panning, +u6taposition, etc # yet &liot saw little else but newsreels, @owboy films
and Slapstick. suppose nowadays "The Simpsons", "!D", "=lashforward", "The -ffice" and in
particular pop $ideos pro$ide a similar education.
n /cumen EG (illiam -6ley wondered about &liot and the de$elopment of cinema. can see
se$eral connections. <uring the early 12""s silent mo$ies were already using cross#cutting, rapid
point#of#$iew changes, and flashes of symbolism. Talkies ga$e directors an easy option # to tell
rather than show. -n the show#tell spectrum films range from Boyaanis,atsi through <istant
9oices, Still )i$es to The Shawshank Redemption's $oice#o$er, but most films are well towards
the "tell" end of the spectrum. &isenstein's montage became /rt#0ouse, a distraction from the plot.
1ainstream mo$ies lost their $isual roots, growing up only by lea$ing home.
1eanwhile, poetry e6perienced no corresponding technological re$olution. f anything, it fed
cross#culturally on the cinematic techni,ues that Talkies left behind # magist cross#cuts, etc.
<a$id Trotter concludes that &liot's "understanding of film techni,ue was thoroughly up#to#date,
and a good deal more sophisticated than that shown by cinephile writers such as =ran4 Bafka" but
he seemed worried about the mass#media aspects of the medium # "The essay in memory of 1arie
)loyd published as the last of the <ial )ondon )etters in <ecember 12!! OwasP unremittingly
hostile to cinema".
&liot alluded to cinema in a (aste )and manuscript and :like many contemporaries; adopted
some of its techni,ues, supplemented by Tiresiasian $oice#o$ers, low#life content :borrowed or
stolen from =rench poetry, but also perhaps from newsreel footage; and literary learning, trying to
shore things up as the mo$ing image began to take o$er from the word. &liot led admirers to the
compromised land where they'd come and go amongst the paratactic ruins, making follies of them.
=ew followed the singular &liot towards belief though. nstead, a confessional, self#doubting,
psychotherapist generation turned back, dumping the 'Show not Tell' mantra in fa$our of '=ind
Aour 9oice'. But poetry shouldn't be reduced to %ictionary, nor is it an &ncounter >roup where
writers can find themsel$es and grow up at the e6pense of poetry. Too often nowadays, poems try
to please all the tutors by not only showing and telling, but confessing too # annotated slide#shows
where an anecdote concludes with a telling, self#re$ealing couplet.
The (aste )and appeared in 12!!. n the decades before, @ubism had already distorted
representation then <ada and /bstract art had finished the +ob off :"(riting is fifty years behind
painting", wrote Brion >ysin;. -ne can also find precursors of &liot's decentred style further back
# "The go$erning principle of much %ersian poetry is circular rather than linear3 rather than a
logically se,uential progression, a poem is seen as a collection of stan4as interlinked by symbol
and image # the links being patterns of likeness and unlikeness, of repetition and $ariation # which
'ho$er', as it were, around an unspoken centre" :>lyn %ursglo$e, /cumen !G;.
don't think &liot can be blamed for 7ori >raham let alone lang#po or =larf. -ther forces were
more committed to the dethronement of language and logic :absurdist theatre, minimalist and
abstract art, etc;. The factors that influenced &liot affected many other poets too, e$en those who
disliked &liot's particular blend. f he's responsible at all, it's only because writers reacted against
his conser$atism and that of mainstream, commercialised cinema. 0is later work :like &instein's;
seems rather a cul#de#sac to me as many of his now forgotten imitators disco$ered.
G
n his 12!H essay RJlysses, -rder and 1yth,T T. S. &liot predicated that rather than the narrati$e
style of poetry populari4ed by poets of the Romantic era, poets of the twentieth#century would
instead employ 7ames 7oyceIs Rmythical method,T a techni,ue characteristic of hea$y
mythological, historical, and literary allusions used to create a Rcontinuous parallel between
contemporaneity and anti,uityT :1NN;. <oing so allowed a poem to reach a new uni$ersal le$el of
significance regardless of era, much like that of the mythic heroes of >reece and 1edie$al
&urope. 1ore importantly, &liot noted that making use of the mythical method allowed art to be
possible in the epistemologically unstable modern world. ndeed, with the de$elopment of
modernism came dramatic shifts in the aesthetic paradigm for both $isual and literary artists3
similar to the new aesthetic schools of cubism, futurism, and surrealism inspired by redefinitions
of time and space by scientists and philosophers of the twentieth#century, &liot argued that the
mythical method pro$ided poets with a techni,ue to reconcile present ideas with older linear
conceptions of narrati$e poetry. Specifically, according to &liot, the poet gained a perspecti$e that
offered a new way of Rcontrolling, of gi$ing a shape and significance to the panorama of anarchy
which is contemporary historyT :1NL;.
1any critics, such as 7ay 1artin, ha$e argued that &liotIs modernist poem RThe (aste )andT
correspondingly seeks to order the chaotic modern world3 in particular with its substantial use of
historical and literal references, the mythical method offers &liot a satirical lens to percei$e and
gi$e new meaning to the present :EG;. @ritics ha$e also argued, howe$er, that the poemIs repeated
allusions to fertility myth represent &liotIs call for religious re$i$al in &urope. ?otably, <. @.
=owler contends that the poemIs ending represents RrestorationT of the =isher BingIs waste land3
to him, the ndian words gi$en at the end of the poem pro$ide the Rabracadabra element . . . +ust as
the hero of the >rail romances was e6pected to speak the proper words before the wounded king
and his land could be restored, so OdoesP the protagonist in KThe (aste )andI pro$ide an
incantationT :HE;. The negati$ism of the opening lines is therefore supplanted by the poemIs
closing line.
0owe$er, reading R(hat the Thunder SaidT as &liotIs resolution to the problems dramati4ed
earlier in the poem disregards the irony of the poemIs last mo$ement. ?amely, the thunder does
not speak and the @hristian myths alluded to throughout the poem are not fulfilledFthe waste
land instead remains barren and spiritually arid as the Sanskrit lines in place of @hristian prayer at
the end of the poem more importantly represent a recapitulation of the poemIs opening
multilingual epigraph than a signal of conclusion. f RThe (aste )andT represents &liotIs attempt
to transcend the limitations of traditional poetic techni,ue :linear narration; and instead write with
the dominating twentieth#century ideas of relati$ity, randomness, and uncertainty in mind, perhaps
his intent is to depict a world not only barren of traditional epistemology but also of @hristian
morality and religious certainty. (ith this interpretation in mind, &liotIs world conse,uently offers
an alternati$e morality that is neither bound by allegiance to a particular god nor rewarded by
good faith3 in this sense, the waste land is a world beyond good and e$il.
The allusion to the Roman oracle Sibyl in the opening of RThe (aste )andT demonstrates &liotIs
procli$ity throughout the poem for irony, contradiction, and parado6. By depicting Sibyl as
hanging in a +ar and Rwishing to die,T &liot is directly drawing attention to the limitations of the
oracleIs physical perception3 ironically, she seems not to ha$e been able to foretell her own fate as
she is now physically trapped and sub+ect to the same chaotic world as those who come and ask
her for foresight and guidance. /lthough the decision to include a bilingual epigraph to begin the
poem might seem unnecessarily academic, &liotIs choice is clearly meticulous when considering
the techni,ue used throughout RThe Burial of the <ead.T 1uch like the Roman oracle responding
in >reek to ,uestions posed in )atin, the poemIs first mo$ement is written with a moti$e to unify
ostensibly incompatible worlds. those of past, present and future. The result is a disregard for
time and a particular emphasis on place3 each line represents a different e$ent as &liot arbitrarily
manipulates mythic and historical references. /pril, rather than being a month associated with
birth and re+u$enation, is instead cast as Rthe cruelest month,T an in$ersion of the original opening
lines of The @anterbury Tales3 the romantic image of lilacs in the spring is similarly +u6taposed
with barren Rdull rootsT unable to grow out of Rstony rubbishT :1#D3 12*!";. Aet amidst the first
mo$ementIs cluttered Rheap of broken imagesT and seeming lack of sensible direction, there are
brief moments of resol$e and return to linear narration. 1arieIs sled ride, for e6ample, offers a
pause from &liotIs hea$y use of direct allusion and historical reference at the poemIs onset.
=urthermore, it also marks &liotIs first use of a single tense for more than one line. (hile the
poem begins in the presentFR/pril is the cruelest monthTF&liotIs description of the Rwinter
OthatP kept us warmT and 1arieIs memory is told entirely in the past :G;.
n the first mo$ementIs last stan4a, howe$er, the poemIs mythical and historical allusions compete
simultaneously with the poemIs brief moments of narration. (hile the RJnreal cityT is specifically
identified as )ondon, the passage contains allusions and direct references to <anteIs nferno :E";.
)ikewise, Stetson and the speaker are $eterans both of 7utland :the famous na$al battle of (orld
(ar as indicated in the footnotes; and 1ylae, as referenced in the same line. 1uch like the
phenomenon of Rdouble e6posureT in photography where two or more indi$idual e6posures are
superimposed to create a single photograph, the effect is the kaleidoscopic blur of two worlds,
articulated in defiance of traditional poetic boundaries of unified time and place. /lthough the
effect does not produce immediate coherency, it does illustrate the importance of the readerIs
perspecti$e in relation to characters in the poem, a theme &liot reiterates throughout the poem.
Rather, the characters in the poem neither interact with one another nor understand their placing in
the poem3 much like &liotIs call for the reader to transcend the poetic limitations of time and
place, so too does understanding the poemIs integration of past, present, and future re,uire a
perspecti$e not limited to the characters in the poem. Jnderstanding RThe (aste )andT
conse,uently necessitates a nonlinear conceptuali4ation of time, an ability to simultaneously parse
the meaning of seemingly disordered historical and literary allusions.O1P
n the poemIs second mo$ement, R/ >ame of @hess,T &liot furthers this challenge to con$entional
poetic techni,ue and thinking by creating the Rcubistic woman,T a collage of references to ob+ects
rather than an e6plicit description of one particular sub+ect.O!P Specifically, while &liot makes
detailed references to the room and its contents, he dismisses anything uni,uely characteristic to
the woman. @onsider the following fragment taken from the opening passage.
Reflecting light upon the table as
The glitter of her +ewels rose to meet it,
=rom satin cases poured in rich profusion3
n $ials of i$ory and coloured glass
Jnstoppered, lurked her strange synthetic perfumes :L"*LG;.
The woman is conse,uently unimportant. although surrounded by symbols of significance, and in
particular of beauty and se6uality, she signifies nothing as no symbol refers to anything peculiar to
herself3 that is, she is not se6ual, the ob+ects around her are. 1ore subtly, as critics 7ewel Brooker
and 7oseph Bentley carefully note of this particular passage, Rnouns . . . things OthatP are normally
essential OorP thought of as essential, are peripheral and accidentalT :1"H;. Rather, &liotIs emphasis
on ,ualities has the effect of misdirecting the reader from the sub+ects they describe.
1ore important than &liotIs challenge to traditional poetry are the epistemological implications of
&liotIs techni,ue. Specifically, while in the late nineteenth and early twentieth#centuries scientists
and philosophers belie$ed that the sub+ect :the obser$er; and ob+ect :the obser$ed entity; were
di$ided and made tangible by the mind, it seems &liot is instead following in the spirit of the
twentieth#century paradigm, +u6taposing the ideali4ation and supposed order of sub+ect#ob+ect
relations with a modern world of randomness, fragmentation, and relati$ity, a breakdown of the
assumed continuity of obser$er and obser$ed. <oing so importantly calls into ,uestion the
womanIs e6istence. if the ob+ects do not refer to or interpret her :the role of the sub+ect;, she is not
e6perienced by the ob+ects in the roomOHP3 &liotIs work to keep the woman unidentified and
faceless is indeed incontestable when considering that the womanIs reflection in the mirror is left
unacknowledged. -ne interpretation of the woman, then, is that her significance is only apparent
to those whose perspecti$es transcend the waste land and who ha$e the ability to interpret her
inclusion with &liotIs mythological and historical references :the readers;. ndeed, ,uestions
concerning the womanIs reality persist with the entrance of the unidentified $isitor3 it seems,
moreo$er, that his indifference towards the woman furthers the argument that &liotIs intent is to
confound the reader with ,uestions concerning the significance of the woman to the man.
%articularly con$incing e$idence is pro$ided later in the canto as the con$ersation between the
woman and the man shifts to the memory of her $isitor.
0eIs been in the army four years, he wants a good time,
/nd if you donIt gi$e it him, thereIs others will, said.
. . .
Aou ought to be ashamed, said, to look so anti,ue.
:/nd her only thirty#one; :1DL*1G1;
)il, the woman, or Rproper foolT about whom the $isitor is speaking, is critici4ed for her apparent
lack of se6uality and present inability to gi$e her soldier husband a Rgood timeT3 she is further
e6pected to ha$e ROgottenP herself some teethT with the allowance gi$en to her and Rmake herself
a bit smartT :1DH*1DG;. Aet unlike &liotIs earlier ghostlike woman, )ilIs e6istence in the poem is
clearly noted. /mong the facts listed in &liotIs detailed description, )il is thirty#one years of age,
has bad teeth, has borne fi$e children, has misspent her allowance and ruined her health with an
abortion, and is married to /lbert who is disgusted by her appearance.
@onsidering that )ilIs dialogue is written entirely in the British $ernacular, it thus seems that )ilIs
ob+ectification coupled with &liotIs earlier de#emphasis of the woman in front of the mirror speaks
to the cru6 of the second mo$ement. with &liotIs numerous references to &$e and 0amletIs
-phelia in R/ >ame of @hess,T the poet is perhaps offering a criti,ue of gender relations
throughout history, of Rwasted womenT sub+ect to the will of men in myth. ndeed, neither woman
embodies any particular se6ual power to impose on their respected menFit follows that they are
further ob+ects to the heroIs sub+ect. @oupled with earlier allusions to fertility myth and &liotIs
acknowledged importance of (estonIs =rom Ritual to Romance to the thematic composition of
the poem, the importance of women in the second mo$ement becomes strikingly clear and
particularly useful for further interpretation when it is reali4ed that the Rwaste landT is in mythic
terms e,ui$alent to the se6ually barren woman.ODP
&liotIs e6tended metaphor of se6ual distance between the men and women in R/ >ame of @hessT
and the barrenness of the waste land clima6es in the poemIs third mo$ement, RThe =ire Sermon.T
Specifically while early water imagery in the canto seems to foreshadow the ine$itability of rain
and the restored fertility of the infertile waste land, &liotIs ironic +u6taposition of rain with the
dehumani4ation of se6ual intercourse in lines !HG*GE instead implies that such re+u$enation is not
possible. Rather, if the women of the second canto are to be interpreted as metaphorically
representati$e of the barren waste land, the impossibility of se6ual fertility represents perpetuated
aridity and the impossibility of rain. 1ore specifically, although in lines !1G*!" &liot hints at the
manIs apparent lust for the woman, the dismissi$e concluding remarks by the woman of, R(ell
now thatIs done. and Im glad itIs o$er,T instead imply the absence of lust :!G!;. 1oreo$er, the
woman described as, R0ardly aware of her departed lo$er,T illustrates the desensiti4ation and utter
indifference toward lo$e making3 se6ual intercourse, instead of a symbol of re+u$enation, birth and
a celebration of life, is made as mechanical as the womanIs Rautomatic handT :!G"3 !GG; and is
further made significant when recalling the ,uestion of e6istence posed in the second canto.
Such lack of a human soul in RThe =ire SermonT has led many critics to conclude that much of
&liotIs poem satiri4es the modern mind and twentieth#century thinking. n particular, @leanth
Brooks has argued that Rour contemporary waste land is in large part the result of our scientific
attitudeFor our complete seculari4ationT :EL;. /nd when considering the third cantoIs clearly
@hristian prayers to Rpluckest me out,T &liot is concei$ably calling for an escape from the hellish
waste land through di$ine inter$ention3 this reference is perhaps a signal of &liotIs own
disillusionment with the world of parado6, contradiction, irony, and hopelessness that the poem
has become, a reference to the importance of religious thinking in the modern world as a basis for
e6istence, ethics, and morality.
Aet when considering that many faithsFsuch as Buddhism :alluded to throughout RThe =ire
SermonT and also the source of the cantoIs title; and @hristianityFconsider se6ual intercourse and
asceticism as ri$al modes of achie$ing di$ine unity,OGP the closing lines of the third canto suggest
interpretation markedly different from BrooksI work. Rather, prayers to Rpluckest me outT of
RBurning burning burning burningT are ironically preceded by dominating images of water
throughout the canto3 references to the Thames Ri$er and Rmusic OthatP crept by me upon the
watersT are certainly not accidental and importantly e$idence &liotIs propensity for irony
throughout the poem :!GN*!E";. /nd when additionally considering that the poemIs fourth
mo$ement, R<eath by (ater,T does not ad$ocate rebirth from deathFthe protagonist, %hlebas,
merely dies without hope for regeneration or resurrection in the poemIs symbolically shortest
cantoFthe satirical message of the poemIs third mo$ement becomes readily clear. ?amely,
%hlebasI insignificant death mocks religion promising sal$ation or reward after death, both
characteristics of the &astern and (estern theologies alluded to throughout RThe =ire Sermon.T
%lacing the third and fourth mo$ements of RThe (aste )andT in the conte6t of the entire poem, by
deconstructing assumed knowledge of good and e$il, &liot is perhaps suggesting the difficulty of
e6istence for humans based on religious dogma. Specifically, while attacking the ,uestion of
e6istence epistemologically in R/ >ame of @hess,T it seems that in RThe =ire SermonT and R<eath
by (aterT &liot is acknowledging that the present problem of e6istence in the modern world is a
conse,uence of humankindIs religious beliefs, a problem not constrained to a particular gender or
time period. The fact that the characters in RThe (aste )andT ha$e lost knowledge of good and
e$il :as deri$ed from religious faith;, keeps them from being ali$eFas critic Stephen Spender
percepti$ely remarks, they remain Reternally deadT :DE;.
This argument is well supported when considering the poemIs final mo$ement, R(hat the
Thunder Said.T n particular, while $isions of rain and water are referenced throughout the
cantoOEP, &liot recapitulates the poemIs earlier feel of pessimism and cynicism with the
mo$ementIs closing lines. Specifically, although the protagonist is cast in the waste land, sitting
upon a shore Rwith the arid plain behind me,T he is soon transported to the Jnreal @ityFnoted
clearly by &liotIs references to )ondon and <anteFand then finally to the &ast, presumably ndia,
without hope for his &uropean waste land as the Rflash of lighting . . . Bringing rain,T floods the
>anga Ri$er. 1ore subtly, this chaotic shift in geography not only e6emplifies the poemIs earlier
disregard for unity of time and place, but mocks any notion of narrati$e finality :H2D;. ndeed, the
<ante reference is not to <anteIs %aradiso, the last poem in the <i$ine @omedy, but to %urgatorio3
as noted clearly in the te6t, the protagonist neither Rsets his lands in orderT nor ascends to any
@hristian hea$en :D!E;.
By deconstructing the dominating intellectual and cultural paradigms of the eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries and in place ad$ocating a world not based on the assumed order of sub+ect#
ob+ect relations, the certainty of faith, or e$en a definiti$e knowledge of oneIs e6istence, &liot is
successful in his employment of the mythic method3 RThe (aste )andT indeed remains
omnipresent, or, as personal friend &4ra %ound :also to whom the poem is dedicated; remarked in
his re$iew of the poem, Rnews that stays newsT :Raine 2E;. This significance, howe$er, is
somewhat contri$ed when noting that critics are still unable to agree on a concrete interpretation
of the poem. Aet when considering the implications of &liotIs aesthetic techni,ue, breaking down
the narrati$e style of poetry set before him and instead challenging the reader to transcend
assumed unity of time and place, &liot is concei$ably articulating a world beyond the constraints
of not only literary techni,ue but more importantly morality and ethics as the =isher BingIs
disillusionment and spiritual e6haustion throughout RThe (aste )andT perhaps reflects the
limitations of religious faith.
This interpretation has particularly strong resonance with ?iet4scheIs philosophy as e6plicated in
Beyond >ood and &$il. Though written roughly fifteen years apart, both RThe (aste )andT and
?iet4scheIs work importantly focus on deconstructing past morality and philosophy, in fa$or of
ad$ocating a world of freedom for the ade,uately fit indi$idual3 for &liot, this amounts to
transcending the limitations of past poetry and instead supposing the new @ubistic and =uturistic
modernist world. ?iet4scheIs analysis similarly accuses past philosophers of blindly accepting
7udeo#@hristian $alues, therefore resulting in a false interpretation of morality3 ?iet4sche, rather,
does not consider certain $irtues and $ices to be a priori good or e$il but instead unpro$en $alues
reflecti$e of a particular religious narrati$e, an assumption that importantly weakens an
indi$idualIs potential :!""*!"G;. 0is philosophy hence mo$es into the realm Rbeyond good and
e$ilT in the sense of lea$ing behind traditional moralityFhe instead calls for his readers to no
longer be ashamed of differences in the face of a supposed morality#for#all. )ikewise, by
deconstructing con$entional poetry and supposed morality, &liot is in$iting his readers, those
strong enough to lea$e behind re,uisite assumptions such as linear time and place, to this world.
Recalling the $isual mo$ements associated with modernism :that is, futurism, cubism, and
surrealism; as a graphical representation of the techni,ue used in RThe (aste )and,TONP this
philosophical interpretation is perhaps best captured with @asper <a$id =riedrichIs (anderer
abo$e the 1ist :1L1L;. Specifically, &liot is ad$ocating transcending a chaotic modern world and
ordering it as the indi$idual sees fit, neither being constrained by traditional philosophy and
science nor subscribing to a particular moral narrati$e. Jnlike &liotIs 7. /lfred %rufrock, who fails
to sei4e the day, RThe (aste )andT champions indi$idual potential. n this sense, the poem
achie$es uni$ersal significance, a testament indeed to the legacy of &liotIs mythical method.
E
T.S. &liotIs highly influential DHH#line modernist poem is perhaps the most famous and most
written#about long poem of the twentieth#century. &liotIs composition brings forth a reader to
understand the work through its historical conte6t and to understand cultural and intellectual
history through this piece of literature, which documents the new discipline of the history of ideas.
n other words, The (aste )and is sub+ect to ?ew 0istoricism to further understand the te6t of the
poem and its rele$ance to history. T.S. &liotIs poem, The (aste )and, was published in -ctober of
12!!. The 12!"Is and 12H"Is are often known as the interwar period. The decades were
profoundly shaped by the dislocations of (orld (ar and then the mounting crisis that led to
(orld (ar . These were decades of considerable dislocation in the (est. Re$olutionary regimes
in se$eral societies pro$ided another source of change. ?ew, authoritarian political systems were
another response to crisis, particularly after the >reat <epression, in se$eral parts of the world. /ll
of this occurred e$en as resistance to &uropean imperialism was mounting :<a$ies 2HL;. n
addition, the 12!"Is was marked by ma+or patterns. -ne of the first ma+or patterns, (estern
&urope reco$ered from (orld (ar incompletely, particularly in economics and politics. @ultural
creati$ity was important, and se$eral social de$elopments marked real inno$ation. But political
and economic structures and &uropean diplomacy as well, rested on shaky foundations. (orld (ar
,uickly shattered the confidence many &uropeans had maintained around the turn of the
twentieth#century. /lthough the ultimate effects of (orld (ar in$ol$ed &uropeIs world position,
the war also brought tremendous dislocation within &urope. Though some of the damage was
,uickly repaired, much of the damage persisted for the subse,uent two decades.
N